Tangled With A Catholic Priest

 The eyes had a black body covered in a black fur and she knew from her dream that it was a cat, the very cat. Dread filled her, but when she blinked and neared to look deeper, it was gone and all that was there was the bag. She looked from the bag to the new priest, confused, and he was watching her, smiling and watching her. "I like what it reads." He motioned to the placard, then left. 

 "Did you see that?" She nudged Gaga to make sure she had her attention. 

 "See what?"

 "The cat."

 "What cat?" Gaga looked disinterested in the topic as much as she felt it was one of Ivie's usual flying images. 

 "You didn't see it?"

 "I don't know what you're talking about." She went back to ogling at the new priest's retreating figure until he was out of sight. She slumped into one of the seats. "Ha! God has decided to bless St. Stephen."

 Ivie returned her placard. "You made it look like I was the owner."

 "It does not matter." The students had started to leave. "I like this priest, did you not see how he came to greet us? The others were forming. And yes, you said something about a cat."

 By this time, the bleacher was almost empty. Ivie was not sure what she believed anymore, in her dream it was a cat, and it had pursued her. But in reality, she couldn't really tell, how could she explain that with one blink it was gone? And what would a priest do with a cat? In a place like Africa, a country like Nigeria and in a city called Benin, somebody, especially a priest, carrying a cat, a black one at that, spoke volumes she wasn't willing to consider. She had heard stories about clergyman who use juju to charm members. Ivie did not want to consider the options, but a black cat?

 "Hello?" Gaga snapped a finger at her. 

 "Nothing," she said. "I was just seeing things." She would separate her dream from her reality and believe there was nothing to be concerned about. She didn't have plans of engaging with this priest anyway. But what she didn't know was that sooner than she expected, he would find her. "Let's go to class, Sister Gabriel will chew our heads off if we were to come late."

 "As if."

 Sister Gabriel's class started and ended with 'the new fine priest'. She called him the new fine priest with a stress that told sarcasm. The new fine priest was a servant of God, the new fine priest did not come to disrupt the orderliness of the convent, the new fine priest was not meant to ogle at and she did not want any student gossiping mindlessly about the new fine priest. Ivie wanted to ask her if 'the new fine priest' was their topic, but she knew the Sister would tell her to stand for the hours her class would span and if she disagreed, she would earn herself a detention and even if Ivie never honoured any of her detentions, it was too much of a hassle, so she kept quiet and prayed the hours would pass quickly. 

 One hour into the class and she was bored out of her wits. She had opened a gun and chewed gently on it, but she found herself drifting, her attention wavering from the class to look through the window into nothingness. 

 Gaga was sitting across from her and she knew, with the way she propped her head on her palm, eyes dropping, that she was bored too. 

 JohnMary drummed his fingers against the desk softly, and with the way his mouth twisted up and down, she knew he was humming a song. Bored? Check. 

 Aisosa crossed her leg and stared so intently at Sister Gabriel that Ivie knew she wasn't watching. Her eyes were fixed, not blinking, and even when the Sister moved, her eyes didn't change from its initial position. Bored? Check. 

 Itohan kept yawning, maybe she wanted Sister Gabriel to notice her and tell her to step outside. Bored? Check. 

 She tore a piece of paper and wrote to her friends, she was going to relax at their favourite spot, were they interested?

 Gaga was interested but she wasn't ready to be on Sister Gabriel's bad side this week. 

 JohnMary wanted to tell her how boring her class had been when it ends. 

 Aisosa had class work to do. 

 Itohan wanted to annoy her. 

 So Ivie packed her notes into her bag and flung it over her shoulder. She waited until Sister Gabriel turned back to write something on the board before she slipped through the window, out of the class. It wasn't her first time, it wouldn't be her last. 

 She hid behind a pillar and watched the hall. Teachers loved walking these grounds now classes were ongoing to see which student would be a scapegoat. But Ivie was never the scapegoat. She moved from pillar to pillar, expertly dodging the staff, and when she got to the nearby window, she looked over it. The height was a bit terrifying, but the lintel would provide enough support for her to land softly. 

 She looked back and saw a staff walking towards her. Nonsense! She jumped, threw her leg out of the window and landed a tiptoed foot on the first lintel, pushed her body downward and made it to the second. And like that, swiftly, she landed on the ground. 

 "Phew." She looked up at the window which she had jumped, now one story away and saw the priest who was watching her. She threw him a salute, so unfortunately he only saw her silhouette and wouldn't know who dared pull such a stunt. 

 She turned around and walked away from the school building, towards the path that led to the woods. Ever heard of a school with woods? Welcome to St. Stephen. The ground was covered with dried sticks and twigs and as she walked, it made sounds. 

 She walked to her favourite tree and climbed on it. The air welcomed her, oh how she loved it here. 

 Ivie was not just a lawbreaker, she had a blithe disregard for the rules, and one of them which she broke so easily was the 'No phone' rule. She had her cellphone everywhere she went even when there was no reception inside the school. All access to the internet was cut off from the school environment, all network, disconnected. Except in the woods. And Ivie went to the woods a lot, no one found out, no one went there anyways. But she ran out of luck today. 

 Few minutes into her leisure. "My my, what do we have here?"