🍌 The Banana King
Chapter 1:
The Mad Quest for Powers
In a world where 70% of humans were gifted with superpowers from God known as Superdps life in Cameroon was anything but normal.
Arnold, seventeen, chocolate-skinned, with wild black hair and piercing blue eyes, sat in Form 5 Science at Gouachez School. Around him, sixty students filled twenty benches, all buzzing with powers they wielded effortlessly. Arnold… had none.
"I want Superdps! I want them all Superdpy! Superdpp! Superapier! SUPER POWERS!"
He leapt from his bench, clutching his head as if his brain might explode.
The classroom froze.
"Is this guy mad?" whispered a student.
"Arnold, sit down!" another shouted.
Ange, tall, shapely, with long black hair and piercing yellow eyes, raised her voice.
"Sit down!"
Arnold met her gaze, unblinking for several seconds.
"I WANT SUPERPOWERS!" he repeated, almost growling.
Ange buried her face in her hands.
"You're hopeless, Arnold…"
From the corner, Momo, bespectacled genius and class brainiac, muttered,
"How did he even get here?"
The classroom had no ceiling, letting the sun beat down mercilessly. Arnold's shouting only made it hotter.
Suddenly, the door slammed open. A bald man stepped in. His head gleamed so brightly that it reflected sunlight directly into students' eyes. Even a passing mosquito seemed to freeze mid-air, stunned.
This was No Pity, the discipline master. Thirty-eight, dark-skinned, red eyes glowing from shadow. He wore a perfect suit, even if his pockets were empty. One look from him and everyone snapped to attention.
Arnold froze.
Then came the school's worst pest: Banky Bye, the tattletale. Short, dark-skinned, ugly, and always sniffing around for trouble.
"Who's causing all this nonsense?" No Pity demanded.
Arnold stood straight, like a soldier.
"Yes, sir!"
Banky snorted.
"And you even said he loves me!"
"Ten days suspension with hard labor," No Pity growled.
Arnold swallowed. Talking would only make it worse. Day one: cleaning the toilets. Dirty doesn't even begin to cover it caked grime, stench that could fell a horse.
Why am I punished for being punished? Arnold thought bitterly.
Two hours later, he finished. The toilets were cemented bricks with fake paint. Banky circled him like a vulture.
"Don't forget the other campuses," she warned.
Arnold felt his anger surge. Slowly, deliberately, he lifted his head. His face warped, transforming into that of an ancient, thousand-year-old woman lips grotesquely huge, wrinkles etched deep.
Banky screamed, frozen in terror.
"Please… sir! Nooo!"
From nowhere, a towering man appeared, red-eyed, suited to perfection.
"You… again," he growled.
"Your new role: toilet cleaner."
"Nooooooo!" Arnold cried.
By 4 PM, his labor finally ended. Back in the classroom, only Ange remained.
"What did I miss?" Arnold asked.
"Physics," she replied.
"Which topic?"
"Newton's laws."
"Any tips on how I can retain it?"
Ange smiled. And suddenly, her expression shifted into something frightening. Arnold froze.
"Ange… you're scaring me."
"Don't worry, Arnold."
Then BAM!! She punched him. Hard.
His jaw shattered, teeth flying, and Arnold slammed into the wall.
"Newton's 3rd Law states: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."
He vomited blood and collapsed.
When Arnold woke, he was no longer in the classroom. He was in a sleek black VIP car, kneeling before Ange.
"Sometimes you really behave like a madman," she said, piercing his soul with her yellow eyes.
Arnold's mind raced. Ange… rich family? VIP car? Why Gouachez?
The car delivered him to his home in Kamkop: a modest mud-brick house with partial cementing.
He paused at the gate and, with a thought, transformed his face into that of the ugliest woman alive a thousand-year-old visage.
A female bird watching nearby fainted. A male bird froze, eyes wide in disbelief.
Is this… the territory password? one chirped.
His younger sister opened the gate, mimicking his grotesque face, and they entered. Three rooms, kitchen, parlor, and toilets home sweet chaotic home.
Arnold shed his school uniform, slipping into local clothes: a black T-shirt and baggy blue trousers.
In the kitchen, his favorite meal awaited: beans mixed with potatoes. Relief turned to horror as a voice echoed in his mind:
"Only a spoon… or a ladle."
Arnold's face twisted into pure despair.
"Nooooooo!"