Let go and break free

Chapter 1

Belema, Belema, Orabelema, my goodness! why isn't this girl up by now. Mrs Jones stumped into the hall that led to Belle's room. Mrs Jones was a tall woman with an athlete's physique, quite manly due to her broad shoulders. She wore her hair in a low cut and walked like someone going for a battle. And, except it was just to please men, she never wore a smile.

As she reached the room,with a torch in one hand, she gently opened the door. Belema looked like a sleeping Beauty though she had a bruised eye due to last night's "incident". Mrs Jones couldn't stand the sight if that innocent face. With the back of her hands, she smacked Belle right on her face. Belle yelped. "what is wrong with you, 3:30am and you're not even up, that house won't clean itself, will it? And who will prepare today's breakfast? Will you get up from that bed you lazy fool?" she smacked her again, this time harder, on her bruised eye. With that, she left the room, her robe flowing in the gentle harmattan breeze.

Like a zombie, Belema arose. A tear trickled down her face, she wiped it off immediately. From afar a cock crowed. She sluggishly put on her flip flops and made her way to the kitchen. She could hear her mom and step dad snoring. As she put on the kitchen tap, the incident of last night flashed her mind and she let out a cry, she didn't even know what filled the bowl in her hands, the water from the tap, or her burning tears.

As she finished dressing up in her school uniform, she looked at herself in the mirror, something wasn't right. "Of course something isn't right, your life is falling apart",she screamed in her head. Yes, her bruised eye, she'll have to cover that up. She applied some brown powder there, ouch!. It hurt, but it was worth it,wasn't it?

She made her way out through the door. "I'm off" she said. Her mum was about to sip her coffee, without looking up, replied, "there's 3000 naira in your bag for feeding, have a nice day". Belle murmured something unintelligible. She walked to the bus stop but her mind was far off, "have a nice day? , what's going to be nice about today? , it's just going to be like every other day, crappy".
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It is often believed that mother nature has a soul. She cries, she smiles, and she gets angry. But the anger she unleashed today through the hot sun was quite amusing that one could only wonder, "who must have vexed her". Everyone could feel it, even the students of Springfield high school.

As if the hot sun wasn't enough punishment, the school's power supply had issues and so,their only source of cool air wasn't working. They had no choice but to take off their blazers, unknot their ties and fly out their shirts, even though it was a punishable offence. The good news is that it was 5th period, which means biology for the SS3 students, which means Mr Dami, or Mr D as they popularly called him, was teaching today. The class was hot, but his cool jokes brought life to it.

Mr D was a man in his late 20s. Tall, well built, dark in complexion and of course, extremely handsome. He was cool with everyone, you would hardly see him blow his top. He had that smile that could comfort the worried and that look that can make you confess your wrongs. His teaching skills were the best. Everybody loved Mr D. Well everyone, except Belle.

"Before we proceed to our next topic, can someone please give us 4 features of a germinating egg"? The class was quiet. "Anyone at all"? Just then he noticed Belle was writing, or scribbling on her notebook, whatever she was doing."Belema, Belle, miss Jones. Her mind wasn't there until her classmate nudged her. She snapped back to reality," yes sir". Mr D looked somewhat surprised, so was the class, "please stand and give us 4 features of a germinating egg".
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School was over and the students of spring field dashed out of the school like there was a stampede,forming a wave of blue and maroon. Well, the junior students dashed out, the senior students walked sluggishly in pairs.
Belle took one more look at her bruised eye, the makeup was off, but at least school was over. She closed her locker and walked gracefully in solitude.

On her way out, she bumped into Mr D. "Sorry sir", she said that while picking up her books. "it's alright Belle', he noticed her bruised eye," did you get into a fight or something ".
" No sir, I ran into a pole"
"well what a pole, have you seen the school nurse"?
"No! "
He sighed," belema, you did so well in your last test"
"That's great to hear"
"What were you thinking about in class today? "
Belema knew this was going to be a series of questions," I have to go now sir"
"Alright, but do you mind if I borrow your biology note book? , I need it for something". She handed it to him and moved quickly without saying a word. Before he could thank her, she was gone. He checked the back of her note, and what he saw sent a shiver down his spine. "I'm a walking dead, a burnt down plant, without any hope of growing again. I......"
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She got home that evening, before her mother was about to leave for her night shift at work. They met at the driveway. "How was school today Belle?"
"Fine I guess"
"Your teacher told me how you did well in school today"
"Yes mam, I passed my test"
She gave Belle a disgusted look "Don't feel on top of the world, you're still a piece of trash anyway".

Belle sighed and made her way straight to the house. "did that really hurt? " she asked herself. No. What can be worst than a 15 year old girl who is dying in silence. A slow painful death.

In her room, she wrote in her diary. Hot tears pouring from her eyes. Her room was purple, always spick and span with lots of pictures and lots of awards. That didn't mean anything to her. Her life was nothing to her.

Her step dad staggered through the halls. He was drunk. He smelt of alcohol. "bel....bell....belle..belema" he stammered. "lead me to my room, I can't see". She did as he told her. In his room, he gave her a lustful glance. "You know you were sweet last night, if not that I'm tired today, we would have had more fun". He grinned, showing his ugly teeth. Disgusted, Belema stomped out of the room, hearing his hysterical laugh.

It all started well, happy mom, happy daughter, with no man in the house. What went wrong? Her mom suddenly became bitter and her fathers found pleasure in molesting her, while her mom put the blame in her for seducing them. She couldn't understand how it all went wrong. "why lord?" , she whimpered, "why did you let this happen to me?". She drifted of to sleep. Her guardian angel shed a tear.