Tamika The Bread Winner✔️

Chapter one

'Where should I put these?' Alexis asks while holding up two of her acrylic paintings. They are both portraits of an elderly couple and don't ask why, am not the one who drew them. But my sister is actually a good artist. I'd say Picasso like, then again am bound to be biased as an older sister.

'Just leave them on the coffee table I'll hang them in the living room later,' I say while cutting through the tape on the box which most likely contained kitchen utensils.

'Where's your sister?' Am just now noticing I haven't seen Gwendolyn in a while.

'She's arranging stuff in our bedroom!' Alexis yells before disappearing into a room.

I pull the brand new set of glass plates and cups which I had carefully packed before setting them into the shelves. We would have unpacked last night when we moved here but the six hour drive left us mighty tired.

We've been living in Lilongwe for most of our lives with an Aunt of ours who barely saw us as human beings. My Mum left us in her custody when I was seven and Gwen five. Not to mention a brand new Alex is who was only a year old.

Anyways, our parents were drug addicts and couldn't take care of us so they thought Aunt Maggie would do a better job. Boy were they wrong. I can't even count how many days we slept on our empty stomach in that house. The only thing my Aunt cared about was her boyfriend who was a full ten years younger. Long story short, a lawyer came to our house a few months ago to inform me of the couple of thousand dollars I've inherited from my Dad's late brother in Britain and it was a miracle in all dimensions. To top the good news off, I got selected to one of the best colleges in Malawi. Chancellor college. And it's in Zomba, where we've permanently moved to in this small house I purchased.

By the time it was twelve in the afternoon, we were pretty much done packing. That's probably because we barely have any money. Majority of the Inherentance went to purchasing this house and the rest is going towards our education.

..........

'Tamika?' Gwen calls out as I was preparing supper.

'Yeah?'

'When do you start school?'

'In two weeks'. I only answered after I tasted the rice to see if it's ready. It tastes fine by me. I I remove it from the hotplate before placing it on the counter to cool off while I fried some eggs and made soap.

'Your so lucky' lexi groans.

'How?' I laugh.

'We start next week' She says.

'You'll find it fun, trust me. Besides, yall have been on holiday for like two months'

'It still wasn't long enough' Gwen whines before coming over to help me. I Let her finish and we dish up and walk to the living room. So far, I bought one large brown sofa and a wooden coffee table (because Lexical needs a smooth surface to paint on), a hotplate, some dishes, two beds and a few changing outfits for my sisters and I.

Which reminds me, I have to go get the uniform I had made for them at the tailor tomorrow, before school starts. It's a new school and we all know that comes with plenty expenses.

*****
-3 weeks later-

So far, settling into Zomba has been pretty decent enough. Gwen and Lexi seem to like the new roman Catholic school I've enrolled then into so that's better. I also started school last week and I have to say that the campus is really beautiful.

Last week was orientation so we barely learned anything. The real deal starts today I wake up a few hours before school, and .a key that one hour to walk to school before sitting in early for my microeconomics class.