ACHIEVERS

Chapter One : Graduate With No Job

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As usual, a car pulls up in my front yard. My ride is here. I say goodbye to my mom and dad, and then hello to Kelechi.

"Have you read the book yet?" He asks. I pretend to be looking for something and then he just laughs. Kelechi knows me too well. He knows when I do stuff and don't do stuff, just from some gestures I make. One thing I despise in life is lying. I rather you say nothing to me at all, than lie to me. So I find it very difficult to lie, I just avoid the discussion.

"You didn't right? Anyways I will be more surprised if you say you did. It's alright to take baby steps."

I hate reading novels.

A new day, and yet again I have to deal with the gazes and speculations. I want to ask Kelechi to stop picking up and dropping me off. But the truth is I don't want him to stop also. My life is a serious mess.

Today is cold, veeeeery cold. My sweats, yh I left them at home. I warm my hands with my breath and by rubbing them over each other. Kelechi took a turn and looks at me.

He pulls off his blazers.

I have to say this, I sometimes daydream about how nice it will be to rest my head on his shoulders because they are so broad. Kelechi has a nice build.

He flings the blazer in my direction. "Put it on. I can't let you freeze to death while with me", he said to me. Maybe I won't be freezing to death but what about him?

Evely-high is a school for those who are well of. I go to school there only because I'm on a scholarship. Everyone comes to school in a fancy car. From their hairdo to their footwear, you can smell wealth all over. I have to maintain my grades if I want to continue my journey in Evely-high.
The school bell rings and it's time to go home. I get a text from my ride.

As I stand at the school's gate, a lot of thoughts float through my head. Kelechi isn't going to drop me off today, there is an emergency at home. Walking on the road I see a homeless boy who I believe to be my age, begging. What Kelechi always says to me makes a little sense right now, Everyone has it worse in life. I have both my parents with me, I have a roof over my head, I go to school, I eat, even if my meals aren't the best one could hope to get, at least I don't have to beg to eat.

All my years on earth I've been living a life without gratitude. Maybe I should give ACHIEVERS a chance, who knows, it may make me start loving fiction.

I stand from a distance and look at my mom. I see something different in everything today, makes me wonder if I ever even see these things in the past. I see the sweats roll down from her cheeks to her chin, I watch her wipe it off with the back of her hands before it drops on one of the corns, and then she washes her hand immediately. Mom is breaking her back for me. I approach her with weak steps, my eyes are teary again, I am such a crybaby. My mom loves singing, and as I get closer to her, I finally see where I get my beauty from. My mom radiates beauty. I listen to her as she sings one of her favorite Mercy Chinwo songs Obinasom. I join her in singing and dancing. As we dance I wonder where my mom gets her positivity from. This happiness she exhumes is going to make a whole lot of sense to me if she drives a Ferrari and lives in a Mansion, but for someone who roasts yam and also lives in a one-room and Palour to be this happy, I find it difficult to understand. I give my mom a very tight bear hug and I soil her dress a little as I cry while hugging her. My mom gently pulls herself out, "what has gotten into you?" She asks. "Is something wrong?" She asks again. I just smile at her and peck her on her cheeks. I take my lunch from her, the usual roasted yam and oil, and then I go in. I greet mama Vero before going inside the house. Mama Vero is one of the nicest people in the compound.