Yet again, all this was a firm reminder that no one was like Mum to me. Not even Dad. Before my JSS1 entrance examination, the question of career became a topic of greater importance. It was all our curious family relatives and friends could ever ask my parents or myself. Always 'What does Grace want to be in future? She talks like a lawyer' or 'Are you sure Grace won't be a doctor? She held my hands when I was sick.' And most times, while I was completely oblivious, Mum would tell them in that easygoing way of hers, 'Let's leave the future to worry about itself. For now, she wants to be a child. There's no rush.'
I wish she was here to guide me.
“You sound like my Mum.” My tone was the perfect guise.
Ene remained clueless as she turned to gape at me, as if insulted.
“Abeg oh! Your mum would have been like-” She stopped abruptly when a new notification popped up on her phone and after a few taps on her screen, Ene hissed. “These ones have come again.”
She kept a careful eye on Aunty Dorcas as she turned the phone screen to me and I peered over at it.
Good morning, Royal Crest. Don’t we all just love new seasons? New students, new couples, new drama - new trouble. As the new term blossoms, your biggest source to the scandalous lives of Royal Crest’s elites would always be here to serve it unfiltered.
As e dey hot!
Cheers to new beginnings!
Attached to the instagram post was a Back to school picture, courtesy of the Royal Shade Room.
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[Fake oh! Btw, it's Emeka's comment for me🤣]
I hissed as well. “Bunch of clowns.”
“Apriko will kill them, I swear. Before we graduate, I must find out who runs this account.” Ene resumed to swiping away on her phone and I relaxed back into my seat, another yawn escaping.
[Apriko: Poke nosing]
Did I mention that Ogechi dragged me out of bed by 5am?
“I don’t even care, that’s their headache.”
I slouched into my seat, giving myself room to rest my head on the edge and slowly, my eyes drifted shut. But not fast enough to have not noticed Ene’s quick movement to hide a text that had just popped up on her screen and maybe my interest wouldn’t have been aroused if she hadn’t deliberately turned the screen away from me, her eyes filled with a certain eagerness as she peered discreetly at it.
Who just texted?
Call me nosy but I knew my best friend and I also happened to know when she was hiding something. Perhaps, it was for that same reason that every birthday surprise Ene had ever planned for me was usually a fail because I just always knew - always perceived when something was up.
