Chapter 4 Melinda

4.MELINDA

"Today is Tuesday " I say sleepily as I reluctantly get out of bed ,switching off my pink kitten alarm clock. Pink is my favorite color. My eyes feel so heavy, I slept really late last night ,laboring over the difficult sums given as an assignment by the handsome maths teacher ,Mr Donalds. I am not really the average smart girl, or the super smart girl either. I am dumb ,dumb as a rock. Is that what they say? I take up my brush ,looking at the pink clock above my mirror,it's thirty three minutes past six AM. I walk sluggishly to the bathroom, brush my teeth and shower. Then I go downstairs grabbing my bathrobe and wearing it over my towel tied around my chest. Mum is watching the news. I hear our new house help,Agnes, who resumed yesterday evening ,cooking in the kitchen.

"Good morning mum" I said to Mum who had looked up at me ,the very moment she heard my flip-flops as I walked down the stairs.

"Had your bath already? Did the water heater work well?"

"Yes mum, it did" I replied and take, my seat.

"I should take my bath now too ,I don't want to be late for work" mum says and walks her chubby body upstairs. Mum is not all that fat ,but she is really chubby and petite, I am some inches taller than her.

I take up the remote and scroll through the channel list ,looking for something interesting to watch. The smell of bread toasting wafts into my nostrils. I decided to check up on Agnes. When I walk into the kitchen, I find her ,hard at work ,beating eggs.

"Well done" I say to her, and she nods in appreciation. I look around hoping to help but then there is nothing to do. Agnes keeps on beating the eggs. While I watch in silence. I feel awkward, I have never had any house help before. Back at Port-harcourt it used to be just me and mum cleaning the house and cooking. Dad was never around, anyway since he was always working late hours at the hospital. It's a good thing ,mum got this job but sometimes it feels awkward living in this big house ,and owning a room twice as big and thrice as posh as the one I had. Agnes begins to fry the eggs and its pleasant aroma fills the air.

"Well done ,Agnes" mum comes in , fully dressed ,in a black straight skirt and brown square patterned shirt with whites buttons and black flats,smelling of the strawberry body wash she had bought for us both. She looks so prim and neat.

"Go and dress up" mum says to me.

"Okay mum" I say and run up to my room. I close the door behind me and sigh. I slip on my panties and my C cup bra, blue and white plaid skirt,white long sleeved shirt and plaid tie and blazer. I decided to wear my pink flats instead today. The school seems lax in prohibiting colored shoes unlike Standard,plus these pink flats are my favorites and my sixteenth birthday gift from Dad last year. I pack my books from my study table into my bag. I know I didn't get most of the equations but I give up. If I carry on this way I wonder what my WAEC results would look like. When I get downstairs, mum is already eating toasted bread and sipping tea at the marble glass dining and watching TV. I sit opposite her because that is where Agnes placed my saucer of toast bread ,eggs and cup of tea. I bite at the edge of my first slice . It tastes so nice and somewhat crispy.

" finish up fast" mum says quietly as she proceeds to drink up her last bit of tea. I munch up the bread gluttonously and drink up all my tea.

"I'm done" I say ,I don't want to be late either.

"Maybe you should pack up the rest for school", Mum suggests. I'm about to nod in approval when Agnes comes in with a plastic pink rectangular food container with a blue lid.

"Thanks" I say and smile at her as she packs the slices into it. Mum stares at me quite sternly and I add a "ma". It is not like I wanted to be rude, I just forgot.

After taking the food container from Agnes, I wave goodbye to her as mum gives her instructions about the house.I hear her say something like laundry. I hope she doesn't do mine, because it would be awkward. I would like to do my laundry myself . I was not born into this life. It will take a while to get used to it.

I hop simultaneously with mum into her new shiny car. Thank God mum doesn't have a driver either. I close the door and mum ignites the engine.

" I should get a driver" , Mum says,did she hear my thoughts? Mum has been acting like this was the life designated for her ,ever since we got here. She seems so comfortable with everything.

"Well,that will be nice" ,I don't know what to say. Mum remains silent and drives quietly,while I watch through the window ,the large enormous exquisite houses we pass by. Even the small ones look exquisite and neat as well. We drive out of Peace estate 1 ,into the road, drive past four banks, a retail supermarket and drive into Peace estate 2 ,as a scrawny looking confused traffic warden controls the budding traffic. We drive into the sparse looking estate on the straight road ,for about three minutes and arrive at my new school. Mum stops the car and I hop down.

"Bye mum" I say. I turn around and mum calls me back like I knew she would and hands me two thousand naira notes.

I knew she would give me money but I didn't expect this.

"Mum ,this is too much," I say. But she just smiles ,blows me a kiss and drives off. I turn around to face the school building and sigh. Well I guess I can save more now. Because I don't have anything to do with the money,besides I don't have to pay for food here. I sigh once more and walk with the rest of the blue plaid pants and skirt cladded students into school.

First period today is maths once again ,much to my chagrin. Mr Donalds walks in with a handsome smile on his face ,neatly dressed in white suit pants,and a red -white spotty shirt.

"Can we turn in our assignments?" He says and sits on the teacher's desk. A thin tall boy stands up from his seat ,carrying his notebook ,then begins to collect maths notebook from the rest of the class ,I try to correct some of my solvings before he gets to me, but the class number is small compared to Standard, he stretches out his long arms I look at his note, Owen Babalola. I hand my book over to him and slump my shoulders. My eyes come in contact with Mr Donalds, he smiles, then I look down at my long fingers. He smiles so much more than Mr Chike,Mr Chike was more of a" smirker " that pervert.

After Owen collects everything,Mr Donalds marks all the books with a red pen. The class remains silent. I start chewing my nails, the only one bad attitude I possess,I only chew my nails when I am nervous anyway. The girl beside the stink eye is drawing into her book with a shiny yellow pencil. While the stink eye girl sits upright and ,somewhat slouched though, facing her right. She is looking at the tall slim guy ,sitting next to the short fat round girl, Daniella. Does she have a crush on him? He looks very attractive anyway I would totally crush on him too. But he and Daniella seem to be together.

Mr Donalds finally finishes marking the books.

"Shall I begin announcing?" He says to the class. Announcing? I give the girl seated beside me a confused look and she shrugs her shoulders, "that's how it is done" she says.

Oh no. I can't be awarded another name, "dummy" here. He begins,

"Remi,seven out of ten.ummmm,Joshua,seven too,Abdullahi,five. Mary, four. Damilola ,six. Pauline, eight. Jessica, eight. Samson,five. Daniella, ten. Modupe,four. Tosin,seven. Prisca,eight.Teni,nine. Melinda one.Kunle,four. Greg,five.

Hassan,three. Caleb, seven.Dave , ten. Owen,eight.Michael,seven. Gabriel,six. All done."

As Pauline rises to go collect the books to distribute them ,tears threaten to pour down my face. I try to sniff discreetly but the short slim girl, Prisca turns to look at me. And then without warning, they slid down my face warm and salty. Daniella turns around and gives me a sympathetic look as I struggle to clean up the tears. I don't even know why I am crying, maybe it is the realization that things will not change here too. I will remain Merlin the dumb girl.