Nigerian girl

LAST YEAR

July 28, 2018

"Hi my name is Zaram and I'm from Nigeria. I love reading, eating and watching TV. I am..."

"What are you doing?"

I looked up from my laptop to see my older sister Nenye standing at my bedroom door.

"Uh, nothing," I said as I immediately shut the computer. She looked at me like I was acting really weird, well I couldn't blame her I definitely was.

"Mom said that you should come down, aunty Regina and her family are here."

Aunty Regina was my mother's older sister. She lived in Lagos with her husband and children. They were coming to Abuja to visit for a while. She had three children just like my mom but the only difference was that her second and third children Chidera and Felicia were twins.

"Wait, what!"

I jumped from my bed and started picking all the clothes that I had carelessly left on the floor.

"I thought they were supposed to be flying in from Lagos how are they already here?!!"

"Babe it's only a 1 hour flight to Abuja besides mom told you that they were coming like 3 days ago so-" she stopped talking and walked inside the room and picked up an old picture that lay on the floor.

"Ugh! I can't believe you kept this, I looked so hideous here!"

I snatched it from her hand.

"You're not the only one in the picture you know."

I looked at the picture sadly. Nnenne (meaning grandma) was standing beside us with a big smile on her face. She passed away last year from old age, we had to travel to our hometown to bury her. She was a very nice woman and she always had a big smile on her face. God bless her soul.

"Chinenye! Chizaram! Will the both of you come down here right now, what are you still doing up there?" mom shouted our full names from downstairs.

Nenye was short for Chinenye and Zaram was short for Chizaram. Nenye left the room and I quickly put the picture in my bottom drawer and rushed downstairs to the living room.

The whole place was noisy. My mother and her sister aunty Regina were not exactly the quietest bunch. Dad and my big brother CJ were just standing and watching both of them as were aunty Regina's husband and her children.

"There they are, my two prettiest girls," aunty Regina said as she drew us into a big hug. I could see the look on Felicia and Chidera, my two cousins' faces. I don't think that they were happy to hear their mother say that. Nenye didn't seem to care, I saw her smirk at the compliment.

"Thank you aunty Reggie, I can call you aunty Reggie right?"

"Of course you can Chinny baby."

"I think I like that name but let's stick with only Chinny," Nenye said causing aunty Regina to burst out in laughter.

We had a really big dinner that night, mom had made Jollof rice and plantain with lots of chicken, she said that it was aunty Regina's favourite meal even though it seemed like Felicia and Chidera liked the food more. Nenye looked in disgust as they both asked for a third helping. I kicked her under the table and mouthed "stop being rude." She sneered at me and mouthed back "mind your business."

"Aunty Regina, how is Jerry doing?" CJ asked. Jerry was aunty Regina's first and only son.

"He's doing just fine, he couldn't come because he had somethings to do, you know as a final year student in Unilag (University of Lagos)."

I finished my food and told my parents thank you (when children finish eating, it's polite to thank your parents for the food).

Everyone was now in the living room, CJ was talking to Chidera and Felicia was on her phone. I was stuck washing the dishes with Nenye. I was washing them while she was drying them with a clean rag.

"Are Felicia and Chidera twins?" she asked.

"Yes, they are," I said as I handed another washed dish to her.

"Do you think it's because they're twins that's why they also have twin bear-like appetites?" I shook my head at Nenye, sometimes she couldn't help being mean.

She was the most brutally honest one out of the three of us. CJ was more of a social butterfly and he had many friends, Nenye was also social and she was like the queen bee of our school. Everyone wanted to be friends with her. She was in SS2 (junior year) while I was in SS1 (sophomore year).

I wasn't like the both of them. I only had a few close friends and I kept to myself most of the time. Nenye was always getting invited to SS3 (senior year) parties but she always turned them down. She says it's because she didn't want to start attending those kinds of parties just yet, she wanted to become a senior before she starts going to them.

Suddenly Wizkid's come closer started to play, it was Nenye's ringtone.

"Babe I've got to take this call you can finish up without me," she said as she walked out of the kitchen.

I finished washing the dishes and went to the living room. Nenye wasn't there yet, I guess she wasn't done with her phone call.

"Zaram why don't you show Felicia to your room since the both of you are going to be sharing it," mom said.

I stood up and gestured to Felicia who was still on her phone.

"Felicia! will you drop that thing and follow your cousin."

She started speaking Igbo very angrily, mom joined her and soon all the adults started speaking it too. CJ and Chidera looked confused, I just shrugged and went upstairs with an annoyed Felicia following me.

"You can keep your stuff here," I said when we got to my room. She wasn't listening to me again as she was back on her phone. I watched her jump on my bed with her shoes still on. She finally looked up at me probably after sensing that I was still staring at her. 

"What?"

"Can you please take off your shoes?" I asked politely.

"Sure," she said and went back to her phone.

When I saw that she wasn't moving I decided to leave her alone. I picked up my laptop and went to Nenye's room.

Nenye was not yet in her room. The room was dark so I turned on the lights and dropped my laptop on her desk. I looked around the room to find everything neatly arranged, her bed didn't even have one wrinkle on it.

That was another thing about Nenye she was very organized. I couldn't say the same about myself though. I guess people were just meant to be different. I sat down on her desk chair to use my laptop.

"Hi my name is Zaram and I'm from Nigeria. I love reading, eating and watching TV. I am 15 years old and I believe that..."

I stopped typing and walked to the window. The sound was faint but I'm sure that I could hear two people arguing. Looking down through the window I could see two people right out of the gate whispering furiously.

I looked closely and realized that it was Nenye that was arguing with a boy. She looked angry, the boy was trying to calm her down but it wasn't working. She continued her rant, the boy stepped back in frustration and I immediately recognized him.

It was Nathan our former head boy. He was part of the recent class that had just graduated. What in the world were those two even arguing about?

It looked like Nenye said something to Nathan that finally struck a nerve. I didn't have to see the boy's face clearly to know that he was pissed.

"You know what? screw you Nenye! what makes you think that you have a say in this matter anyways," he screamed.

"Well, I don't know? The fact that it's my best friend that we're talking about, I swear if you hurt her in any..."

The boy's laughter interrupted her, "She's your best friend huh? Let's see about that when I tell her about what happened on graduation day."

Nenye didn't waste any time, immediately those words left his mouth she gave him a searing slap.

That perfect moment was when CJ interrupted both of them. He had seen Nenye slap Nathan but there was no way he was going to let him lay a finger on his little sister. He held Nathan back from doing anything to her.

That was when I realized that it would take nothing for them to just look up and see me spying on them like a creep.

I immediately rushed to turn off the lights and rushed back to my place at the window to see CJ telling Nenye to get back into the house. Nenye reluctantly obeyed him and I rushed to get my laptop and leave her room.

I got back to my room to find Felicia already asleep with her phone on her chest. I dropped my laptop and put her phone on my bedside table. I could hear someone who I guessed was Nenye walk past my room. I didn't bother confirming who it was as I got in my bed and closed my eyes.