Dedicated to Nimi_121  for being a supporter of this book and always sliding in my DM to politely ask me to update. Even though that irks some authors, it doesn't irk me. In fact, it makes me happy to know that someone wants a quick update on my story.

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  It was a brand new day— another day of expected city drama. I had done all my morning chores and it was time to have my bath and prepare for school. Amanda and Annabelle had gone to school already. They usually go to school early because, according to them, they were part of the school prefects.

After having my bath, I dressed up in the clothes that I wore to school yesterday. Because I washed it the previous night, it wasn't really dried but I had no other option than to wear it like that, since I hadn't gotten the school uniform. The coldness and the wetness of the cloth made me so uncomfortable. I looked at myself in the mirror and I noticed my hair was still in the same all-back plait. I had forgotten to ask aunty Caro for money to make a new hairstyle. Maybe that would be next week.

Once done with dressing up, I carried my school bag on one arm and walked upstairs to aunty Caro room to ask her for pocket money. The door to her room was closed, so I had to knock.

"Who's there?" She yelled, knowing full well that I was the only one in the house, aside from her. The twins had gone to school and uncle Henry had gone out. I didn't know if it was work uncle Henry went to do, so it was best to just say he went out.

"It's me?" I answered in a low voice as I rolled my eyes.

"Who are you?" She asked in the same low range as mine.

I sighed, shaking my head disappointedly. What she was doing was too petty for someone like her. "Daniella." I tried to answer politely. It took every cell in me not to sound rude

"What do you want?"

"Can I come in, aunty?"

"Are you mad?" She shouted, "I'm asking you a question and you're asking me if you can come in. Don't you have respect? Can't you ask whatever you want to ask from there? Must you enter my room before you can ask? Idiot!"

I flinched as she called me idiot. Did she have to hurl an abusive word on me? A simple question was all I asked and instead of her answering with a simple yes or no, she resulted in cusses.

"I'm sorry aunty, I—"

"Sorry for yourself." She cut me off abruptly. "Say whatever you want to say and get out! I have no time for frivolities."

"Aunty, please pocket money. I'm going to school." I gnawed my left fingers as I said that. I was scared of her response, since she was apparently in a very bad mood.

"Oh! So because I gave you the spare change I had yesterday, you now think you could just ask for another one today and I would give you. Well sorry; I don't have any money on me. You can go to school like that. Haven't you eaten this morning?"

My brows marred in a frown as she spat out those words. Early this morning in the kitchen, I heard her saying that Amanda and Annabelle should take one of the five hundred naira notes in her wallet when they asked for pocket money. But now that it was me that asked, she all of a sudden didn't have money on her. Wasn't that just plainly wicked?

I wanted to protest but I thought against it. There was no point. After all, Amanda and Annabelle were her kids, while I was just the local cousin that came from the village.

"I haven't eaten this morning." I said and I wasn't lying. After I was done with the house chores, I went straight to preparing for school and I was running late so there wasn't any time to have breakfast.

"Eh, why are you telling me? There's food in the kitchen. Make yourself something to eat then go to school, except you want to go to school with an empty stomach— your choice!"

Having heard that, I huffed loud enough for her to hear me and I walked angrily downstairs to the living room. I was angry. Every day, I woke up as early as five o'clock to make sure that I did all the chores in the house. Because of that, my time was usually exhausted and now that I was asking her for money that I could use to buy something to eat in school, she was telling me to have breakfast or starve. What rubbish!

I left the house angrily and made my way to school. I could still remember vividly the path the twins and I took yesterday when we were returning from school. If I could take that same path, getting to school safely was guaranteed.

As I was trekking, I suddenly remembered the fifty naira note aunty Caro gave me yesterday. I didn't spend it. If my memory served me right, I kept it in my skirt's pocket yesterday. I dipped my hand in the inner compartment of my skirt and I smiled as I felt the note. I retrieved it and the color was a bit faded— perhaps because I had forgotten to take it out from my skirt's pocket before washing the skirt.

I stopped by a shop where they were selling snacks and drinks and I bought myself a gala. Gala was fifty naira, so I had no change to buy a sachet of water. I wanted to start eating the gala without any water but I thought to myself, why not eat the gala in school where you could ask for water from anybody.

With that thought in mind, I kept the gala in my pocket and jogged to school. Like I had surmised, the assembly was already over when I got to school and I made my way furtively to the class. I really didn't want to get caught coming late to school. In the village, the punishment that was meted out to students that came late to school was too harsh for my own good. They were usually told to cut the school grass throughout the whole day and believe me when I say those grass were plenty. A good thing I never did it because I never came late and I hope I never get to serve such harsh punishment here in the city with my late coming.

As I climbed upstairs to the floor of my class, Peter and his boys were hanging outside. They all looked at me as I moved closer to them and that made me shy.

"Look who we've got here. If it's not the snitch herself..." Peter made his way towards me and stood in my way. His arms were folded around his chest. At this point, my heart was beating so hard in my chest and it felt as though my legs were going to give out due to my nervousness. Since I had told on him yesterday, I knew quite all right that I was in for a big trouble today.

He looked down at his wristwatch, "Eight thirty, that's the time you're coming to school."

"It's not your business the time I choose to come to school. You're not the teacher or the principal, so get lost." I couldn't believe those words came out from my own mouth. But since I had said them already, I needed to put on a bold demeanor, so that I wouldn't come across as a chicken.

"Whoa, feisty!" He said, looking back at his friends and they laughed, hitting each other slightly and pointing at me. "She still has the guts to open her stinking mouth to talk."

"You know what Peter, just leave me alone. I need to go to the class now." I said and as I wanted to move past him, he was quick to stand in my way.

I was so scared for my dear life but I pretended to be so feisty. I sent him a warning look and he glared at me in return. I moved to the left, he was quick to evade. I moved to the right but he was faster. A smirk formed on his lip and I rolled my eyes at him.

"Look moron, I don't have time for this child's play. Get out of my way and let me go to the class." I said, forcing my way out of his view but he pushed me vigorously and I landed my butt on the floor with a thud. The impact of the fall made my butt hurt. The other boys standing behind him started to utter incoherent words as they laughed at me mockingly. Peter, on the other hand, had an evil smirk on his face.

Tears escaped from my eyes; not because I was weak, but because I was angry. Breathing heavily, I gritted my teeth in rage and my blood simmered up inside of me. I wasn't only mad because he pushed me, I was also mad because my undried skirt that I had just washed yesterday was going to get dirty. Angrily, I forced myself up from the floor and with all my might and everything that I was made up of; I gave Peter a very hot slap on his right cheek. The sound of Ooh emanated from Peter's friends.

Peter held his right cheek and glared daggers at me. A single vein popped out on his forehead and his eyes were red and wet. It looked like he was going to cry. I knew I had made the wrong move by slapping him, but I didn't regret it one bit. He went beyond his limit and I decided to show him what I was really made of, instead of being a coward.

"You dare slap me?"

"You dare push me?" I shot back.

Peter held my shoulders and threw me to the wall with so much force. I yelped in pain as my back hit the wall. It hurt. It really did. And I suddenly felt a throbbing ache in my head. He came after me immediately, holding my chin with his right hand and his index and thumb pressing both sides of my cheek while his left hand was placed on the wall.

"Look here Daniella or whatever your name is, the next time you dare to slap me, I promise to treat you like an animal. You think you're crazy, I'd show you crazy." He said in a livid tone and due to how close his face was to mine, I could smell his breath. It was minty. His body was also pressed against mine and for some very stupid reason, I felt aroused. What was wrong with my hormones? This wasn't in any way the right time to be feeling this way.

"Peter, just pity the poor girl. She's still a newbie in Pacific school, that's why she's misbehaving. She doesn't know how things run here." One of Peter's friends said.

"Yeah, but that shouldn't give her the right to slap guys anyhow. She dey mad?" Another one said with his deep and loud voice.

Peter quickly snatched my gala from my pocket as he released me.

"Give me back my gala." I said, reaching out for it as he raised it high above his head. He was way taller than me, so it was hard getting the gala from his hand.

"No!" He said firmly.

"Please, that's the only thing I have to eat during break and I haven't eaten this morning. Please." I begged, my eyes becoming blurry.

"Aw," He gave me a pity look and quickly ripped the gala wrapper open. He put the gala in his mouth and took a big bite of it. What the...! My fist clenched as he ate my only food for lunch and I wanted to punch him hard but it took every cell in me to control myself. I didn't want him to beat me up. As I watched him chew the gala, I didn't know when I started crying until I tasted salt in my mouth.

"Aw, she's crying." Peter feigned a pity look and he and his friends burst out laughing. "Sorry, don't cry. It's just fifty naira gala. You could buy another one, or are you that poor that you can't afford fifty naira to buy another gala." He jeered at me, taking more bites of my gala and his friends rushed over him to beg for it. I watched as they shared my gala amongst themselves and I couldn't hold it anymore.

I ran away from their midst and went straight to my class. Peter and his friends were mean jerks and I would make sure I get back at them, especially Peter. I sniffed as I wiped my tears from my cheeks before entering into the class. A short old looking woman was in front of the class and as I walked in, she turned to look at me with a glare.

"Why are you late to my class?" 

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Hey lovely readers, I'm sorry that the chapter came a bit late. I was kind of busy with my TV. Don't mind me jare.😁 And not just that, I wanted to write yesterday and the day before but I caught a cold, so I couldn't write.

Anyways, now that I'm feeling much better and I've updated, how was the chapter? I'm sure some of us hate Peter already. Well, you can. I really don't mind. *shrugs*

Please vote, comment, recommend to others and add to your reading list. When I see this things, I'm usually motivated to write more and more, so please try and do all. 😊

Why am I talking too much?

Wait before I go, let's all pray for Nigeria. This has been the saddest week in Nigeria's history. There has been a lot of bad news and death. First it was the brutal killing in plateau, then the demise of dbanj one year old son and now tanker explosion which took a lot of precious lives. So sad. 😔 Not to forget, Nigeria was kicked out of the World Cup and we were called the poorest country in the world. All of these sad event happened just this week. Please let's pray for Nigeria. 🙏

Until we meet again, Bye 👋