Dedicated to Blueberry000035. For her massive votes And Princessdebra for the support and encouragement 🌻🌻🥰

Ifechi had kicked it off with her new online friend.

"Can you hear me, I think the signal got caught off at your end" the white girl spoke, it was their first video meeting after texting each other for the past week.

They'd met on her prospective college's website.

Britney was a junior at MIT, a bona fide member of the student union committee, pretty blonde with green eyes that Ifechi thought were intimidating when she first saw her picture. She'd been shaky when sending the first message on her profile, debating whether or not to skip it and just do the application on her own. But she knew an existing student would be of great help, especially one who is in the same field with her, so shoving aside her fear, she sent the first WhatsApp message.

'Hi, my name is Ifechi Okereke Stephanie but you can call me Stephanie, I'm applying to MIT from Nigeria and I got your number from the school's website. I hope you don't mind? I'd love to connect with you'

To which she replied:

'Oh my...sure yes, I'd love to connect with you, tell me all about yourself, can I see a picture too. It's great meeting you Steph from Nigeria, I hope we become good friends'

Ifechi almost jumped when she got the reply some days after, she scanned the entire message over and over again, her shortened nickname making her blush. Since then she had been of great help on her application. They'd texted for a few days, Ifechi filled her in on her application progress- she'd read the full guidelines, completed her profile, started working on her common app essay, and all that was left was the SAT, which was less than a month away.

But Britney was more than a college application assistant to Ifechi, she'd told her a lot of things- from how she'd gotten waitlisted for half a month- the worse two weeks of her entire life, to her snobby freshman roommate who was distant cousins with the Obamas, the first time she got locked outside her dorm room, to her recent fight with her highschool sweetheart turned college boyfriend. She told Ifechi of all the exciting college events, her internship at Microsoft, and all the exclusive STEM events she'd promised to get her into.

Ifechi enjoyed their conversations, she sometimes reread them when she wasn't online. It gave her non-romantic butterflies, the hopes and thrills that awaited her at MIT. Perhaps she was dreaming too high and too quickly. Afterall, she hadn't even finished her application, but that fantasy side of her overshadowed reality and she wasn't ready to give it up.

To top it all, Britney had many admirable qualities- she was super smart (a 3.9), had great humour, played the clarinet, was a two-time regional gymnastics gold medalist, and had a black belt in Judo.

"To be totally honest with you, I'm only doing this to get to be pres next year, I think you're a great person and I'd love to help out, but I just needed you to know that" she said, making Ifechi smile awkwardly. She forgot one more quality- Britney was honest to a fault.

"It's okay"

"Really? I thought about it throughout last night and it felt like I was using you"

"Nah it's cool" Ifechi said in her slightly polished accent. To her, if anyone was being used, it was Britney who was sacrificing close to an hour a day to talk to a random stranger that she met on the internet.

"Great!" She chirped. "That's why I like you, you're so chill and laid-back, I can't wait to see you at MIT"

Ifechi gave a genuine smile.

"Oh yeah by the way, I went through your application so far and I've got to tell you, as far as your grades matter, you're absolutely amazing..."

Ifechi felt her head swelling.

"...but sadly, something very big is missing"

Her smiled dropped. "Er...what is that?"

"Extracurriculars!"

"Oh"

"Girl your extracurricular section is terribly weak, you've got to work on it"

"Um...okay, what do I do?" Ifechi said almost panicking. Britney let out a sigh.

"Okay, let's start with the basics, what do you do after school?"

She stared at her screen blankly "go home I guess, eat, sleep, do homework, read..."

"Gggggjhhzzzz......" Britney made a sleeping noise, Ifechi looked at her confused.

"..erm is anything wrong"

"Oh goodness me yes! Steph! You've got to get it together, what-do-you-do-after- school?"

"I just told you..."

"Not that silly, I meant what other engagements do you do outside school, yunno....like clubs, sports internships, community service, do you play an instrument"

"Oh" Ifechi said realisation hitting her.

Britney blinked at her as if she had two heads.

"So common lets hear it" she repeated

"Okay" Ifechi said clearing her throat. "For clubs, well...I used to be in the press club..." She said looking expectantly at her online friend.

"How big was it, how far did you go?"

"What?"

"I said how big wsydkodurhdkdk..." Britney said, her question getting lost in the bad connection. Ifechi groaned in frustration cursing the poor internet speed.

"Steph? Steph?" Britney was desperately asking, sighing once Ifechi's face moved on the screen again.

"I'm so sorry, network issues...again" she said frustrated,

Britney threw her hand up. "It's fine, I totally understand, one time my family and I went to a mountain for a hike and I had bad signal for almost six hours, it was terrible, I understand how you feel" she added and Ifechi nodded and smiled awkwardly even if she wanted to point out that six hours of poor signal doesn't compare in anyway to Nigerian's network problem which was a normal lifestyle for most people.

"You know what, forget press club, I joined jets at my new school...junior eng" Ifechi said

"Engineering and technology society? That's awesome!" Britney's glinted. Ifechi felt stupid for thinking Britney wouldn't know what JETS is, did she think it was only a Nigerian school club

"...so did you guys work on any cool projects? Can you tell me all about it, it can make a huge difference on your application"

"Yeah, we made this cool bubble blowing machine..."

"Mmmph..." Britney said urging her to go on, Ifechi caught her writing something under her table, later when she raised her hand, it revealed a small pink sticky note with a scribble on it.

"...we did it for our school's clubs day, it was an exhibition, I....  "

"...well did you guys win?" Britney cut her off excitedly.

"Erm..no...the arts and cultural club did..." She said.

'And it's all my fault' she wanted to add as her memories went back to those sad days in first term when Damien semi-broke her heart, the same Damien that couldn't stop looking at her in the hallway now.

"Oh" Britney was disappointed. "Well, how about sports? You look like a swimmer"

Ifechi laughed looking surprised. "Me swimmer? I can't even hold my breath for more than five seconds let alone swim"

"Okay then, any other?"

"Not exactly. I'm not a sports person, I only play volleyball on rare occasions during sports time at school"

Britney let out a low sigh. "That's a no also then"

"Unfortunately"

"Okay, what about community service?"

"nope"

"Internships?"

"Definitely not"

"Do you play an instrument. I mean asides the conventional Piano, guitar? Like anything extraordinary, the base perhaps, or even the harp?"

"None that is extraordinary"

"Um....okay, well do you play the conventional ones? Piano, guitar, drum?" She added the last part with a subtle eyeroll that didn't go unnoticed.

"Sadly, no" Ifechi let out a huge sigh regretting not taking that recorder class their jss2 music teacher offered to teach them for free every Saturdays.

"Ok, so no relevant clubs, sports, internships, community services or instruments..." Britney said drawing lines over her note, probably to cancel what she'd written. Ifechi felt sad, her impostor syndrome kicking in, why was she here wasting someone's time with her unqualified self.

"..oh yeah, what about games?"

"Games?"

"Um..ok, well let's see ..but wait first what do you mean by games, isn't that the same as sports?"

"Sort of, but not exactly. Games are impressive fun hobbies that are not very physically intensive like say...oh chess, or monopoly, scrabble..."

"So like board games? Why does that even matter? I thought MIT is intere...."

"...Baby girl trust me it does, and it's not just board games...you could literally whip up something no one has heard before and you'll get in for your "uniqueness" and "originality"..." Britney said making airquoted "...there's a girl across my hall in Economics and we took calculus together in my freshmen year, she told me she got in because the admissions office found her 3d printed number-inspired action figure toy collections intriguing..."

Ifechi laughed at the silliness of the idea, what's intriguing about having a toy collection, but then it wasn't just any type, it was 3d printed ...

Wait! 3d printing...that rings a bell.

"My school has a 3d printer" she blurted, only questioning the foolishness of her decision after the words had left her mouth.

It was Britney's time to be shocked. "Wh... really? Whoa! That's crazy, your secondary school? Has a 3d printer, in Nigeria?"

"Mmmphh" Ifechi said feeling proud of her school for the first time since they'd started talking. Prior to that, she'd felt severely subpar to everything Britney had described.

"Well then what are you waiting for..."

"Huh" Ifechi said snapping back into reality.

"You said you have a 3d printer in your school, that's gold!"

"But I can't..."

"Steph 3d printing is a big deal now, even here in MIT. These schools are looking for uniquely talented people with rare skills, and addictive manufacturing is a rare skill so what you have is a great opportunity to be one of the top applicants, but it's only if you can maximise your resources"

"Look Britney I know what you're saying is true, but where do I even start from. I know a little about 3d printers, but I can't use them, plus, I don't even know how to model a digital prototype of anything"

"Well learn!"

"How, I don't ha...." Ifechi said making more excuses when Britney shut her off.

"Girl you better get into that studio..."

"Wait...how, and do what?"

"I dunno, come up with a cool project, get your hands dirty, 3d print some cool stuff, and hey, make sure to get it all on footage, take a lot of pictures, document the process, all those are the things that'll really matter"

"Britney I..."

"Look Steph, I know you're scared and unsure of a lot of things, but trust me, you'll figure it out. I'll send you a list of ideas you can work on to get started. Just talk to the teacher in charge or something, get a couple of friends to help you out, look up a YouTube video to get started, I dunno just do something. You can do this okay?"

Ifechi stared at her for five seconds and exhaled heavily "okay??"

"That's my girl, I knew you could do it, anyways we'll continue next time, midterms are coming up and I got a study session with my guys so gotta go.. I wish you the best Steph, make me proud!" She said and hung up before Ifechi could respond.

Ifechi sank back in her seat. Everything Britney had just told her replaying in her head.

Why did extracurriculars matter to US colleges anyway

Wasn't it being smart that mattered.

Who your special talents and skills epp if your result no good

Ifechi groaned in frustration. If there was something she'd choose Nigeria schools over US for, it was that she wouldn't be worrying over cumbersome college applications, just writing exams to get into school. But bigger things required bigger sacrifices right? And as far as she was concerned, MIT was worth everything it demanded from her, even if it meant leaving her comfort zone and breaking a few school rules.

Out of bounds wasn't that serious right?

Ifechi was determined to do one thing the next day:

Get into the new lab.

A/n

Hmm, MIT don dey enter Ifechi eyes too much, make she no go do anything stupid o

What do you guys think of Britney? I thought it'd be super cool to shake things up a little by adding a foreign character. I just hope that someday if I want to turn this novel to a movie that we'll get someone that fits into all these roles.

Anyways guy Merry Christmas 🌻🌻🎉🎉🎉🎉🎄🎄🎄🙏❣️❣️❣️❣️

Remember the reason for the season is JESUS CHRIST. He loves you and wants you to come to him, repent of your sins and believe in him, he will never chase you ever when you come with a humble and repentant heart (Psalm 51:17)

I wish you all an awesome year ahead. Let's see if I'll finish this book in these last five days or not 😂😂💔

Don't forget to leave your likes and comments pls🙏🙏🙏

God loves you ❣️