Kora

I walked up the stairs lazily. It was roughly five hours since I left the house angrily, and I could have sworn I didn't lose track of time. If I had my way, I'd have loved to spend the rest of the night where I was, with him, with Luke. Being in that house, reminded me of how much I hated it there, how much I didn't belong there.

I opened the door leading to my room and closed it quickly, drawing a deep breath as I turned inside. I almost fell from shock the moment I saw my mother sitting in my chair, with her face mask on, glaring at me with her hands folded beneath her breasts.

"Where are you coming from?"

She asked me as I finally got past my shock and hurried to my bed, pretending like I hadn't heard what she said.

"I was out." I told her. "With Luke."

"Was that why you didn't pick any of my calls?"

I could feel her eyes on me as I threw my sweater on my bed. I honestly wasn't up for the conversation she was starting to have. I heard her exhale loudly the moment she noticed I wasn't paying her enough attention.

"I got you a new laptop." I took a quick glance at the desk just to make sure she wasn't playing me. I don't know why I did, I didn't even know if I cared for anything at that point. I could see the sealed Mac book pro on my desk. "You don't need that old and outdated one anymore anyway. I know you always held on to the old one because you saved for it and bought it yourself without asking for help from anyone but you don't need it anymore. It's high time you changed."

"How were you able to afford it?" I threw myself on my bed, pretending not to care. "Did your sugar daddy buy that?"

"No, I bought it." She told me. "I have savings."

"Of course you do." I scoffed after I whispered those words.

I know you're probably wondering how my relationship with my mother is. You're probably wondering if I talk to her this way all the time, well, the answer is yes.

Since I never grew up with a father, my mother became everything to me. A father, a mother and my best friend. I had grown so used to telling her how I felt when I felt like it. We had that kind of a relationship since she never really minded.

"You must have saved a lot all those years haven't you?"

Now I was referring to the fact that we never really stayed in a place all my life. Even though my mother used to work as a waitress at a club, she managed to find her way to the top gradually, marrying every rich man that came her way and made her promises to make her a queen and me a princess, and then divorcing them the moment it stopped working out. If I'm correct, I've had about four different step fathers before this one and I always wondered why this really horrible marriage hadn't crashed yet. I'd give anything to see it fail just like all of her previous marriages, because I hated it here. I hated it just as much as I've hated everything else.

I've practically lived my life hearing kids make fun of me right from elementary school. They always compared me with Peter in the Bible, during his missionary days, making reference to the fact that I and my mum always changed homes. Racheal was right, all we ever did was find our way into people's homes and take from them. Nothing about my past or future was going to surprise me anymore.

I know what it looks like. You might think I'm better off this way, you might feel I'm enjoying every moment as a member of the rich club, but the truth is it sucks. I hated everything about being rich and wealthy. I always hoped things would just go back to the way they were. When it was just me and my mum and none of all these complications, just us. But Mum says she's happy here, she thinks her current husband is the one. I totally don't get what she sees in him, but then she sealed the deal the moment she had Mike.  We might never get to leave this place in the end.

"What is wrong with you kora?"

I looked away as I noticed her find her way towards me.

"I can't help but notice you've been off since your letter from NAUN came. The way you acted today, the way you talked to Peter, that's not you." she sat down right beside me. "You know if there's anything you want to talk about, anything at all, I'm here to listen to you."

"Luke passed the NAUN exams and I failed."
There was no point in hiding it from her anymore. I knew that for sure. "I'm not getting into NAUN this year, I'm not getting in with him. He's leaving tomorrow."

"Really?" There was nothing like disappointment in her voice. Was she expecting it? I turned to look at her.

"You saw it coming didn't you?"

She pouted. I knew exactly what she was thinking. She didn't want to hurt my feelings. She didn't have to.

"I'm really not good at anything at all, am I?"

"Of course you are." She leaned closer to me. "Maybe you're not as intelligent as every other persons out there, academically, but it doesn't mean you're not intelligent in everything else. Look at me, I never really did well in school but-"

I turned to look at her.

"But what?" I asked her "look at how we turned out mum."

She frowned and then curved her lips.

"All I'm saying is you're special, in your own way. You know, getting into NAUN is honestly not that hard. You don't need those exams. Your step father is friends with the principal, he could get you a spot in without any exams. You tried it your way for three years now, you always disapproved this option because you didn't want to go in without Luke now see, he's going without you. Why don't you just give up on the exams already and accept your step father's help? I can talk to him. Since it's already too late to get in this year, he could help you secure a spot next year. You could get in. You could have the same chance those other kids have, you can be with Luke, but it's all up to you, it's if you really want it."

Of course I wanted it. Being at NAUN with the love of my life was all I ever wanted. It was all I ever really wanted and that was why I waited for so long. But that wasn't the reason I didn't want Peter's help. Well, ever since we got here, we lost every atom of respect from Racheal, my pride was all I had left. Accepting Daddy Peter's help was only going to prove what Racheal felt and thought about us were right. She was going to feel we couldn't do anything without her family and I didn't want that. I didn't want to give her any more reason to talk down on us and now, I had to wait another extra year to be able to take the exams again. But what was I supposed to do? Luke was going to NAUN and I wasn't. This has been my dream, going into NAUN with him and what was worse, was that I began to consider it, to consider accepting help from the very same man I really didn't like. The very same family.

"It's all up to you baby." She leaned closer to me and gave me a soft kiss on my forehead. "Think about it."

I liked the way my Mum was different from eighty percent of other African mothers. I liked that she respected me and my decisions and never did anything without asking for my consent. I forced a smile on my face as I watched her get up and walk to the door.

"Good night baby." She let herself smile a bit.

"Good night mum."

I let out an exasperated sigh the moment she closed the door and kicked my shoes off my legs.

Churn!

My phone vibrated. It was obviously a text. Maybe from Luke? He was the only one that really texted me, him and mum. I reached for my phone quickly and opened it as fast as I could. A huge frown forming on my lips the moment I saw the unregistered number on my phone, an international number, with the text...

"Hey, Mark. I got your number from Johnathan Spike. I've got a job for you."

Hey Mark?

I thought to myself. Who on earth was this and who on earth was Mark? I shook my head. It was probably a wrong number, it had to be. I didn't  bother texting back. I threw my phone on the bed, and my back went next.