"Lolu!"

I hear someone call.

I cringe at the voice, knowing it is my room mate, class mate and family friend, Rose. She is perky and smart and enjoys school,everything I am not. Her mum also finished from this school and is friends with my mum.

"Hey dear Rose! How are you doing?" My mum chirps, as she ruffles the perky girl's low cut hair.

"I'm quite good ma. I can see Lolu has to go home again."

My mum sighs. I know she wishes I were more like Rose.

"Yes she has to. I hope after this, she can concentrate on her studies and stop falling ill every time." She says this while looking pointedly at me.

"Don't worry ma, I'll take care of her."

I look at Rose with disgust. Such audacity. She will take care of me?

Well, it is no fault of hers thinking she can be in charge of my care. She is even a year younger than I am, the little rat. But then, she takes to this environment like icing to cake, and I feel like a pariah here. I can't wait to leave.
***********

"I don't want to go back there, please!"

I cry and beg my adamant parents.

"You do not have a choice in this, Lolu." My father says.

"You have to learn to be strong and adapt to that place. You are not a sickler, and we give you enough money and provisions, so what is your problem?"

"Your mates are doing fine over there, just take a look at Rose." My mother added.

"If she can do it, why can't you?"
And that's how I'm dragged back to my personal hell hole.
**********

I have no friends here; well, because no one wants to be friends with the weak, sickly girl.

Rose and her friends enjoy taunting me, and the seniors enjoy beating me up. So I am my own friend, and I keep to myself every time. I decide to take a stroll around the hostel grounds today.

It is still an hour before dinner, so I used that opportunity to get a breath of fresh air. I avoid the groups of students in front of Maeve hostel.

They are having some sort of dance competition, and I can see Rose and her circle of friends screaming their heads off and shaking to the singing and clapping. I move towards the back of Nora hostel. I enjoy staying there and gazing into the woods beyond the barbed wire fence, wondering what it would be like to be free. But I am deprived of the privilege of staying there, as a senior is chatting and holding hands with her boyfriend across the fence. I know if I'm caught interrupting their rendezvous with my aimless roaming about, it would be real trouble for me, so I turn back quickly and walk back to my dormitory.

I'm glad there is no one in the room so I climb up to the top bunk and lie down, staring at the ceiling. If I'm luckier, I would go unnoticed and I can avoid going for dinner. I do not feel hungry anyway.

As I stare at the ceiling, trying to block out the noise coming from the girls outside, I suddenly feel uncomfortable. I sit up quickly and find someone at the room entrance, staring at me. I recognize her as being a year ahead of me in class, and I think they call her Sheens, but she is not someone I've ever talked to. She keeps on staring at me and I stare back too. She is about to say something when the bell rings for dinner. She turns around and leaves, and I keep on staring until I fall asleep.
**********