THE NAIJA HUSTLE

EIGHT

EMEKA

I was really angry. This whole situation was annoying. I didnt know if my plan was falling in place and it was really frustrating me. When we first came to this house and i saw Silvia, I could tell she was desperate which gave me every opportunity to get close to her but I didn't. Now Chinedu has made his move and she feel for him hopelessly or so he thinks. Now I am stuck in this predicament which could have been avoided.

I was so lost in my thoughts I didn't realize that Chidi had entered the room and was looking at me. When I finally noticed him I said "Bro i have a plan we are leaving here tomorrow", but the truth is I didn't have any plan I was just desperate to leave this house. Staying here reminded me of my failure not just with Silvia but in life.

I remember while growing up people always said they envied me, they wanted to be like me because I was always getting good grades in school and of course because I dated Njideka, the prettiest girl in our school. To people my life was perfect but truly it wasn't, i was actually a failure. I knew the only reason Njideka came to me was to avoid Emenike and my good grades nobody knew I cheated in all my exams.

The method back then to pass my exams were simple really before any major exam, the exam papers were kept in the vice principal's office and the door of the office had a broken handle which meant the door couldn't be locked, so all I had to do was come to the school at night. I didn't understand the reason our papers were kept so casually maybe they didnt think anyone knew the papers were here but I knew because I spent alot if time in that office giving report of what was happening as a senior prefect that I was.

When entering school to take thr papers at night, I knew that I couldn't use the gate so I jumped the fence, went to the vice principal's office got one script of each subject I was offering and left. I didn't need to worry about the security men because I knew they always went out at night to Mama Obinna's bar.

Once I got home I would normally answer all the questions using my textbooks and papa's android phone which he always hide under the sofa at night so no one will use it while he slept. Then once I was done i hide the papers and carried them to school when we had each subject.

Once it was time to start writing I would wait for thirty minutes pretending that I was writing, then once the invigilator wasn't looking I would slip out the already answered paper from a place that should not be mentioned, set it on my desk and continued pretending and as for the one I was given I would fold it and put it in my pocket.

That was my secret, I couldn't afford to tell my friends, they saw me as the smartest in the group if they found out my secret, they will look down on me.

All I knew at this point was I needed to leave this house as soon as possible.

"Chidi" I said " See we need to leave this house oo, we can't continue like this. We need cumot so we go start the hustle wai bring us come here abi wetin you think". I knew it wouldn't be hard to convince Chidi especially after he had washed that fieces infested toilet.

I was still talking to Chidi when Chinedu entered the room. He looked like someone who had just received bad news. "That one is his business" I thought to myself. Then he fell on his knees and started crying, telling us how he got Silvia pregnant,saying how scared he was, asking us to forgive him for what he did to us. I was very confused this was a guy I didn't want to see yet I felt so sorry for him. Chidi told him to get up, and told him he was our brother and that brothers always stick together. It was good that Chidi was there because if it were only me and Chinedu I would have just walked out of the room.