Sprigs from Ice

Part One// 2. Strangled Roots

I monitored the glowing digits on the screen of my watch, silently counting down the minutes until mum finished speaking with the assistant headmistress of the school. Her demands were short and straight-to-the point; I was falling behind, and I needed assistance immediately.

The assistant tried to reason with her, saying that I was a good student, and the first half of the term had been hard on everyone, not just me. Mum had had none of that. She made her demands known once again, and the woman conceded, not one to turn down the few hundred cedis mum would be paying for my extra tuition.

In five minutes, we were out of the office.

I rubbed my wrist. That had to be a new record. It usually took a total of three minutes to make arrangements like these, pay whatever she needed to, and leave. I followed her down to the parking lot, watching as students poured into the compound, arriving by the bus, by drivers or their parents, or on their own.

The mid-term break was finally over and the second half of the term would begin, intense as ever.

"You know Kevin has that program at Golden Tulip, and after that it's-"

"Straight to the airport, I know." I said, trying to feign enthusiasm. He had barely stayed home during his internship and all of a sudden, he was being whisked to France for his post-graduate studies. And it wasnt even my parents doing this time.

She smiled and pulled her keys out of her bag. "Do you need anything else? Dad and I won't be home early, so youll have to eat alone. I'm so sorry. Love you." The words were out of her mouth in a breath. I nodded, stepping back as she unlocked the sleek black BMW and got in without sparing me a second glance.

My class was buzzing with the latest gossip from the short holidays, as if they hadn't had enough of one another's business over the short break. I had had to mute the group chat the last few days because my phone and tablet wouldn't stop going off every five seconds. I settled at my desk in the back after avoiding waving arms and heads thrown back in laughter, wondering why at all anyone was in the mood for celebrating.

Someone planted their palms on my desk, and I looked up to see Astrid, one of the smartest girls in the school, which was something of an achievement as this school was full of exceptional students. She had her long braids tied back in a ponytail, and a blinding smile that should've been in a toothpaste commercial.

"Hello, Astrid." I greeted, genuinely happy to see her.

Astrid had comforted me in Primary One when I'd cried about placing fifth in the class scoring, and we'd spent most of our school life practically glued to each other's side ever since. We didn't exactly bare our souls to each other, but if I ever needed someplace to quietly weep when it all got overwhelming, I'd go to Astrid and she would be there, no questions asked.

"Tricia." She beamed. "How've you been? We heard nothing from you over the break."

"Yeah, sorry about that." I shrugged, leaning forward with my elbows on the desk to intertwine my fingers and rest my chin on them. "I thought radio silence would've been the best way to reply to all those queries about how I did on the exams."

"Oh, ha ha." Astrid rolled her eyes. Her smile dimmed a little as she pulled herself up onto my table and sighed. "We all knew things wouldn't go well for us during this examination. There's nothing we can do to change the grades. We can only accept them and try harder for the next exams, am I right?"

"Yeah..." I licked my dry bottom lip.

Accept them... Easy for her to say. Her parents would never panic and sign her up for extra classes the instant her grades dropped. And she most likely wasn't internally chiding herself for not learning as hard as she could in order to pass the exams.