A week had passed and aunty Regina and her family were still staying with us. They were supposed to stay for a week or two during this third semester holiday. Her husband was a school principal so he had to go back early before the next session was to begin.
I was beginning to get used to Felicia and her addiction to her phone. It was like everywhere she went; she went with her phone.
Yesterday when she was going down the staircase she slipped and fell. Luckily for her, she was already close to the ground when she slipped so she was not hurt but her mother scolded her and threatened to take away her phone.
This morning we had breakfast together, mom had already set the table, we were having bread and tea. Felicia picked up the hot water flask to pour some of it in her cup but the girl wasn't even looking at the cup so it overfilled and started to pour on the ground.
She didn't even notice until the water started to splash on her leg. I looked at the expression on mom's face and it was priceless. She looked like she was restraining herself from giving Felicia a much-needed flogging.
Which was not surprising, mom was a fervent follower of the bible verse 'spare the rod and spoil the child' In other words, act foolish and I beat the foolishness out of you. (In Nigeria, disciplining children by whipping them is not bad, as long as you don't take it too far).
We were all waiting for aunty Regina or her husband to scold her but the both of them kept quiet. Not a word! If it had been me, CJ or Nenye our parents would have given us an earful.
After breakfast dad went to work, he was a lawyer and he had his own law firm. Mom was the branch manager of a microfinance bank here in Abuja but, she wasn't going to work today because she was on leave.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. CJ went out with his friends to play basketball and mom and aunty Regina went out to get some foodstuff together, while her husband said that he had some things to do in Federal secretariat (a place in Abuja). I was downstairs watching TV when Chidera came to join me.
"Hey, can I ask you a question," She said.
"Yeah what's up," I replied.
"Does Nenye hate me or that's just how she is to everybody," she asked.
The girl looked uncomfortable, I think she was even scared like as if Nenye was going to appear from nowhere and catch her talking about her.
I shook my head and replied, "No, she doesn't hate you, it just takes her some time to get used to someone and the fact that she has to share her room with you is not even helping matters, but I assure you she doesn't hate you."
It's not everybody that can handle Nenye and her attitude. Getting her to be nice to you was like trying to defeat the boss level of a video game, it was very hard. I can remember when we were still kids and we were living in a smaller house. Nenye and I had to share a room.
For three years Nenye dominated the room, she had rules that I had to follow and it didn't help that she liked a well-arranged room and I tend to be a little messy sometimes. But we still managed to find a common ground and made things work out. The common ground being that I was scared of her and she became scary when she was angry.
"I hope you're right, she just told me that she will punish me by chopping off my fingers the next time I leave the bed unmade."
Oh how I pitied this poor girl. I will not be surprised if Nenye actually punished her, maybe not by chopping off her fingers but by doing something scary but not physically threatening. I resisted the urge to laugh at her terrified expression and said.
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Nigerian Girl
Teen FictionChizaram's life is simple. There are only three things that matter to her. Number one is her Family, which is also the most important. Number two is the not very strict, not very adhered rules that her parents have put in place for her and her sibli...
