ACHIEVERS

Chapter One : Graduate With No Job

GRADUATE WITH NO JOB

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" Living your life is like drinking a hot cup of coffee. When taken in a hurry all you get is a burn, but when taken slowly, you get to enjoy the sweetness it brings. - AJIE-MIT "
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IG|@motivate_inspire_transform
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Here I am, sitting on the only sofa in my house. I raise my legs to the same level as my hands. My eyes are teary. At this moment if anyone walks in and says the words sorry, I am going to break down in tears.

How can one live in such abject poverty?

My father Mr. Peter is a mechanic and my mom sells roasted corn and yam just in front of our 'one room and Palour ' house.

I still wonder what they were doing when others their age were hustling for a future. Wasted years.

My left-hand leaves my knee and slides down to my left leg to kill the mosquito feasting on my melanin-straight legs. I have to give it to my parents though, the one thing they did so well, is making me beautiful. It will be worse if I am poor and ugly. I look at the window and I realize it is open. Figures. My home is old but it's not a den for mosquitoes.

My hand travels back to my knee and my head gives the world a bow. I can't hold it in anymore. My life is a mess. I doubt there is a light at the end of my tunnel.

After drowning myself in tears I sober up and decide to do my homework. The one teacher whose homework you never want to 'not' do, is Mrs. Preye. Damn, I hear she owns a judo studio, and it explains why her strokes pain the most, even more than that of the male teachers. As I dig my hands into my worn-out hand-knitted bag I feel something that isn't familiar. This book is not mine. In my hands is a novel.

I laugh hysterically. How on Earth can a novel be in my hands? I don't even read school books unless it's exam time. Oh Kelechi, this guy is something else. Kelechi is a friend I still can't believe I have. We're from different worlds. He is from a very wealthy family, whereas I am from, you know, the slums. Everyone in school thinks we are dating because we always go to school and leave school together in his car.

Remembering how this friendship started makes me want to laugh hard. He always says to me " I know you feel you have it worse in life but I want you to know that everyone does too", of course, I don't believe him.

ACHIEVERS is the title of the book. The thing about fiction is that writers only write from their imagination. No one writes realistically. Almost every piece of fiction has a happy ending when in reality, eight out of ten life stories have a sad ending.

What good can this book possibly do for me? Will it somehow, magically pop in naira notes into my home?

I toss it back into my bag and pick up Mrs. Preye's homework. I go to join mom outside. We humans always fall in love with the appearance of things before we fall in love with the thing, my mom always says to me. My mom though uneducated is surprisingly brilliant. People always love buying from her because of how her corns and yams are always appearing neat. I have roasted yam and oil for lunch every school day, I feel like there is a yam forest in my stomach by now. Outside my mom's neatness, people always buy more when I'm around. Figures. I'm beautiful. After some hours I go in to freshen up. I also still need to make dinner and tidy up the house.