Anita was Grace's senior sister, they lost their parents in a Gastly car accident. The culture of her village and the greed of her wicked uncles made sure they never got anything from the wealth left by their late multi-millionaire dad.
Anita was only 14 years old and in senior class 1 and Grace was just 12 years old.
They both dropped out of school immediately since none of their wicked uncles saw any reason to support their education.
One of their uncles gave them one of their father's apartments and had them pay half the usual rent claiming he gave it to them cheap because they were blood.
Anita was a hardworking person, she started hawking sachet water on the streets when it was clear none of her uncles had heart enough for her or her sister.
Anita was able to save and started selling bread on the streets. Anita's business was going well for her as she progressed just enough to rent a shop where she stacked her bread.
Anita was able to stabilize the feeding of both her and Grace. She decided to return to school and registered for lessons and waec and jamb. She didn't bother trying to send Grace back to school because Grace never had any interest in going back to school. Anita passed all her exams and got an admission into the university.
Everything was going quite well for them until Grace got pregnant and the father of the child was not ready to claim the child.
Grace didn't want to keep the baby but Anita was afraid of losing her sister and didn't want to take any chances. Grace later gave birth and taking care of a baby didn't go well for Anita— the expenses and the state of the economy of the country weren't helping either.
Anita stood at the door and looked at Grace with absolute disgust, not because she hated Grace but because she was always disgusted by the way Grace ate.
"Make sure to feed John when he wakes up, and also I kept some money for the replacement of his baby milk," Anita said to Grace who nodded with a mouthful.
Anita then left for school, she was to have a test in school by the afternoon.
Anita arrived at school and many of her coursemates were already present preparing for the test except her friend Obinna.
She walked to where Obinna was seated playing games on his phone like he was not going to sit for the same test that gave everyone anxiety.
"Obinna, you will never be serious," Anita said as she gave Obinna a slightly hard slap on the head.
Obinna turned immediately with a gry face and was ready to retaliate but his mood changed the moment he saw it was Anita, "you are lucky I looked first, if not I would have slapped everything you have read out of that your small head," he said as he smiled and adjusted for Anita to sit beside him.
"Why aren't you getting ready, or have you already crammed everything in the book," Anita said as she brought out her book from her bag and started screening through.
"I am not like you who are born with EEinstein'sbrain, so I have prepared my way," he said as he brought out a cheat paper he had in his pocket.
"The day you will get caught I will tell you I told you," Anita replied.
After some minutes the lecturer arrived and everyone was seated for the test, Anita was sitting beside Obinna on one side and two other girls on the other side. The test started and Anita smiled uncontrollably as she unloaded everything from her brain straight into her answer sheet. Anita was almost done when the lecturer came and stood in front of them with a menacing smile.
"The four of you should stand and give me your papers," he said as he slammed his hand on their desk.
Anita was so confused as she handed her script to the lecturer followed by Obinna and the girls.
He then pointed to the paper that was beside Obinna, "Pick it up and give it to me,"
Obinna then picked up the paper and handed it to the lecturer. The lecturer unfolded the paper wore his glasses and still squinted his eyes as he read the content of the paper.
He was done and then said, "The four of you can go, you have failed this test," just before he walked away with the papers.
"Jesus," Anita said as she left the hall almost in tears.
Anita and the others waited outside the hall till the test was over. Anita's eyes were red and she looked worn out and hopeless. They tried begging the man but he chased them all away.
Anita went home miserable that day, she got to the house and just sat down in the sitting room with her face in her hand as she cried and ignored the greetings from her sister.
After some minutes of crying, Anita stood up and cleaned her tears, she then said to herself "I will not give up or continue crying, as long as I have gotten to this point there is still hope," Anita went and showered then ate. After eating she slept peacefully.
The next day she got up and prepped for the day, she got to school and went to wait at the lecturer's office first thing that morning.
She waited almost an hour for the lecturer sitting on the slab beside the office before the man arrived.
Anita stood up with immediate alacrity and the lecturer looked at her from head to toe.
"Yes, who are you and do I owe you," he said as he unlocked his office and walked in.
Anita didn't even wait for an invite and followed him in.
"Sir, I am the girl who was among the people whose script was taken yesterday."
"You are Maxwell Anita?" He asked her as he pulled her script from under a book separate from where the other scripts were kept.
"Yes sir, yes I am," she answered.
"I have checked the script and what you wrote is not at all what was in the cheat paper," he said as he put her script together with others.
"Thank you so much sir," Anita was so happy and grateful.
She wore a smile throughout that day and even bought ice cream on her way home for her and her sister.
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