Are you coming to the tree?

Chapter 7

I'm sure you are wondering how I know her. Why i would go to her house. Well we are related. She's my cousin.

Are you shocked?

Anyway, that information is irrelevant.

School. When I was younger, I would watch movies, mostly about American high schools played by overaged characters that portrayed the 'ideals' of high school life. A nice group of friends, being at the top of the social food chain and having everyone's approval. Going to school with a coffee and laughing with your friends and always being happy.

Going home and sighing at the endless amount of homework that they never actually seem to do in movies.

Life's not like that. There isn't a bunch of 20-year-olds pretending to be 16. The daunting arrival of the next big exam is the only thing sitting at the top of the food chain, the fear and pressure devours us all. The debate between getting detention and doing our homework is constant. I'm sure you're wondering why I am talking about this. So, to answer your question it's just to explain how Ezinwa wasn't a character in a movie. Or a far away entity. She lived like you and me, she lives like us, she is one of us. She is a child who is going through the tempestuous storm of life.

Pity her. I pity her. Childhood joys are like a fantasy and friends are almost a myth. I don't know if any of you have ever been in Ezinwa's position, but if you have... I pity you as well and hope things are better.

When Chizo and Ezinwa went to school the next day, everyone was surprised to see how friendly they were acting – I dare say, some of them were even mad. Probably missing the heavy tension and despair that hung heavy in the air whenever they were near each other. But now their shackle of loneliness had been unlocked and their peers probably wished it hadn't.

The girl that stirred up their fight had made herself scarce during the time of their friendships calamity and hadn't grown the audacity to face them just yet.

They dealt with insults and unfair treatment for so long one might think they'd be use to it. But you never get used to a twisting dagger in your side. Constantly opening a wound that has never been given time to shut. Sorry for the graphic imagery but pain is a graphic thing, inside and out. Pain is the one thing everyone can agree on and that everyone has experienced.

They had been in school for a few years, and like all school terms they ended in a nice long summer holiday. Nice for some at least.

Summer holidays are usually a time of joy and fun, when the troubles of school are locked up in a box that will be reopened in September. For them though, it was like one box closed and an even larger one with more problems had opened. A plethora of burden and responsibility dumped on them during summer.

Getting a job.

Working is different from school in a few ways. You are expected to be more responsible and organised. You are sometimes made to give up your weekends as well. But they were children, inherently irresponsible and had barely gotten their lives together enough to be called 'organised'. I personally think it's unfair to bestow such pressure onto teenagers. But that's just the way it was for them.

They had to get a job. Why you ask? Well... the reason is-