Live Your Life

One~

"Gbadaa ebe a gawa ulo akwukwo, Kasi!"

That was Emily's cue to stop looking at her reflection and get her butt to the kitchen for breakfast. Emily's father never called her Emily.  He was a Nigerian man to the core and insisted she went by her native name, Kasi, short for Chimkasiuto. Emily didn't understand a word he uttered but whenever he spoke her native language, Igbo, she knew it was serious.

Her dad had been trying to teach her and her younger brother, Lucas, also known to her father as Chidu, their language but they were never interested and he was always angry at that fact. Their mother on the other hand wanted nothing to do with her native dialect. She was born and bred in Seattle before she married their father and moved to a small town in Canada to raise them. She was always against him teaching them, saying it was unimportant and they'll never use it in the real world. That was the ongoing argument between them and it was best to leave the room whenever it started.

"Luke!"

She heard her mother shout and she knew she was up next. She grabbed her things and rushed downstairs towards the living room almost colliding with her brother.

"Watch where you're going, Em." He said hitting her with a crutch. "Ouch! Mean." He grinned at her before walking towards the kitchen. She tried not to frown at his limp and looked away. It was a new year, she had to get over it.

Her father was sitting in the dining area, a cup of steaming coffee in one hand and his phone in the other, dressed in his usual work attire while her mother was behind him, hands around his neck as she leaned in to see what he was doing on his phone.

"Good morning parents," She greeted, and one stern look from her father was enough for her to clear her throat and try again, "Ututu oma daddy, ututu oma, mummy."

Her father nodded in approval, an amusing green on his face. "Ututu oma nwam nwanyi," Her mother smiled at the both of them, "Good morning, my dearest daughter," she said with a teasing grin at her husband, who rolled his eyes.

Her parents were always quite the pair. Mr. Kevin Francis, her father had relocated to the US when he was just 18 on a scholarship, he studied hard and when he graduated, he landed a job almost immediately with a top firm in Seattle where he met her mother, Mrs. Patricia Francis. It was fate that they were both from the same tribe seeing as her dad's parents were so strict about his wife's culture. They were not too happy when they found out she couldn't speak their language very well but validated the marriage nonetheless. Eight years after they had Emily they had to move to a small town in Canada because her dad was moved to manage a new branch in the town, and a few years later, here they were now.

"Hurry up so I can drop you two at school." Her mother chastised while standing up straight, her hands hovering over her phone screen while she typed. "Uh, mummy aren't we a little bit old for you to be driving us? I mean we can always take a bus," Luke objected, shoving cereal into his mouth.

"You know how I feel about public transportation, Luke." It genuinely freaked Emily out being surrounded by a bunch of people in a moving vehicle. "Then don't you think it's time to get your license?" Her father said slowly, knowing it was a tricky subject. He sipped his coffee while waiting for a reply but there was none.

Only silence, and heavy breathing.

"I mean, you're old enough to get your permit and in a few months—"

"I don't want my license, Dad." Emily tried to keep her voice levelled. It was the best she could do to avoid crying or yelling, both of which her dad tried to avoid.

"Kasi, you can't keep living in the—" Patricia carefully slid her hands around her husband's shoulders, her signal for Drop it, Kevin. "Just hear me out, Kasi—"