SCARRED

Chapter 1

                   MONDAY - MUTE

Mute!! That's what She had become. Over the years, she had learned to keep her mouth shut. After that tragic happening,  she hadn't talked. She was just about to begin Junior Secondary School 2, and now she's about to finish Secondary school. Senior Secondary School 3, five years after, and she still managed not to say a word. Everyone around her,  friends and family, and teachers understood she didn't talk and never forced her to. Her best friends Precious and Oma wanted them to learn sign language,  but she refused. She suggested they paper chatted instead; it was fun, and they seemed okay with it. Besides the fact that she didn't talk,  her life was relatively normal.

She communicated with classmates, teachers asked her questions, and she wrote the answers on the board. She helped her mum in the kitchen, went out a few times with only friends, and now she was about to start an after-school lesson. Everyone except her was going there, and even people from other schools would be there. She never planned on going,  but her friends seemed to be insistent on her going.

"Oh, common Anna, you have to come. Even if it's for only a month, you'd get to meet our friends,  get to make more friends out of school. You'd meet Emmanuel and Hosea and Kelvin and so on." She, of course, had never seen any of these boys they were mentioning. Sure,  she heard of them and knew how they acted since her friends would non-stop blow her ears up while gossiping about them. One thing was common in all their friendships with these people; they met them on Social Media, and then one went to the other's house, and their friendship began to blossom. She had social media accounts; she was on Facebook and Instagram and likes, but she only responded to messages from people she knew, and she never really posted any of her pictures online.

  Her mother wasn't excited about letting her go for an after-school lesson in a strange environment with new people. She didn't want her baby to get hurt. Mummy Instincts, she had thought. Yet her dad had insisted on letting her go

"She needs to see the world for how it is; honey, you can't keep protecting her; she has to know how to protect herself." She didn't blame her mother, though; any woman would be scared to let her mute child face the world alone. She was also afraid to face the world, and this step she was taken was one of absolute bravery.
Courage wasn't the absence of fear, but the ability to meet such fear

  She stood between Oma and Precious and couldn't help but leave her mouth agape at the beautiful building standing in front of her. "Keep your mouth closed until you see the inside." Oma had said. Her eyes began to follow the number of learners trooping into the building. The girls were dressed to kill, and so were the boys.

Oma and Precious had told her that if she focused on most of the students, then this wasn't a place for learning. That most were just here to meet their friends or to show the people who were secretly watching them that they were rich and fashionistas.  Anna wasn't the fashionista kind like her friends, and she didn't even care about the clothes she had on. All she did was throw in that shirt or that blouse,  along with those jean trousers or that skirt, and voila, it was all good.

"Let's go in" she nodded and went along with them. They began strolling, very careful not to hit or push against anyone. The stairs were broad, but they still didn't contain the people that trooped in. She dug her hand into her back pocket and searched for her fee. She grabbed hold of it and held it tightly in her enclosed palm. They finally got to the desk, which wasn't even packed; it seemed like most people had paid their lesson fee. Precious took her by the hand and dragged her to the fair woman seated at the desk.