Against All Odds

Chapter Seven: Big brother

The previous week had been quite interesting for Chioma. The events that unfolded in her school and her new friend. The only tick in her hair was her brother and his problem of sticking almost every girl in the village to himself like glue.

Last Friday Cynthia opted to bring her freshly fried "akụ" that she had bought from the market. The package was neatly wrapped in cocoyam leaves and tied with palm leaves called "omu". The "akụ" (winged termite) was garnished with fresh pepper and even though she couldn't get herself to take a bite, her classmates seemed to enjoy the gift.

She watched them eat the Termites that had turned brown out of the heat which was used to fry them, they also appeared quite oily. She didn't see food when she looked at the lifeless creatures, she saw insects and she just couldn't chew them. She also remembered one of her father's proverbs "akụ fechaa ọ dara awọ".

The thought of that made her wonder if the people who sold it were hygienic as to wash the termite before frying. She also thought of the state of the ground the Termites fell on, whether it was muddy, dirty, bacteria infested.

Obi didn't like the gift as well but she did take a bite and contorted her face when she tried to swallow. She had admitted that it tasted good but the thought of chewing antlike creatures made her uncomfortable.

Chioma knew from the onset that Cynthia's gift would have some baggage attached to it and it was only a matter of time before the baggage will be brought in the open.

Chioma later got a piece of paper from Cynthia with the most complicated writing she had ever seen. The grammatical blunders she picked could cause an English teacher a heart attack. How Cynthia could speak well and write poorly was a miracle and how she had managed to scale through till now was an even bigger miracle.

It will do me happiness, if you see me as your gulfrend. The way I have been looking you is making my heart gbim gbim! His eyes is swat and his face dey like Jesus christ in my daddy room. I will do anything in this wod, if I be your acharaugo.

After Chioma read the letter the second time she was sure that it must have been one of Cynthia's goons that wrote the letter.

Obi had laughed so hard when she read the letter and was so eager to know Obiefune's reaction. Obi felt a strong dislike towards her brother and she didn't blame her friend.

The poor attempt Obiefune' made at fixing his mistake worsened his case. He tried removing particles of grass attached on Obiukwu's body, starting from her hair. Obi had ignored him at first while they walked home probably because she was there. But as soon as they got to her house, Chioma slipped into the house with an excuse of getting obi cold water to place her hands in. So that they two could get along.

She had barely lasted five minutes in the house before she heard Obi screaming. Her brother had been removing the grasses on her uniform against Obi's  wishes and when she caught the shirt he was using to hit the particles off, a pin pricked her hand and busted open one of the blisters.

Obiefune felt really bad and for the first time Chioma saw her friend really angry. She had told Obiefune to stay away from her, she even promised to avoid him in school. She even mentioned the first time she slammed into Obiefune and he ran off and did not apologize. Obi called Obiefune a wicked person and that he was only trying to annoy and pick on her on purpose.

Obiefune could not even speak at this point, Chioma knew her brother well and tolerating a harsh tone from any girl was like swallowing cow dung. Atleast that was he had always told her.