Chioma Nwokedi got admitted to study Accountancy in the dame school with her elder sister. She had been allocated to a hostel that shared the same lawn with Bridget’s.
Both of them had access to each other. She was offered admission on merit because she satisfied all the academic requirements the University had spelt out. Her West African Senior School Certificate Examination result, bore excellence in all the subjects she sat for just like her elder sister, Bridget. She also obtained very high scores in both Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination and Post-UMTE. Her name appeared on the schools Merit List, the first batch of very intelligent students to be admitted. Sometimes, their close friends would often think that the proximity of their hostels was more than just a mere coincidence. The sisters, Bridget and Chioma were not often seen moving or doing things together, probably because they were admitted to study separate courses and had spent different years at school.
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Each person worked hard, independently. Communication between them was restricted only to family matters.
Chioma was reading one day in her room when she heard a knock on her door. When she opened the door, her course mate, Sharon was there, smiling, holding a textbook in her hands. The host opened the door wide and ushered the visitor to a seat. The visitor, Sharon, a tall and fair complexioned girl was also a new student at the university just like Chioma. She was very intelligent and from a very rich family who rented a well furnished apartment off-campus for her. Her parents made sure she lacked nothing materially. In spite of her family’s immense wealth, she remained down to earth, and did not brag about. She had the respect and love of her friends because of her honesty and humility. These qualities endeared her to Chioma.
“Chioma, you have a nice room here,” she commented. She looked at a girl sleeping at one end of the room. “It seems you’re alone in this room except this girl, sleeping? Where are the other occupants,” Chioma told her that she was not sure of their whereabouts.
“It is either there were in the class, or in the library,” she replied. The two began to solve the assignment their lecturers gave then in the lecture they had which would be submitted in a week’s time. Sharon had visited her in her hostel so that they would jointly solve the assignment.
Chioma’s corner in the room was small and neat. She placed a small table and chair to her bunk. The table had decorations of beautiful flowers in a flower vase. She did not find it difficult, adjusting to life in the hostel, having attended a boarding secondary school.
Chioma and Sharon gradually grew inseparable from each other. They were always seen together at several places. Despite their facial beauty, they remained academically best students in their department. Some of their course mate referred to them as Beauty with Brains.
They had just resumed for their fourth and final year at school. Lectures had not fully started. Some students had not yet returned. The school looked empty. The few students that arrived from home had less academic work to worry about. So, they had extra time to engage in some social activities. That was when Sharon decided to visit her friend in her hostel. When she arrived, and knocked, a two hundred level girl emerged and informed her that her friend was not in, and that she left the room since afternoon. Sharon then called her phone line but it was not going through. Disappointedly, she left for her house. When Chioma entered her room later that day and switched on her phone, a text message from Sharon entered her phone. She gasped at the content of the message. Immediately, she took a quick bath and hurried off-campus to see her friend.