Ifeoma attended the same secondary school as their neighbours, Bridget and Chioma. At school, she was involved severally in trouble. Every senior student or teacher in the school knew her because she had at one time or the other been punished by most of them. She was sent to boarding school, simply because Bridget and Chioma were boarding students. Her mother, out of sheer jealousy always believed that she would do better than her neighbours daughters. While at primary school, she was not properly monitored in doing her homework and her mother cared less to know if she was actually learning at school. During her senior classes in primary school, she would bribe some intelligent pupils to help her with her assignments or for them to allow her sit close to them during exams. She hated her books with passion and avoided hard-work. She managed to scale through the Common Entrance Examination and was admitted into secondary school. The secondary school she was enrolled in was a place where discipline and hard-work were yardsticks for attaining success.
Ifeoma was caught, cheating in an examination hall by a teacher who was assigned to invigilate the students in their junior secondary school two exams. In anger, the school principal sent for her parents to come to the school after which she suspended her for two weeks. She was warned never to repeat such an act. The Principal threatened further to expel her if she cheated in her subsequent examinations. When she resumed school, she paid little or no attention to her books or studies. As a lazy girl, she found it difficult to cope with the strict school rules and regulations. Once in a while, she would spend time in chatting with Bridget and Chioma in their hostel and would be there until they cajoled her to leave for then to read their books. She disrespected her seniors who punished her accordingly. This harsh treatment from her seniors, she did report to her parents.
After managing to pass into a new class, her younger sister, Anurika passed her Common Entrance Examination and was admitted in the same school. Anurika being just eleven years old seemed worse than her elder sister, Ifeoma. Her close friends nicknamed her ‘talkative’. She could talk for a whole day without stopping and would not bother about her studies. Her actions made Ifeoma sceptical about her. She would sometimes wonder how her sister would cope with her academics. She once voiced out her concern to their parents and advised them not yo enroll her in a boarding school but a day school that was close to their house. They refused and insisted that both of them would continue attended school there since Bridget and Chioma, their neighbours were also in the same boarding school.
“Mummy, I don’t think sending Anurika to a boarding school is a good idea.”
Ifeoma said to her mother when she arrived home from school during the school’s mid term break. Her father, who had been in the living room, overheard them talking, moved closer to hear clearly what mother and daughter were discussing.
“Anurika is a smart girl, she will cope. She isn’t complaining either,” her mum responded.
“Mum, don’t you think you should just hear me out? The boarding school is not for everybody. It is a place for bookworms and serious minds. You know how playful I am, let alone Anurika,” she said. At this point her father involved himself in the conversation. “Ifeoma, are they no other kids in the boarding school? Are they not kids like you? Sometimes, I wonder where you inherited your laziness and unbridled tongue from. We, your parents are very hard-working in what we do. You don’t want to learn from us.” Ifeoma knew that her father was furious about her statement and escaped through the entrance door to avoid a slap. “Those complaints I give about my school seniors are not compared with what you going to get from Anurika, since you don’t want to listen to me.”
