Chapter Seven

I was sitting in my classroom copying sentences from the whiteboard when the school accountant knocked on my classroom door. She that Isabella was needed in the principal's office. I was startled as our principal hardly met any students. She never showed herself to anyone.

Nevertheless, I left my classroom for the principal's office. Her room was near the main entrance of the school. I became increasingly anxious as I walked nearer and nearer to the principal's room. When I reached the office; I paused for a second then I raised my hand and knocked at the door.

"Come in", she said. I entered her air-conditioned room. The air was chilly and it smelled of leather and white ink remover.

"Yes madam"

"Isabella please sit down." I sat on the big leather chair and looked at her face. Is this real? What could be the matter?

"Your mother just called in and I am afraid she had sad news. Your father had just passed away, he met in an accident. I am so sorry."The principal spoke with compunction.

"What?" I could suddenly feel my heart come into my throat. My eyes widened. Hardly any reaction came out of my mouth. I realized that I couldn't speak. Nonetheless, I sat in the office and waited for my uncle to arrive and pick me up. Soon I and Amelia were on our way home. My mom was sobbing quietly. I went and hugged her and tried to console her. How could I even? When I was in despair and didn't know what was going to happen. Amelia was shocked and speechless.

I didn't go to school for a whole week then my mother gave me some shocking news.

"But why mom? Why do we have to shift to Clinton? Everything is good here, our lives are perfect here…"I wailed. My mother told us that we didn't have money now nor a house as the company was about to take the house away. My mother had some savings to support us but that wasn't enough.

"Honey, it's for the better. We have to go to Clinton and live with our grandparents until we find a new home. There's a school there, Clinton High School where you will continue your education. You and Amelia. We have nothing left. You need to understand. Amelia is happy. It's for the best." My mom lectured us. All seemed ambiguous to me and I didn't have any good feelings about the migration. Something didn't feel alright, like something bad was about to happen. We had to leave our term in the middle of March and go to Clinton. Our grandparents and Cousin Jack greeted us at the airport. It felt awkward to move permanently out here or at least till when my mom wished us to go back. I wasn't staying here forever in this shanty town, I swore to myself but time will pass quickly and maybe we'll go back next year. I already started feeling sick and repulsed at the airport. After an hour we were in our grandparent's house. Their house was old and small. There were hardly any spare rooms so I slept on the sofa in the drawing room for the time being until my mother found us a new house. The sofa was cramped up so I felt uneasy on it every night and I couldn't sleep well. The food that my grandmother cooked rectified the erratic sleep.

After two weeks we found a new home. I expected a big and appealing house but instead, the house was ramshackle made of bricks and cement and the architecture was a bit worn out (wasn't that bad). There were two rooms, a small kitchen, and an open dining area and the flooring was concrete and dusty. We had to clean the whole house before moving in. We didn't buy any furniture, just small steel (Cheap ones) sofa set, two mattresses, a television, a mirror, a refrigerator and that's all. We couldn't even afford an air conditioner, but later on, those were installed in by our uncle. My mother was grateful to him but at the same time, she didn't want to take the favor. In April we enrolled in Clinton High School.