1 Chapter 1

A living room with chandeliers, a flat screen TV, Three large bedrooms, a fully stocked kitchen with a big beautiful garden and a veranda painted white was all Kemi wished for. A better life.

Not the almost torn down house with only a single room usually called a self-contain that housed her two little twin brothers, her mother and her overgrown cousin who did nothing but make the already torn couch look worse.

She lived in a 'face-me-I-face-you' kind of house, those kind of houses had at least twenty tenants, ten doors in a row facing the other ten. Ten completely different families shared a kitchen which resulted in regular stealing.

Fighting wasn't something strange; either they were fighting about who was going to clean the general bathroom or who stole someone's food.

Kemi's house had unpainted walls that had blackened over time, a small hunchback TV with an antenna on top of it. She couldn't clearly tell what was playing, she just knew it wasn't Olamide or better still Chris Brown.

The ceiling fan had been removed since it refused to work since about four months ago, the white lace curtains were now black with dust and age, a large mattress was at the corner of the single room with the worn out green and brown couch.

"Buy your fried fish and smoked fish!" Mama Sade,who lived two doors down Kemi house yelled from outside the house. She sold fish that people rarely bought and she was quite known for cursing, stealing and fighting physically with a lot of people, some people said she was into juju and that's was besides the fact that she was really dirty.

Reminise's ponmile was playing and Kemi pulled her iPhone from her Second hand school bag she saved up money to buy. Her mother could never afford an iPhone, it was her best friend Victoria, who gave it to her after her parents had bought her a new Phone.

Victoria knew about Kemi's hard life, no-one in the school knew how Kemi lived. How she had to wake up really early to cook for a family of five. How she had to wake up to fetch buckets of water from the next street. How she slept on the cold hard floor most times when she saw that her mom and brothers weren't comfortable. How she'd learned to start cooking at the young age of ten and even after seven years she still cooks.

Her mother sold pepper in a tiny kiosk which barely brought in any money, her brothers David and Daniel attended a public school and her cousin, Pemisire?, he just lazed around, sometimes he was on his laptop doing his yahoo-yahoo activities fraud and claiming he was a self employed businessman.

"My driver is waiting outside for you" Vicky said and hung up immediately Kemi picked her phone.

Kemi adjusted her blue short sleeved shirt and fixed her grey skirt then tugged at her blue tie as she walked out of the house, avoiding contact with all the tenants who stood outside chatting.

Some of them complaining about how short her skirt was, some of them complaint about how she lacked any home training because she didn't kneel to greet.

She jogged to where the familiar jeep was and opened the door then sat in it.

"Sorry for being late my b-"

"It's okay.. Drive!" Vicky wove her hand, dismissing her without looking away from her phone.

In a few minutes they were very close to School, West Valley high school.

It was a school for elites and she got a six year scholarship after winning a competition in her last year of primary school. She was presently in her last year of high school and it couldn't excite her more since she'd began filling forms for university scholarships and competitions she could save money. That was the only way she could afford university.

Her phone chimed and she checked it, there was a party at Quilox tonight, not so surprised she was invited. Kemi was beautiful, 5'5 ,not so tall with a tiny waist that was obvious in her skirt and wide hips that any man would worship.

"Are you going to the party.. It's going to be lit... And I heard there are going to be celebrities too!" Vicky wiggled her eyebrows and Kemi laughed.

"Of course, let's get to class" Kemi said and shoved her phone into her pencil case then put the pencil case into her black and blue monostrap school bag.

"Did you hear?" Victoria asked as they walked up the flight of stairs.

"Hear what?"

"That Mr. Fred was caught fucking Dunni!" she exclaimed,throwing her hands in the air like she couldn't believe it herself.

Mr. Fred was the youngest teacher in the school, also the hottest, considering the fact that most other teachers had a pot belly and bald heads and he was the friendliest. It could have been a rumour... It could have been true.

"It was bound to happen, didn't you see the way he was clinging to Dunni's hand when he was 'teaching' her like she was the only 'pizza' he could see in Papa Johns" Kemi said and they both laughed.

"I've seen him looking at you like that too... You're just too hot to resist." Vicky made a funny expression and Kemi laughed hitting the back of her head.

"You're an idiot" Kemi shoved Vicky playfully

"Oh lah lah, she like it rough" Kemi glared at Vicky playfully, her light brown cheeks burned darker in mortification.

"Ode ni é.. Stupid idiot... Let's go." Kemi pulled Vicky's hand and Vicky groaned.

"Why can't we just skip class...Biology is first period!Jesus save my soul! I can't even bear to dissect another frog... Or rabbit" Kemi rolled her eyes and continued to walk to the biology lab. She couldn't afford to skip class, she just couldn't. She wanted to make the best out of this opportunity she was given, she wanted to make sure her family...she was okay when she finally became a nurse.

"So what are you wearing to the partaayy!" Vicky said as they stepped into the large biology lab.

"I don't know though, probably one of my dresses or something" Kemi wove her hand and sat down, placing her bag on the floor. Vicky sat beside her and put her phone into her Chanel handbag and placed it beside Kemi's bag.

"Um.. Hey girls!" Joseph Nwoye, popularly known as Josey, said and they turned to him. Josey was one of the coolest guys in school and so were the girls.

"Why are you like...talking to us?" Vicky said in a flat tone and Kemi smiled at her best friend.

"So I heard you guys were going to the par-"

"So,so,so,so,so and so?" Vicky glared at Josey and he did the same.

"Buzz off Jose, she's not going with your ugly ass... Shoo" Josey glared at her and Kemis mouth dropped open.

"What do you mean, she?...he wants to go with you Vicky" Kemi turned to Josey for some backup but he just rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly.

"Actually I um...wanted to ask you to go with me" Kemis mouth dropped lower if possible.

"Oh...sorry Josey but I'm going with Vicky...thanks though" Josey nodded and shoved his hands into his pockets, licking his lips.

"It's cool Kemi... See you at the party" He spoke and walked away leaving a snickering Vicky and a vexed Kemi.

"Did you see hi-"

"Shut up Victoria!" Kemi glared at her and she held her lips with her fingers, hiding a smile she knew would provoke her bestfriend even more.