Average Nigerian Teenager

Chapter One

The day The Girl discovered she liked a boy, she was ten, and just got admitted into secondary school. His name was Udoka, he was light skinned and hairy. The Girl loved staring at his thick, shaggy eyebrows, the soft hairs that matted his elbows. His hair was always in a neat afro hair cut. The Girl loved it more when he smiled, showing off his gap tooth. She tried hard each day to make him smile, she always felt rewarded each time she succeeded and nothing would dampen her mood until she got home. Then at night, she'will dream of when she was getting married to Udoka. In her dreams, she had big, rounded breast and was very tall.

~~~

The Girl was the youngest in her class. She was preparing for her WASSCE{West African senior school certificate}

She was fifteen, she was a thin girl who rarely smiled. She had small eyes that was deeply rooted in a narrow face, her nose seemed to be too big on her face. She was intelligent, she grasped the teachings quickly, she had a retentive memory, that's why she was slightly popular in her class.

All she liked doing then was to read novels, watch cartoons and be lost in her imaginations. She had no real friends, because she lacked the cheerfulness to talk to people she didn't know.

Her mother would always snap at her: "Can't you look cheerful for once in your life? Why is your face always dull? Don't you know that you're a woman?"

At first, when the snapping charade began, The Girl would become upset and gloomy. And sometimes she'will cry. But as she grew older, she got used to it and acted indifferent. She was the first child, and the first daughter. She was a trynnical big sister when she was younger, but as she grew older, she slackened the oppressive rule. She felt her siblings were much smarter now,and didn't need to be told what to do.

She always slipped into her cheesy, imaginative world to escape from the gloomy life she had. Her mother was either always busy, or was always very sick. She badly wanted to talk to someone. Someone much older than her, someone with lots of experience. She was a curious young girl. She got her answers from reading books, from talking to random classmates. Her mother didn't give her any sex talk when she turned thirteen. Her breasts were not yet visible, they were just tiny seed like dots on her chest. Her mother would always point out her friends children who were the same age as The Girl, and how mature they looked. How responsible they acted. As usual, The Girl would say nothing, feeling her self confidence slowly drop.

She prayed quietly, in the recess of her heart, that her breast should grow quickly. Her younger sister (The Girl was two years younger than her) had already started growing breasts. She nursed a quiet fear, that her younger sister would wear a bra before her.

She was relieved when, finally, her mother noticed that her breasts were now big enough to fit into a bra. She was excited when her mother handed her a bra that she had barely worn. Her mother had promised her that she'd get her some new bras after some days, but she never did. Infact, it was a year after before her mother got her a new one.

~~~

"So you' have finally have a boyfriend?"

The Girl looked up from the book she was reading and stared into her mother's face.

"What did you say?" She asked, even though she had clearly heard her mom. Her mother had her favourite wrapper around her body. It was, in fact, the only thing her mother wore at home. Except when a visitor comes around, then her mother would darb a T-shirt over her wrapper.

"So you' have finally have a boyfriend?" Her mother repeated again, looking dubious.

"What are you talking about?" The Girl felt impatient, she was eager to go back to the Harlequin series she was reading.

"The boy I saw you with today..."

"He's just my classmate." The irritation she felt managed to seep into her voice. She wanted the conversation to end as quickly as possible. Her mother was the last person she wanted to gossip about boys with. Her mother seemed to have noticed her irritation.

"What are you reading?"

"A novel."

"You're reading a novel when you have an upcoming exam?" Her mother's voice had become sharp and reprimanding. The Girl said nothing. She fixed her gaze on the couple in a romantic pose on the cover of the novel.

"What's the name of the novel?"

"Can't get next to you."

"Who gave it to you?"

"I borrowed it from a classmate."

"So this is the nonsense book you read? What do you learn from the book anyways?" She snatched the book from The Girl and walked away.

As the door slammed after her mother, The Girl was already thinking. Thinking hard of how to get back the book from her mom and finish reading it before the next day.