Chapter FOUR
A PERFECT DAY
Becca got home tired. Her first day of school was definitely hectic and she was glad it was over.
She quickly made macaroni and cheese for lunch for her dad who was still at work and her siblings who were still in school due to the extra lessons they were having.
She left the mac and cheese in the pot so that they could heat it up when they got back home if they did not return early and it had gotten too cold.
She showered and changed her clothes before going to the restaurant where she worked.
There was a lot of customers on her arrival. They usually had more customers in the evenings than during the day.
She quickly went to work in the kitchen where she was stationed as one of the assistants to the chef.
She put on her apron, wore a hair net, washed her hands and she began cutting, steaming, frying, grilling, cooking and baking and assisting wherever she was needed.
Before you knew it they were done with most of the orders and the waitresses came to collect them to serve them to the waiting customers.
Food was served to the all customers, dishes were cleared and washed, the shop was cleaned and soon it was almost closing time.
The shop usually closed by past 7 but she left by 6 in other to get home before it became dark.
She got home exhausted. She went to check on her siblings and after making sure they were alright and had done their homework she went to join her dad who was in the kitchen.
He was making spicy chicken noodles for dinner. One of Becca's favourite dishes.
“How was school sweetie?”. He asked her.
“It was great dad thanks”. She said smiling.
“You know dear I'm so proud of and happy for you that you're starting to acheive your dreams.
I know your mum would have been proud of you too if she was here.
Yeah she would have”. She said not trying to be sad by thinking about my mom.
“I still have a long way to go in acheiving my dreams but I'm glad I've started somewhere. This is just a stepping stone for me.
So how was your day at work?” She asked him changing the subject.
“It was nice though it had its ups and downs but I'm still greatfull to God in the end.
We've been paid our salaries today so luckily we could put some things in the house in order.
“Wow that's great! Mhmm....the noodles smells great”. She said inhaling the nice aroma.
“Of course it should smell great. The taste would definitely blow you away. Have you forgotten that your dad is a master chef?”. He said smiling
Anyways go and freshen up honey I'll round up with everything here. Dinner would be ready soon".
“Ok dad”. She said and went to her room to rest a bit from the stress of the day.
She almost fell asleep on the bed due to how tired she was but she was woken up by Alex who came to call her for dinner.
After eating dinner and after washing the dishes she fell asleep immediately her body landed on her soft bed.
She woke up well refreshed as early as 5am the next day and did some cleaning around the house before going to have her bath.
She got dressed in her school uniform, styled her hair into a ponytail, arranged her backpack and then she went to the kitchen to make scrambled eggs which they would eat with toast for breakfast.
She left the eggs covered in the pan and the loaf of bread on the counter. She didn't bother to toast it since they would toast the bread when they were ready to eat it.
She left the house few minutes past six and walked to the nearest bus stop.
Hilton High was a bit far from where are lived so she would have to use the bus every day.
She would enter the public bus and then stop at the nearest bus to the school and then walk the remaining distance on foot.
It would be stressful to her but then there was nothing she could do about it. The other option she had was to enter a cab which would drop at the school gate but they would be too expensive for her to use daily and she was trying to help her dad manage the little money he had.
The last thing she wanted was for her dad to waste money unnecessarily because of her
She was still in thought as she walked down to the school gate. The premises was quiet and almost empty except for a few teachers and cleaning staff who were moving around.
She didn't see a single student and she smiled to herself. At least no one saw her so she won't have anything to worry about.
She said hello to Frank who was at his duty post and walked quietly inside as if that would make her invisible.
She wondered how long she'll be able to put with the lie of her being from a rich family. Nothing about her had class or wealth in it, she was just common and ordinary.
She felt like coming clean and saying the truth but she was scared of what to expect. After all Steph who had been in this school longer than she was had advised her to play along with all of it so she tried to silence her inner voice telling her it was wrong to lie.
She went to the library which was quickly becoming one of her favorite spots in the school and luckily the librarian Mrs Gloria had arrived.
She welcomed Becca warmly which was just part of her nice nature and Becca walked inside to look for a comfortable place to sit.
She took the book she had signed out the previous day and she continued reading from where she stopped while waiting for classes to start.
*******
Jason could not understand what attracted him to Becca in the first place. She just seemed different from all the girls he knew and something about her just made him want to talk to her and know more about her.
Ever since he first set eyes on her in the cafeteria he was captivated. He just kept staring at her like she was an object of interest until lunch time was over.
He found that funny. Normally he doesn't give any girl a second thought no matter how beautiful, classy or rich she was but the thoughts of this particular girl still remained on his mind.
Who was she and why couldn't he stop thinking about her? The thoughts of her was making him crazy he couldn't concentrate
anymore.
He looked outside from the window to enjoy the scenery and maybe clear his head when he saw Becca walking into the school gate.
He found her movement suspicious because normally no student came to school that early except him.
He loved coming to school early to enjoy the peace and quiet. He would use that time to relax in one how favourite spots in the school.
He hated staying in his house. He couldn't call that a home because there was no atom of love in it. It felt more like a prison than a home.
He quickly removed such sad thoughts from his mind and focused his thoughts instead on Becca.
Why would she come to school that early and why did she walk to school when she could ask her driver to drop her if she couldn't
drive herself to school? She was definitely weird.
Soon students started coming to school in their various means of transportation.
Some came in their cars which were driven by them or their drivers. Some were dropped off by cabs.
Some rode their expensive motorcycles to school while others simply walked or rode their bikes if the distance of the school was not far from their houses.
That way it was easy to differentiate the lower and middle class from the rich students through the means of transportation they used.
No matter what the students did you would always be able to differentiate the rich students from the other classes of people.
The bell rang few minutes later and classes began. The students hurried off to their various classes based on their different schedules.
Becca had international languages as the first subject of the day and she found the subject boring.
She couldn't understand a thing the Spanish teacher Mr Diego was saying and she found herself dozing off even though she tried her best to concentrate.
Maybe it was because she was not used to learning the subject she thought. In her old school they didn't place much emphasis on learning foreign languages but it was important here so she would have to do her best to learn and master it.
She was glad when the bell rang for the next class and she stood up sluggishly and stretched her body in an attempt to drive away the sleep.
She had a little trouble locating the next class due to the fact that she was not yet used to the school environment and she found the map confusing but luckily a kind student directed her to her class and she went to her locker to get the books she needed before going for her second class.