Most times, Nana cover up for her step-brother, but he kept getting more and more disobedient and disrespected. Her friends recognized him as Nana's brother, so, anytime they saw him late, they will only tell him to pick papers and nylons on the ground. He got to school late one day and Nana's friends were the ones on duty but Nana wasn't present there, she was attending to something in the principal's office, they gave him farm's portion, and they instructed him that he would have to finish it before going home, he couldn't enter the class through out that day and they were monitoring his activities closely without Nana having glimpse of what was happening. They made sure he finished clearing his portion before closing hour that day, they told him that was part of discipline for him to stop coming to school late. He had gotten home earlier before Nana and reported the issues to her mum, when Nana got home, her stepmom gave her a very hot slap that how could she do that, she wasn't sure of what the woman was saying because she wasn't aware of anything. She replied "what did I do?" The woman shouted that she should stop that acts and stop pretending, she still wanted to know what have actually gone wrong. The woman showed his son's right hand to her "see what your friends did to my son, I don't know what you have said about me to your friends that warrant this kind of punishment to your brother. "Ohh! Nana said, They have already reported him to me for always being late, maybe this will serve as a lesson for him, she continued that you as a mother should also advise him to always get to school early because she would not be there with them all the time. Moreso, why did he always go to school late because as far as she knew, he doesn't do any house chores that could delay him from getting late. The woman couldn't utter any statement, she just looked at Nana.
As the WAEC was approaching, Nana was preparing so well for the exam, she engaged in so different ways of reading, she used to have a group reading at night in her friend's house and also go for tutorials. She let her step-mother knew that she would not be able to help her hawking for the meantime, she said she could only help her out on weekends. Nana was the type that was bold, if she want something, she could get it easily, she is buoyant and intelligent, she is respectful in such a way that she respect those who deserve it and she ignores anyone that doesn't earn her respect. She is very brilliant and intelligent, she doesn't use to be scared of anybody, she can walk on to anybody to ask for help if she needed it or to correct wrongs if happened to someone. Her stepmom told her that, she should not expect any food from home if she won't be hawking and she nodded in confirmation. She has already knew this would happened and tried avoiding it, she discussed it with her friend that would be going to stay with and her friend has discussed with her mum to feed her throughout her stay in their house, they are very accommodating and caring. Nana didn't bother begging for her stepmom's food, she just nodded and thanked her granting her request. When the exam started, she didn't bother to go home, she only go home on Saturday and went back on Sunday, she used to pack her dresses, school uniform and shoes, she was very bold and doesn't allow anybody to have control over her life. Her stepmom also knew the kind of girl she was, u cannot force her to do anything, if she was forced, there will be no good outcome from it, likewise whenever she was forced to hawk, shw would not sell a dime, so, her stepmom is aware of all this, she doesn't like offending her before she go out hawking, if that happened she knew there won't be good results.
She was away through out the time for her exam, the exam lasted for one month, she actually didn't want to stay at home because she would not be given opportunity to read, even she used to go to the library to read during exams, she used to read ahead of any paper and only revised what she read at home. During the exam that year, mathematics' questions was leaked, all students solved all the questions ahead of that day and took it into the examination hall, it was known to WAEC 's body and mathematics for that year was cancelled plus Nana only needed mathematics to complete her results. She was not for that reason, they all re-wrote the subject but still the result was withheld. They did Language like French, Yoruba, Hausa Igbo as there last paper, so, they all dressed according to their culture, those who wrote Igbo, wore Igbo attire and those that wrote Yoruba dressed in Yoruba attire but only Nana and her friends wore the school uniforms and only put the traditional head gear on their heads to take pictures for future purpose. She went back to her house after the final paper and appreciated her friend and parent for the love and care through out her stay in that house, she said nobody has ever shown her that kind of pure love since her father passed, she told them they really reminded her of her parents that she truly appreciated everything and pray for them that they will not die untimely and will live long to eat the fruits of their labour. Nana, a prayer warrior!. She continued her daily routine as usual, other started their WAEC NECO immediately but she didn't write it as there was no one to obtain the form for her. She got in touch with her sister and told her to obtain GCE's form for her but her stepmom didn't allow that, she said she would go again for one month without helping her, she told her sister to hold on and allow the WAEC results out first. Nana now have time to hawk very well every morning and evening, she practically hawk everyday except on Sunday that she hawks only in the morning and that was because those bakery did not bake on Sunday, so, she got the bread she would hawk separately on Saturday afternoon in order to sell on Sunday morning.
There was no issue all through this period between her and her step-mother, everything was going smoothly, but the woman she named a witch (her neighbor) started having issues, the woman was not happy the way things were between them, she doesn't like them showing mother-daughter relationship, so, she started looking for ways to cause rifts between them. She misquotes any small thing she did and reported to her stepmom in an exaggerated tone but Nana will not answer her stepmom whenever she started shouting, it got to a stage that her stepmom wouldn't want to create an issue for Nana because she knew that she would not sell anything if she go out to sell, so, she doesn't bother picking fight with her, she only call her in order to ask for what happened and advise her to not repeat whatever she saw that was wrong, both relationship got stronger to the extent that her first son started getting jealous and her neighbour tried devicing another method to break their bonds but Nana step-mother ignored everything. So, the woman started watching her steps but whenever she calls Nana's attention, she would not bother to listen, she used to tell her to look after her spoilt's children. She later tried getting close to Nana, so that she could help her hawk her rice, Nana was naive and decided to help her whenever she sells all her breads in the morning because it got to a stage that she would sell everything in the morning despite going out with up to 70-80 loaves of bread. She sold all her breads in the morning one day and she wasn't going to hawk bread that evening, she decided to help the woman sell her rice, not knowing she had planned evil against her.
She got to a point that was very bushy and narrow, she just suddenly saw an old woman behind her calling out to her and asking what she was selling?, she answered that she sells cooked rice without soup, the woman told her she would need one, when she was about to put her cooler down, she saw that the woman doesn't have toes and was walking on her bare foots and she saw some signs that the old woman wasn't an ordinary person, so, she quickly carried her cooler and told the old woman to meet her outside if she truly wants to buy from her.