Chapter 3: Chapter 3

It was 7:15am on the wall clock and Bethel sat down at the long dining table with so many chairs and the quietness of the house.

He sighed, there was no difference in his life, it was all the same, each day.

He eats breakfast with the empty chairs everyday of his life and marries the quietness of the house too.

To the outside world, he had everything. Any boy of his age would envy him, he was the sole heir to his father's business. He has his own personal account, a car, a house under his name and of course fame too.

To the poor, he was a champion, everything they wanted, he had it all but within him he yearned for much more than that.

His life looked perfect but it was far from it. He lacked one thing in this life and that was his mother.

A mother's strong caring arms, a mother to tell him it was alright, a mother to teach him and a mother to love him; he missed all that growing up.

She was taken from him in her sleep while he was six years old. As a kid, he thought she was sleeping, so he left her room not wanting to disturb her, but he did not know he had just walked out of the room with a dead corpse.

His father was away on a trip for business. He was and still is a building engineer, so he rarely stays at home as he gets a lot of contracts.

When his mother died, his father wasn't around but was called on the phone to be told of his wife's death.

He chimed in joy when he heard his father talking about his mother on the phone but he didn't know it was for her burial arrangements.

It took years before he realised she was never coming back, painful years of agonizing scars that barely heal as the years went by.

Everyone lied to him, they all told him she was coming back but those were all lies. Life was never the same as he grew up; the hole in his heart could never be patched up.

Bethel stood up from the dining table, placing his school bag that had no book in it on his shoulder and left for school.

Precious walked slowly to her sit, she wasn't comfortable, she could feel the heavy stare from Beauty, Dorathy and Blessing.

Dorathy unlike Beauty and Blessing was tall, kinda puffy, light skinned with a very arrogant face. Her face showed it all as Dorathy tends to bully a lot of the students in school using her big fat body to her advantage.

Blessing was a dark skinned slim girl, she had the height and the brain amongst the trio.

Beauty Olaniyi, the school queen bee, always looking her best, like Blessing, she was dark skinned and tall too, she had a heart shaped lips and looks exclusive in anything she wears.

Dorathy has the most ugly face, Precious always thought. She was always frowning and having the face of someone who wants to bully.

Beauty smiled, walking closer to Precious as precious took a retreating step.

"Hello Precious!" Beauty waved showing her pearly white teeth. Precious was taken aback by the fact that they knew her name, she never knew that.

Precious swallowed the lump in her throat before speaking, "Hi..Hi," she stuttered, her voice quavering

"We..." Beauty pointed to herself then to Blessing and Dorathy, "Wanted to ask you to join us for lunch today." Beauty spoke.

Precious pointed at herself before looking at the empty class to see if they were referring to her.

"Yes! You." Dorathy spoke.

Precious began to worry, why would they want to have lunch with her, she thought. They never included anyone in their group and they were really rude too.

"I love your shoes!" Blessing chimed, staring at them.

Precious looked at her shoes, their attitude was scaring her. "Thanks," she muttered. She wasn't comfortable because she knew anyone in a situation with them would end up getting embarrassed and expelled from the school.

She wondered why they were just noticing her shoes, she's been wearing them since the beginning of SS2.

"Aren't these shoes the latest Italian shoes?" Dorathy asked batting her eyelashes.

"I...I..." Precious stuttered not knowing what to say next. They were scaring the hell out of her already.

"Of course they are Dorathy!" Beauty replied with a scoff at the end.

"I always told you guys her parents were rich, didn't I?" Beauty spat out with sarcasm.

What?, Whose parents are rich?! Precious thought. Here she was thinking they were here to bully her and now they were hyping her.

"So did you go to Italy to get them or they were shipped from Italy for you?" Beauty asked.

"Well...well..." Precious stuttered. The questions they were asking her weren't making her comfortable and she wouldn't want to tell them her mother boss gave it to her, that would be just giving them more questions to ask and creating problems for her.

"My best friend gave them to me," Precious lied and bit her tongue.

"Is she in Nigeria right now?" Blessing asked.

"No, she's in Italy," precious blurted out before realising.

"Okay, so at lunch meet us at our table." Beauty spoke before walking out of the class with Blessing and Dorathy following her.

Precious began to panic, she couldn't have lunch with them, they'd task her and she has no money to spare.

She wished she had the confidence to have told them she couldn't but that would be drawing attention to herself.

What has she signed herself up for?