Chapter 1 | Annie the Orphan
I bet you all know the story of Annie the orphan. How her parents’ passing made her an orphan and how she was living a hard knock life until some rich man took her in and at the end she finally got adopted and lived happily ever after. Sweet story, I myself took the time to read it and watch both versions. Nevertheless I didn’t get to live that same story. I hoped for it but I realized at a young age that it wouldn’t happen.
Today is September first 22′60. Why does the date matter ? It matters because it’s my first day as a student in university. I reside on the South side, about 30 minutes away from the University, on the East side. Yet, I slept over at my friend Aneesa’s grandmothers’ place, on the city’s West side as it is closer. Her brother, having a car, drove us to Uni.
“Are y’all ready ? I know it’s y’alls first day at uni but let me remind you that it’s also mine.” says Asad, Aneesa’s twin brother, at the bottom of the stairs.
“That’s why you woke me up early, I was low key confused.” Aneesa asks me while picking her shoes. I stare at her dumbfounded. “I’m playing witchu. Let’s go Asad doesn’t like being late.” she adds.
“Yeah no s-” Aneesa glares at me and warns me not to continue.
“Swear and I’ll kick you out of this house.” she ordered.
“Drip’s wack, Asad. You ain’t never gon’ find a wife like that.” I said as we came down the stairs.
“You dress like a lil’ boy you know that, right ?” he replied.
“You shouldn’t be saying that, those are your clothes.” adds Aneesa as she checks herself out in the mirror before leaving the house and getting into the car. “Get y’all asses in the fucking car, we’re going to be late..” she continues.
“No swearing !” I tell her. She smiles at me.
“I’m not in the house, Titi.”
Titi. That’s my name. Chill, it’s not my government name, don’t worry. What’s my name then, you may ask ? We’ll get to it. Patience y’all !
Arriving at university, we find our homeroom class and the professor starts doing a roll call. “Shit, I never thought school could get me hyped like this... The fuck is this feeling ?” Aneesa’s eyes light up as she looks at me. She stretches her arm out excited. “You feel it too right Titi ?”
“Tittie ? Your name is Tittie ? Hey guys, her name’s Tittie !” says one of the guys from the class, Steve, while laughing. More of his dumb friends come along laughing.
“For real ?” says Dave, one of the guys.
“It’d totally kill myself if my parents named me like that.” says Kim, one of the girls while laughing.
Parents. She had to use that word.
To be honest I wouldn’t mind if she killed herself-What am I saying ? It wouldn’t change anything. The east side of Naire is filled with brats like her. Naire is the city in which we live by the way. Real talk though. Is it really that difficult to say? No it’s not. It’s not that complicated. Ti repeated twice- And don’t try it with the word tittie, it don’t work like that.
Aneesa and I looked at each other and started laughing. “Oh my gosh they’re actually so stupid !” says Aneesa. The others stop laughing and stare at us.
“Imagine having enough money to build multiple houses but not enough to give your child proper education.” I add.
“Those brats can’t even pronounce four letter words.” she continues. We roll our eyes and glances at the group in front of us. They were 6. Steve, tall and stupid. Kimberly aka Kim, short and annoying. Jennifer aka Jenny, faithful to Kim besides that one time she kissed Kim’s then boyfriend. Dave “my dad knows political old farts”, Barbara aka Barbie, if she uses more than one brain cell she’ll die and Olivia aka Liv, no one knows what her problem is. The group looks at each other awkwardly. Dave clears his throat and starts speaking.
“I, um, think we started off on the wrong foot. I’m Dave Felch.”
“I’m Steve Dickson.”
“Um Kim Dollar ”
“I’m Jenny.”
“Bar-bie Os-man”
“Olivia Felch. Do I really have to fucking do this ?”
“No.” answers Aneesa. We glance at each other awkwardly. “I don’t know why you guys introduced yourselves because I don’t remember anyone asking” continues Aneesa. Kim rolls her eyes.
“I don’t think we started off on the wrong foot...” I add as I point to Neesa and I. “You and your socially stupid squad did though.”
Dave scoffs. “I apologize. You’re right, we shouldn’t have made fun of your name.”
I was stunned. Never in my life did I expect East side brats to apologize. What’s even more stunning is that they actually conversed with people from the South side. Let me elaborate a bit on this. Our city is governed by an oligarchy government. In the early days of the city, the government decided to fund extra money to the East side, a normal amount to the West side, a lesser amount to the North side and an even lesser amount to the construction of the South side. There’s a legend that says that when people want to say things go wrong, they say things go South because of how shitty the south side is. The mayor and all of his minions live in the East side of Naire and since all rich folks live there, they’ve developed a sense of superiority to every other side of the city, especially the South side.
“Whatever.” I say, hiding away my astonishment. We finish school and meet up with Asad on his side of the campus before leaving.
