Chapter 1
My name is Sprite Ariola. I was born in a small city called Kimu. I am the fourth born and wet are five girls in our family. We don't have any boys.
Well when I was born, my mom used to sell mandazi in the streets for us to survive. In my perspective, she is one of the strongest women that I have ever come across. I mean she used to carry my 2 year old self, my sister who was 4 at the time and a year old younger sister to work. She always did her best to make the ends meet.
My family moved from Kimu to Met when I was 3 years old. My mom was ever busy with a small hotel that she had just started and therefore I hardly had time to have a perfect bond with her. My two elder sisters were the ones who brought us up. That is the third born Lino, me and Rita. They bathed us, fed us and all that kids stuff.
When we moved to Met, we had a lot of extended family and some family friends. The house being a one bedroom house was so full. My mom was overworking in order to feed everyone. When it was time to eat, we were always fighting for it. Because if you were weak you would sleep on an empty stomach.
What led to me and my younger sister being taken to school was that one day, when everyone had left the house, it started raining and there was no water in the house. My sister and I started filling things in the house with water. I was 4 and she was 3. When my older sisters came back, they found the house flooded. We were dump from having made contact with water several times. My mom was so shaken when she heard of that. We were admitted to school the following day.
I started being bullied in the kindergarten. I was of a different tribe from the other students so the teacher did not mind other kids bullying me. I remember a certain boy who was way bigger than us. There is a time that he sat on my head so much I thought my brain would pop out.
Either way, I was one of the brightest students in my school. I received a lot of presents in that school.
There is this instance where a teacher hated me so much that one day, I bought a New eraser and then I cut it into two and gave my deskmate. The teacher caned me so much me so much that I couldn't stop crying for long. Her daughter on the hand was a total bully. She could do anything to you because her mom was a teacher. It was a tough life for me.
Since my mom could not afford that school, we had to transfer to a public school where school fees was at minimum or nothing at all.
In this other school, life was so much better. I think I was only bullied once. But, there was this one time that a lizard fell from the roof and fell direct on my back, in my school uniform. I screamed so much. I was panic stricken. Everyone was laughing at me. I was so tensed that I was told to go home early. I have been afraid of lizards since then.
After about a year in that school, I went to visit my dad in Kimu. I loved him so much that when he asked me and my two other sisters Lino and the second born Cla to stay with him, I was ecstatic. There was also my two stepbrothers and my little cousin.
Life was so tough. My dad was broke almost every time and we could have only one meal per day. He married another woman and she bore him a daughter. I loved that kid honestly. My performance deteriorated so much. My sister on the other hand had to repeat class therefore I caught up with her. We had to run away from my dad to get back to my mom's. Living with her was way much better.
