HURDLES OF LIFE... Chapter one

On a bright Saturday morning, Emeka and Chuks were on their way to football practice when they saw six G-wagons drive past them, one after another in a full speed, each occupied by two or more people all laughing and gisting as they pleased.

Emeka, an eighteen year old boy from the family of Chief Okeke, the third of five children grew up in the East with his parents, but moved in with his uncle in Lagos when he was only fifteen with his siblings in order to continue their education. His uncle had wanted them to have a better education so he sponsored them all through their academics. Emeka is well known as a smart boy who seeks for the answers to every question that arises in his head. Chuks on the other hand is seventeen years old, the last of three children. His parents, Mr and Mrs Mbeke, both died from a fire outbreak in their neighbourhood when he was only five years old. Chuks had been in school when the outbreak had happened, the devastating news of their deaths shook him to the core, but his Uncle took him in with his siblings and straightened his path once more, or so it had seemed at the time. Some may say that Chuks was way smarter than Emeka, but due to his unserious and nonchalant attitude towards things, you wouldn't have agreed with that.

"Guy, G-wagon! Men! One day, I'll ride in one of the baddest cars in town town" Emeka shouted showing his excitement.

"Yes o, me too, but why were they driving in such high speed? Worst of all, they drove through the streets, not even on the express road" Chuks said annoyed at their recklessness.

"That's their problem nah, abi? See let's hurry up, I don't want to run twenty times today o" Emeka said as he doubled up his pace leaving Chuks to catch up with him.

                                  ***

"Good morning great people of Nigeria, it's your boy AJ on the Vibration FM 97.9, your #1 fun filled and entertaining radio station, so today we'll start our Saturday morning with some really cool music, remember, good music is a food to the soul, enjoy." Ngozi often listened to the radio while doing the house chores. She always listened to radio especially on Saturday mornings, mostly because she had a little crush on the commentator, AJ, who happened to be her next door neighbor, so she made his shows on Saturdays her favorite and a must listen to. Ngozi also happened to be Emeka's older Cousin, a good writer at heart and also a graduate of Mass Communication with honors. Apart from listening to radio, she enjoyed listening to music, classical music was her all time favorite genre.

Celina, Ebuka's youngest sister helped Ngozi out with the chores when she was available to, she was known to be a questionaire, often asking one question after the other.

"Aunty Ngozi, why does the earth rotate?"

"That's because, the day would become stagnant if it didn't rotate, it has to rotate so we can have different seasons of the year" Ngozi explained.

"Okay, but my Geography teacher said that the earth is not round, but it's spherical, is that true?" Celina asked again.

"Yes, that's how God created it" Ngozi replied.

"Okay" Celina said returning her attention back to what she was doing. After a few minutes she turned around and asked, "can you take me to the mall in the evening, I want some chocolates please???".

"Oh dear, too much chocolate is bad for your teeth and you need to have a strong and healthy teeth, do you want to have a bad teeth?" She asked placing her hands on her waist.

Celina shook her head.

"Do you want to have bad breath?" She asked once more.

Celina shook her head.

"Do you know that bad teeth causes bad breathe?" 

"No" Celina answered shaking her head.

"So, here's what we're going to do, we'll go to dominos to have pizza and goldstone, then we can have chicken nuggets with orange juice. After that, we will bring some home for Ebuka too, okay?".

Celina nodded.

"Welcome back to the show, it's Vibration FM 97.9..." AJ continued the show and Celina shouted happily "Uncle AJ! Aunty Ngozi, can Uncle AJ come with us today? Please?" Ngozi knew Celina was really fond of AJ, she also knew Celina would never take 'No' for an answer.

"I can't promise you okay? Cause i don't know his work schedule, if he comes back before evening I'll ask him, is that fine?" she asked.

Celina twirled around excited and said with a smile on her face, "Yes! Uncle AJ is coming! Uncle AJ is coming!".

"Let's eat ooo" Ngozi said and dished out their food including Emeka's portion, "Celina, help me keep Emeka's food in the fridge, when he comes back he will warm it".

"Okay" Celina said and grabbed the dish, she skipped to the fridge and opened it. She placed it in the fridge and then returned back to her previous position. "I'm done Aunty Ngozi" she said before settling down to eat her meal.