Food.

Exams have gone on for a full week now and I'm pretty confident about some of my papers. We wrote maths on the third day. My mom is a math junkie, meaning she adores maths as much as she does school. The day before we wrote it, she had us both sit down with her for full blown revisions. With her short temper, revisions with her aren't fun. If we fail a question, she yells. If we don't understand the working fast enough, she yells, so failing maths is not an option.

All the serious science subject papers like physics, chemistry, and the rest, are next week, so I need to use this weekend wisely. I say that, but instead I'm in Chidi's room, playing whilst hiding from my mom so she wouldn't find me. My brother was doing the same. This Saturday was one of those Saturdays, where everyone is feels really lazy to do anything, and by the time afternoon comes, we would have all passed out.

Right now everyone is busy with their own thing. Nora was on her phone, scrolling through Instagram, where she always blows all of her data in a week. We didn't have free Wi-Fi, or even paid Wi-Fi so we had to manage our 1.5 GB month worth of data, an impossible feat. Chidi was playing games on his laptop as usual. If it wasn't for the fact that our parents were at home, and we were writing exams, I and my twin would be playing games on the Xbox 360 console we owned, one of the perks of having a relative that lives outside the country.

"One of you should come and boil water in the kettle for me, I want to drink tea." My mother's voice cut through the calm in the room.

Even though she just asked someone to do something, no one wanted to move. It was always like this, Chidi and Ebube waiting for either me or Nora to go, me and her doing the same thing. We all stopped what we were doing to stare at each other, silently telling each other to go.

"Nora, won't you go and do what mummy said?" Chidi said nonchalantly.

"Why is it me that you called? And what happened to you?, you have legs, so use it."

He shook his head, me and my twin laughed.

"Okay, let's play rock paper scissors." Ebube said and I agreed immediately because if we didn't, I would end up being the one to do it. Chidi was reluctant, but we all forced him into it.

"Rock! Paper! Scissors!"

We all chanted. I played paper, they all played rock.

"Yes!" I said with a laugh.

Nora was the next one to go out, leaving Ebube and Chidi. After chanting and playing, Chidi lost and I couldn't be more satisfied with the results. We couldn't stop laughing.

"Mummy said I should call you and Ebere," Chidi said to Nora with a smug smile immediately he walked in.

"Why?" I and Nora chorus at the same time, frowning slightly.

I was frowning because, I was writing exams, so I'm supposed to be exempt from calls like this. Nora was probably frowning because she was just plain lazy.

When I turn to look at her, the expression on her face makes me laugh, which helped me to fix my own frown before heading downstairs with her. When we got to the sitting room, I quickly turn to Nora to see if her facial expression was neutral. It wasn't, so I mime for her to smile, she chuckles. My mom was still very much relaxed on the couch, using her phone. She was probably on this 'opera

mini' app she was addicted to.

She spams all of us on whatsapp with poorly written and unverified articles about different thing from fashion, to new methods by which people are being scammed. She looked up and said in Igbo.

"You guys should go and wash beans, so we can use to make 'Akara' (bean cake). I want to give the gatemen some too, so you guys should wash plenty."

When she finished speaking, she went back to scrolling on her phone. She always hints at us being addicted to our phones, thinking and suspecting that we were chatting with a mysterious boyfriend or girlfriend, meanwhile she's the one who is

addicted to her phone and that silly app, same thing with Facebook. She treats them as though they were her personal textbooks, believing everything she reads instantly.

I and Nora had already split the jobs according to the one we can do best, I was in charge of peeling the skin, and she was in charge of the washing the beans. After fetching the beans, I poured it into the mortar, added a little bit of water to soften the skin, and began pounding carefully so I don't crush it.

The last time Nora was in charge of peeling the skin, she ended up crushing most of them. My mother was so pissed that day, but my sister was adamant about it not being her fault, because she said it clearly that she couldn't do it.

It's easier to peel the skin by pounding it in a mortar. While I was pounding, my mother yells from the sitting room.

"Please be fast! Your daddy is hungry."

My sister scoffs, "She said he's hungry, but she won't stand up to come and do it faster. Biko, please, she should not disturb me."

I laugh "My own issue is, why does she have to be the one to give. Okay, she wants to give someone else, but she doesn't want to do the work. What if we weren't here?"

My sister agrees. I'm done pounding the beans so she begins washing. A few hours later, after we were back from grinding the beans, we blend it a little with salt and maggi and begin frying. After the first batch was done, mum served my dad

with custard, and began the second batch for the gatemen. She opened the freezer and took out some fresh pepper, me and my sister share a look that said, "why didn't she put pepper in the one for the family, always wanting to impress!" then we smiled.

After putting the second batch in the frying oil, she left the kitchen and went to sit in the sitting room. Just then there was a knock on the door, and I immediately had a feeling of dread. If there was actually a visitor, and someone close to them, she would definitely include them in the cooking and I and Nora are already at our limit of frustration.

We have been standing for hours, because if we left the kitchen, mum would get angry. She's the only one permitted to leave. When my dad opened the door, I was right about it being a visitor, and a close one at that.

"As if you knew that I was cooking, welcome." My mom said, and they all laughed.

"Will you eat?" My mom asked in Igbo.

"Do you need to ask, of course he will," I whispered, still in the kitchen, so only Nora could hear, and she laughed.

"Yes oh, aunty, I will eat." he replied. Obviously!

My mom got up and came back to the kitchen, and said something about being faster, because our uncle will eat too. The next hour was a flurry of orders, and hands and heat. At some point my sister got frustrated and replied my mom in what she called a 'high tone'. I almost burst out laughing. At the moment, she had finished making custard for the gatemen and was busy packaging the food.

"Go and fetch some sugar in leather." She said to me.

On the way, I'm wondering why we need to package sugar too, like shouldn't they have sugar? Sometimes she likes to go over the top. After getting the sugar, she sent my twin to drop it off, and then she shared the already fried Akara that was left between her and my uncle. She took her plate and went to the sitting room to sit, chat and eat, leaving us to take care of our own food.

"Typical Mummy," Nora said with a frustrated sigh, and I agreed with a laugh.