With You In Me

It's always bad to be the black sheep of the family, except in my case. I'm the white sheep and for some reason, it's not a good thing. I have the perfect grades, my two siblings don't. I respect our parents a lot, my two siblings don't. I'm the head boy of my school and my two siblings have been suspended at least a hundred million times. Not to mention, I'm the only student who has ever gotten a 98.7% total average in our school.

Everyone in school knows the name Chigozie Okorie, except for the owner of the name himself, and sadly, I'm the owner of that name. I feel too perfect to be true, sometimes I sit back hoping I can point out a flaw in myself. It's strange to want to have a flaw, I know that for sure, but you don't want to be the one every parent compares their child to, it's not at all appealing in any way, but no one understands. There is one girl who understands though or is supposed to, Damilola Arowolo. She's another top student in our school. Students worship her, teachers worship her, the principal worships her and even parents worship her and wish she's their own child. Even though she's in SS3 and I'm in SS2, we're competing for the best student Golden Green Secondary School has ever had.

"Gozie!" My mum calls from downstairs, dragging me into reality.

I don't answer but I shrug and slowly slide out of my duvet. I leave my room observing the peach coloured walls of the hallway. I begin walking down the stairs but gets pushed to the side halfway after a beast, sorry, an idiot runs down the stairs not caring to know if there was a living being he could harm.

"Uche!" I yell.

"It's not my fault you're a slug." He chuckles and starts snapping his fingers while humming to a nursery rhyme.

"Good morning Mum." I kiss my mum on the cheeks before walking to an empty seat in the dining.

"You already told me good morning when I came to wake you up this morning." She smiles before taking a bite from her akara. "See Chinelo, he greets, you should try doing that sometimes."

I turn to look at Chinelo who is looking at me with envy. "I'm sure she greeted you, you probably forgot."

"No, she did not." Dad walks into the dining room giving Mum a peck on her lips, disgusting.

I notice that he isn't wearing his usual suit, but is wearing a football jersey and dark blue jeans. This man's fashion sense is horrible, but then again he is my father.

"Morning Dad." I stand up to hug him. "Are you going anywhere special?"

He pretends he doesn't know he is wearing a jersey. "This?" He asks pointing at his shirt. "I'm going to see a football game with my boys."

Boys? My dad has spent too much time watching teen rom-coms.

"What do you mean by 'boys'?" I sit down on the dining chair looking at him with confusion. He doesn't answer but only smirks at me and heads towards the front door.

"Your father can be in his own world sometimes." Mum chuckles and I laugh in response.

"There you go again," Chinelo begins. "Having a conversation with your favourite child."

Mum doesn't say anything, but I can see the guilt written all over her face.

"I'm done with breakfast." I don't want to be in the dining anymore, especially after Chinelo's comment. I stand up and head to the kitchen where Uche is sitting on the counter and is on a video call with one of his friends. He doesn't seem to realize I'm in the kitchen. I drop my plate in the sink and start walking out of the kitchen.

"Are you mad? Who do you think you're leaving that plate for?" He says with aggression after dropping his phone and standing up from the counter.

"Is your tone supposed to scare me?" I roll my eyes and walk past him.

"I am not your slave." He spins me around.

"You're on dish duty for this week and the next one. It's your punishment for beating up a junior student in school and don't pretend that you don't know about your punishment" I remind him. "And if you don't do the dishes I'll tell Mum and Dad that you have plans on sneaking out this night."

"How do you know that?" He asks while looking at me from his side.

"I have my ways." I roll my eyes one more time before exiting the room.

Uche is a cold person, especially to me. We never get along quite well, although I try my best to interact with him. 'Try' was the word I used there. Ever since his grades dropped due to the whole seniority in school got to his head, he's been acting strange. Sneaking out at night, harassing one girl or the other in school. Once he came home drunk and I had to cover for him, it was luck that permitted him to get away with it. I don't fully blame him though, I'm the one who chose to be the perfect child, I'm the one who chose to be better than he is, smarter than he is, more mature than he is and even more handsome, well that's what Mum tells me. I remember when I used to be afraid of Uche, he was taller than I was, bigger than I was, stronger than I was, but now we're the same height and size. I guess puberty was a blessing to me.

I notice a sticky note stuck to my room door with writing which reads 'Here is the room of the almighty Mr Perfect." If not Chinelo who else would write something like this.

"Very funny Nene!" I yell with sarcasm hoping she can hear me.

I open my room door and to my surprise, my room is still a mess. Not like I expected a magician or a fairy to tidy it up for me but is it bad to hope. At least I found a flaw in myself, I'm the opposite of neat.

I pick my phone from the nightstand next to my bed to check if I have any unread messages and there are a lot. I don't have the strength to read any of them so I'll probably wait till after dinner to do so.

The day went by pretty fast and dinner was already over. Yes, we are one of those families who have dinner together and it is not as bad as It seems. I run up to my room so I can reply to my unread messages.

'Gozie, did you know that Chinelo got into a fight with her Social Studies teacher?'

'Please can you help me with my Biology assignment?'

'Chigozie! I have a gist for you. Come online!'

'Gozie, tell your brother to bring one of your parents' wine to school on Monday, your parents have the best taste for wine."

So that's where all the wine in this house disappears to. I lay on my bed reading all my unread messages till I fall asleep.

I wake up to the sound of my phone buzzing in my ear. I can feel my eyes burning after tilting my phone to see who is calling. It is Uche.

"What do you want by this time?" I ask with a sleepy voice.

"I need you to come outside and open the gate." He whispers into the phone. "Dad doesn't know I left the house so he locked it."

"And how do you expect me to get the key to the padlock of the gate, it's in his room," I tell my brother, getting ready to hear his plan for me to take the key.

"Can you go to his room and get it without him noticing?" He begs, which is happening for the first time in forever.

"You know you annoy me a lot, right?" I get up from my bed and end the call. I wear my flip-flops before leaving for Dad's room. I try my best not to make a sound, but his room door is not on my side and is ready to expose me.

"What are you looking for young man?" Dad asks at the other end of the dark room. "And why did you open my room door without knocking?"

I don't know how to answer his question, but I think I'm going to go with the truth. "Dad, I need the key to the gate."

He turns on the light from his side of the room. "Chigozie, is that you? I thought it was Uche."

I don't respond, I just move towards his bed where Mum is fast asleep. "Please, I need the key to the gate."

"But it's eleven in the night, what do you need it for?" He asks with concern. I bet if it was Uche who said he needed the key he would have made a scene.

"I can't lie to you." I know I am going to feel guilty for what I'm about to do but I can't keep covering up for Uche all the time. "Uche snuck out of the house and is locked outside the compound and asked me to get the key to the gate because he needs me to open it."

Dad stands up from his bed and leaves with the key to the gate. I follow him outside where Uche is waiting.

"Uchenna Elvis Okorie!" I swear, I could see our neighbours' room lights come on after he yelled my brother's name.

Mum runs outside to where the rest of us except for Chinelo are.

"Honey, what's going on?" She asks while Dad keeps looking at Uche like he's about to murder him.

Yet again Uche did something irresponsible and wonders why the both of us are always being compared. I get that Dad is mad and frankly, I'm in total support if he wants to kill him.

"Ask your son where he was all night." Dad points at Mum before moving his finger to Uche again. "If he answers then I'll open the gate."

Mum snatches the key from Dad's hands and opens the gate for her first son. "You better answer your father and I. Where were you and why are you coming home by eleven in the night?"