On a cold January afternoon, Mary sat on her bed, eagerly anticipating the start of school. She was no stranger to academic success, always at the top of her class and the brightest in the room. A recipient of the Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarship, her intelligence was a badge she wore proudly, a reputation that preceded her. Her grades remained unscathed even when illness forced her to miss a week of classes. In Year 10, she had already mapped out her future, determined to break new ground as the first female Engineer in her family.

Mary was born in Edo State, Nigeria, and her family moved to the UK when she was five. She doesn’t remember much about her time in Nigeria, but her family have always reminded her that she is Nigerian first before British, and it’s ingrained in everything at home. In school, though, Mary does not refer to her Nigerian origin in anything she does. Some part of her wishes she was born in the UK and didn’t have to return to the “home” her parents always referred to because she was already home.

Mary woke up early on the 7th of January to get ready for school; she was excited for the first day of school. She liked to get to school earlier than her mates to study before classes. However, to her surprise, a boy was in class when she arrived. She went to her seat and didn’t utter a word to him. She assumed he was in the wrong class and would find his way to the right class when others came in. She brought out her book and started reading. Her classmates came in one after the other, but this boy did not stand up. He kept writing who knows what in his book and didn’t look up at anyone. None of her classmates cared, so she waited for her teacher.

Soon, it was 8am, and as the bell rang, her Math teacher came to class with the Head Mistress. They welcomed everyone back to school and called out a name Mary had never heard. Lo and behold, it was the boy. He stood up and went to the front of the class. Emeka Nwankwo was introduced as a new student who was joining her class. This intrigued Mary because his name sounded Nigerian, but she wasn’t sure. She made a mental note to find out later, but she didn’t have to wait too long because her Math teacher paired Emeka with her for the day. After school, Mary had gathered some information from him. His parents are engineers who lived in the US until December when they moved to the UK. Emeka had a younger sister who was also enrolled in her school.

It took Mary a whole month to realize that Emeka was her competition. He was not only brilliant but also sharp. He answered questions intelligently, and he wasn’t even shy. Her teachers started calling on him to do the things she usually did, and the girls in her class started noticing him. Mary was furious. She didn’t mind competition, but she hated that it was a Nigerian she had to compete with.

That term, Mary worked harder than she had ever done before. She would skip lunch to study and even stopped volunteering at the animal shelter. She was going to remain the smartest in her class no matter what. Emeka sensed Mary’s worry and spoke to her about it one afternoon. He asked her if she felt threatened by him, and Mary brushed it off. She wasn’t going to let him see her weakness.

It was the final day of school in April, and as usual, everyone was sent home with their report card. Mary was happy with her 97% overall score until she saw Emeka had 97.5%. She had a horrible holiday and plotted a scheme to ensure his expulsion from her school.

I haven’t written a short story since 2021. Click to read the older ones. This was fun to write. Let me know if you’d like a continuation.

Mariam Shittu