Continued.....

My younger brother Dare was born just before I turned seven, believe me I thought my mum had waited so long so she’d probably not have another green-eyed issue. Thankfully, my brother had dark brown eyes and he was normal I had thought then, He became their pet. I kept more to myself, stayed mostly in my room painting some sad picture or writing a depressing poem. Dare was very playful and easily liked by people but I ignored him most of the time, he was just a baby to me. I felt a strange feeling in my heart for him that was warm and tender but I couldnt show any sign of tenderness. I was ten when he was just three and I was already being shipped off to a boarding secondary school right on Lagos Island.

You may think it couldn’t have been that bad but it was. In Primary school, I had only two friends, boys who were also considered misfits and ignored by the rest of the kids, one talked funny and the other was cross eyed. I was engaged in sports but when I won a race or any event nobody cheered me so I lost my motivation. I was so mixed up about life.

When I was about to go to secondary school I always thought it’d be a day school close to the house but they were taking me to a boarding school! I was horrified! I felt they were just packaging me off, not wanting to spend every single day of their lives looking into slimy green eyes, I was burnt. In my reasoning, they had no solid reason for taking me there. When I had asked them, all my parents could come up with was that I needed to learn how to be independent like I wasnt already and I also had to try to learn certain things on my own of course, I had rolled my eyes with that.

Well that was already decided so I told them I’d go only on one condition that they’d get contact lens for me. After much fuss and tantrums thrown they got brown ones for me as advised by my optician but told me it was no use pretending that I was ok the way I was. If only they knew me!!!The day I got the lenses, I was so happy I didn’t wait to hear anything else. I dashed off to the bathroom, tried to put in the lens like I’d seen on TV. When I eventually got them on my eyes were red but I kept on looking at the mirror for close to 30 minutes that I could look this normal was something unbelievable to me.