*SWEET SIXTEEN*

Hi, there my name is Annabell. I am the only child of my parents. I turned 16 last months, a week before the end of term examination.I had waited so eagerly,for the day to come. When I was 15, I read a book from our library titled ' Your sixteen ' which made me realise that at 16, one is no longer a kid but a young adult. For so long, I had always hated to be called a child which really got me messed up. To me a child, means the same as a little baby. Which made me less interested in children stuff's and games. Instead I found myself drawn to more matured and grown up things. l felt more comfortable relating with people older than me with many years. My sweet father thought this was because of my size in body. I am what you might describe as a plus size. If you like, you could say I was chubby, but I wasn't fat. I started wearing some big bras at age 10 and at 14 I was already a size 16. My father would say,` Annabell don't be deceived by your size, you are still a child and you should enjoy being a child. To me, I could counter that I was not a child,but an adult trapped in the body of a child. He would always shake his head and give my mom a smiling long stare, which I never understood. 'Young adult' therefore sounded like a fair compromise between being a child, as my father would insist, and being an adult,as I would insist. My mother was a nurse.My father was, well, many things. At the time I was born, he was a journalist. when I was in high school, he was working in a public Relations agency. He then went to work for an international organizations that helps poor people in Africa. When I asked him what exactly his job in the organisation was, he Said it was still some kind of public Relations. The day I turned 16, I was still in school.Even if I was home, I know what to expect from my parents any party, My father believed that the only thing worth celebrating was a major achievement. in his eyes, a birthday wasn't an achievement at all. My mother said she agreed, with him that it wasn't an achievement. I suspected she just wanted to support her husband. For this I have photography of several birthdays which my mom stands at the back of cakes, but that was when she haven't Married my mother. Whatever the case, birthdays were not the regular event in the house, my father forgets birthdays, including his own, mom however will Never forget anyone's birthdays. she even remembered birthdays of the children in the extended, but they would be no party,the closest to any birthday form was just celebration in form of a elaborate dinner and the much more elaborate prayers. This is to suggest my parents where some soft of boring people. Not at all, my father was a very funny person, mom was the joking Type with her nice standup comedy. We also hosted parties and attended some, mostly wedding, birthday parties where just not our thing. But something changed since I left home from my boarding school. My father, who never remembered birthdays, would not fail to send me a birthday card in my birthday. I turned 12 when I was in 1st grade. The birthday card was handed over to me by my principal himself after the morning announcements.The birthday card said ( Happy birthday, my first lady. Remember that only God is greater than you). " my father had scrawled boldly across the blank space Inside the card. Even though I didn't understand what he meant by( only God is greater than you), it me feel very important, as if I was somekind of God's deputy. Sometimes, I wondered why he calls me first lady since I was an only child. I didn't think you could have a first unless there's is a second. Maybe he was hoping for a second child. How much I wished I had a sister or brother too. But my friends told me that brothers can be very annoying. Well, that was not so difficult to believe. I imagined have a brother like Austin in my class, who called himself the King of boys. Even though he was very smart, Austin was the most unserious human being in the world. He specialized vin making fun of everything and playing bad prank's in everyone. Even the last Geometry class. The Mathematics teacher wrote' Mensuration! but Austin called it Menstruation!. Who does that? The whole class erupted in laughter. It was only the teacher, Miss Bella, who didn't find it funny. ``Quiet, all of you '' she screamed. '' I wonder what was so funny. And you...., she said pointing to Austin, the culprit,''... must you always be a jerk?'' she asked menacingly. But Austin stood up and answered clamly,'' No ma,'' and the class exploded in another round of laughter. ThIs got Miss Bella even angrier and she sent Austin for a time out. But still he got an A in Mathematics at the end of the term. It was a Tuesday, the day I turned 16. I woke up expecting to feel different,to feel 16. But I didn't feel anything.In fact, I had slept off the previous night not thinking of my long awaited birthday, but about the examinations that would start later in the week. Well , Maybe one was not meant to feel anything. Or maybe it was the thought of the coming examination that was affecting everything. I had always been a staright A student, until I entered the senior class and started chemistry. As I happened,it was my first paper in this examination.