The Social Misfit

Chapter Seven

The final year of Junior High School came with a new kind of pressure.

Everyone was focused on one thing.

BECE.

The exams felt like a doorway. The results would determine what came next, and every student wanted to do their best.

But before the pressure of revision completely took over, the Assistant Headmaster made an announcement.

There was an opportunity for students to apply for a scholarship examination at one of the most prestigious private international schools in the country.

Only a few students would be selected.

Many people were excited.

Many people were nervous.

Mina didn’t think much of it at first.

She had always been someone who worked hard, but she wasn’t the kind of person who expected big things to happen to her.

Still, she decided to try.

The first round came.

And she passed.

For a moment, Mina stared at the result, almost unable to believe it.

She had made it further than she expected.

Then came the second round.

The waiting was even harder.

She tried not to think about it too much.

She told herself that whatever happened, she had already done well.

Then one day, while walking through school, she heard a group of students talking.

“Did you hear about the scholarship?”

Someone mentioned names.

Then she heard hers.

Mina stopped.

“Wait… what?”

Before she could even process it, one of her friends came over.

“Mina, congratulations!”

She looked confused.

“Congratulations for what?”

Her friend looked surprised.

“You don’t know? You got the full scholarship!”

For a second, Mina thought she had heard wrong.

Full scholarship?

Her?

She quickly went home and checked for herself.

Her hands shook as she opened the results.

There it was.

Her name.

She had been chosen as one of the four students to receive a 100% scholarship.

And she was the only student from her school who achieved it.

Mina stared at the screen for a long time.

A smile slowly appeared on her face.

Not the small polite smile she had learned to give people.

A real one.

For the first time in a long time, Mina felt proud of herself.

The girl who had spent years trying to disappear had finally been seen.

Not because of how she looked.

Not because of how loud she was.

But because of what she could do.

And maybe…

Maybe she wasn’t as invisible as she thought.