Amelia's POV
It was a windy, sunny, dry day which is the usual in downtown Tequila. Wondering why a town
was named after a hard drink, so I did until I got to know the story behind the name. It was
named after the favorite drink of the founder of the town John Coker. As history was told, he
was an adventurist who was in search of new places to be his domain. He founded so many
towns apart from ours decades ago and they were named after his attributes and interests.
Tequila is an example of how he does random namings to his adventures. He assembled the
places he founded into a city named Starlight in which Tequila was the smallest and the least
allocated for resources and infrastructures which contributed to the degradation of the town.
Tequila has an elementary school and a highschool. Those who want to further their education
have to go to the city because of better resources which are very expensive.
Sorry for boring you about the sad life in Tequila, lemme introduce myself. I'm Amelia,an orphan
with basically no relatives. I was raised in Tender Homes, the only orphanage in Tequila and
was given a scholarship to the elementary and high school as every other orphan. The
orphanage was old, was not properly funded by the government and could only accept few
children. The other children who weren't accepted were either adopted, died of hunger or
sickness, or grew up on the streets to be thugs. We shared the little textbooks managed to be
gotten from the government. This was how I managed to grow up till I graduated from
highschool. I left the orphanage according to the laid down rules that graduated high school
students should leave so that they could accommodate more younger children. Leaving me to
fend for myself, I decided I wouldn't be like the other girls with the same fate as mine who
graduated high school only to venture into prostitution which is one of the lucrative businesses
in Tequila as government officials and thugs comes down to the brothel in town to patronize the
girls' services.
I wanted to go to college. I wish to be a Lawyer, to fight for human rights especially for the
masses because I know how much they suffer. To achieve my aim, I found a waitress job in
Levies', the only drive-in restaurant in Tequila owned by Madame Stella Levies, the wife of the
mayor in charge of Tequila. She was also a mother of two. Her first child was in the city studying
in Bringston College. His name is Luke. The other child, Lily, was a mischievous, spoiled,
arrogant girl who allowed the riches of her parents to get into her head. In her words, she was
not ready for education when she had all she needed provided by her parents. I was given a
salary of fifty dollars per month. I started last year in February. I'd been saving all I could and so
far, I'd saved three hundred and fifty bucks. Madame Stella treats me like her own daughter.
She always tells me that I had a unique personality by not allowing my environment to affect my
behavior. Before she took pity on me by giving me the chance to crash at the shop after closing sleeping in the sheds, a gang of thugs cornered me and tried to rape me but she was passing
by and she ordered her driver to help me.
From then on, she has been taking care of me and I owe her everything. I don't know how to
thank her enough. It also was from her that I got the information that Bringston College was
giving out scholarships for the ten students that passed the exams set up by the school. It was
an act of giving back to society as Madame Stella had told me.Madame Stella got me some
past questions of previous years. She also surprised me when she came back from the city to
get some equipment for the restaurant. She made sure the remaining workers had gone home
because she knew how much they were jealous and hated me. Then she brought out the form
for the scholarship, I filled it and she took it with her to the city when following her husband, the
mayor for the mayors' meeting in the city.
Not wanting to disappoint her and myself, I threw myself into rigorous study. Soon, the day of
the examination came, she gave me money to go to the city by myself. She was sad about not
taking me to the venue as she was too busy in the shop due to my absence for the day and not
wanting to attract attention to the events going on with me. The fact about the exams was only
known by me and her. The mayor mustn't know about it. He hates my guts because of my
background of course and my battered looks. Putting on my prized possession which was a
maroon colored gown given to me as an award for my brilliance in my high school graduation
ceremony. The school couldn't afford real awards so they settled for material things.
For the first time, I was glad about that decision because without the dress, I couldn't figure out
what to wear. The exams were to start by 11am. Tequila was quite the distance to Starlight City.
So I left town at dawn feeling energetic and ready for the exams cos I had memorized all the
possible questions they could ask. I entered the bus going to the city. The bus left town around 7
in the morning and we arrived at the city by 10am just an hour to the start of the exams. I then
flagged down a taxi going to Starlight College. The driver, noticing how I was marveling at the
big buildings of the city, asked me, "Is this your first time in the city?". I turned to him replying,
"Yes sir, I came here for the scholarship exams in Starlight College". Then he replied,"Oh, that's
a good choice but I hope you can cope". Wondering what he meant by that I said,"Cope with
what sir, I don't really seem to understand you". "Sorry about that, I meant that I hope you could
cope with the bullying and injustice by the rich students to the scholarship students. My
daughter attended the school as a scholarship student but when the bullying and disgrace was
too much and she had complained to the appropriate authorities without them doing anything,
she committed suicide", he continued further,"Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the school
does not teach well but I'm only concerned about the pressure the rich students can put on the
scholarship students emotionally and physically".
Understanding where he was coming from and feeling sorry about his daughter I replied to
him,"Sir, I'm sorry about your late daughter and I believe I can stand my ground well. I've gone
through a lot only to let a bunch of spoiled rotten kids destroy my only hope for a bright future.
No offense sir". "None taken, I understand you and I wish you well. I can sense you're a good
person", he replied. "Thank you sir. I appreciate your care", I told him and he gave me a nod. We got to the school and I alighted the car. I brought out the money for the transportation but he
refused. He said it's a way of him wishing me good luck. I thanked him repeatedly and we
parted ways. It rained the previous day as the floors were wet and some parts were muddy. I
was careful not to get my precious clothes dirty as I would love to look presentable for the
exams. The exam starts in thirty minutes.
As I was about to enter the school's gate, a sports car drove in with furious speed and as a
result, mud splashed over my cloth, ruining it in only thirty minutes to the exam time. Everyone
gasped as they saw what happened while some rich kids were snickering on the side. I was
boiling with rage and fury as I was exasperated on what to do to save myself. The car stopped
and when the driver stepped out. I calmed my rage and tried to explain that he splashed mud on
him and he should think of a way to fix it because I'm having exams soon but instead, he
shoved me to the side saying,"Are you part of those cheap girls going after the young master.
You aren't even worthy of carrying his shoes". I got infuriated by his words so I thought of what
to do. I didn't mind my image as I scooped some mud, walked up to the stupid guy that splashed
mud on me. With rage in me, I poured the mud on his shirt. Everyone's eyes widened as they
looked at me in horror. I glanced back and glared back at them.