The alarm beeps; Victoria stretches out her hand to reach it and to turn it off. "I can't believe it's another Monday again," she muttered, still drowning in sleep.
Victoria's roommate Sandra walked in from the bathroom and saw Victoria still sleeping even with the sound of the alarm.
"I've told you not to be setting alarms if you can't abide by it and stop stressing the clock," Sandra said as she walked to turn off the alarm.
She continued as she drew the cutton open to let the brightness of daylight fill the room "See it's morning already and the sun has started rising, though you said you have an 8am class today"
"I'm going back to my comfort zone today," Victoria said, rolling under the duvet with her head underneath it.
"If I understand what comfort zone means correctly, it's your parent's house, and why, if I may ask?" Sandra asked as she sat on the bed pulling the duvet off Victoria.
"I know school is important like my mum will always say, education is the key to living a successful life but then deep down inside of me I feel like, I'm living my mum's dream," Victoria said as she tried to pull herself from the bed
She continued "My passion currently is to pursue a skill and that is fashion designing, I wanna go into the fashion world and build a stable career then go back to school and pursue a profession my mum wants and when I'm done, I would make a very large frame with the certificate so she can be looking at it and feel proud"
"So have you told your mother about this decision of yours?" Sandra said she stood up from the bed to prepare for class.
"I'm gonna call her soon to break the not-so-good news, I know she is gonna be so disappointed but it's either now or never" Victoria replied
"Okay, baby, I'm heading out to class, and don't forget to keep me posted with whatever that's going on, okay?" Sandra said walking out the door.
Victoria followed suit to lock the door after Sandra.
"What would I tell my mummy, and how would she react to this choice of mine?" Victoria muttered as she walked in circles biting her nails.
After walking in circles she finally developed the courage to call her mother, so she picked up her telephone and dialed her mother's number, the moment it rang she hunged up with fear, she decided to call again the second time and this time around she was fully prepared for whatever word her mum would throw at her.
Phone rings
"Hello mummy good morning ma, how are you doing ma?" Victoria asked with her breath shaking.
"Good morning, my dear, I'm doing fine; I'm just preparing to head to the market; since you are far away, I'm faced with this particular responsibility," Mrs Femi replied.
"This one, your voice is shaking like this. Are you okay? Because I can feel your breath from here" She continued.
"Yes mummy, I'm fine, I just called to inform you of my coming"
"Ooh okay, but today is Monday sha, oya come since your breath is shaking like this, I don't like it, I'm beginning to pick interest in it"
She continued, "How are they hanging up call again on this phone?"
"Mummy just press the red button"
Immediately after the call ended, Victoria started packing her bags; after packing, she went to take a shower, had a little breakfast, and headed out to the park to board a vehicle.
After a few hours, Victoria was in her hometown.
"Ahh, aunty, welcome o!" Neighborhood children shouted
"Thank you, how are you people doing? I've missed you guys, sha," Victoria said as she walked to the door.
Knocks on the door!
"Mummy its me Victoria"
"Ahh you are here already, I'm coming my dear"
"Mummy good afternoon"
"Afternoon my dear, ahh! Ahh!! I wasn't expecting this much load, hope you aren't thinking of staying here for long?"
"I'm not going back to that school mummy"
"If you had said this on the phone, I would have told you I traveled and why won't you be going back to school?"
"Mummy, I want to go back to fashion designing; I know I can make it there. Being in school just makes me feel like I'm missing out on something; it feels like it's not where I'm supposed to be at this moment."
She continued "I feel like I'm in a very tight spot that I can't leave and I really want to leave"
"If that's what you want, I'm not gonna kick against it but then you'd still bring that certificate for me to hold"
"Mummy you see that certificate, I will bring it and frame it for you to hang on the walls of the streets"
"Let me prepare something for you to eat my dear"
"Okay mummy"
Victoria carried her luggage into the room, sat on the bed, looked around the room, and saw her machine, she stood up and walked towards it, she used her hands to touch it and saw how dusty it was, so she cleaned it up and took a picture of it and posted it on her WhatsApp status with the caption "we are all set again".
After a while, she went back to the kitchen to assist her mum in making dinner; the family had dinner and some chitchat about school and her experience thus far. After a while, Victoria headed back to the room since she had had a long trip and wanted to relax her whole body for the following day.
The day came, and Victoria woke to the sound of her mum washing the dishes; she reached out to her phone and opened her WhatsApp to see what had been going on. To her greatest surprise orders are lined up waiting for her. Clients have started popping her phones with messages containing different styles of what they want.
"I can't believe this is happening" she muttered to herself silently.
She decided to reply to the messages one after the other till it got to the last; she couldn't hold back her excitement when she ran to the kitchen to share the good news with her mother.
"Mummy mummy! I've started getting messages from people who want me to make them dresses"
"Wait let me see"
"Mummy see na, look at it"
"Wow, this is incredible; how did they get your contact?"
"These are the clients I had, that I told I'd stopped fashion designing to focus on my studies, it seems they hung around and were waiting for me"
"That's amazing my daughter, I'm glad this people believe in you and still want you to make dresses for them"
"Mummy be prepared because they will start coming to the house, I gave them this address, so be expecting the house to be crowded soon"
"Well, I will be leaving you soon because I've something to attend to in church this morning"
"Okay mummy"
As seconds turned to minutes, clients started flooding Victoria's house with their different materials. The first day was hectic because she was the only one around to attend to everyone, so the following day she went outside to look for someone who would assist her. Fortunately, she got that someone.
Victoria's fashion design business started off small, and as weeks turned into months. Victoria purchased a shop in her name and moved her machine out of her mother's house to her place which she called "Vicky's Fashion Home"
"This is the best decision I've ever made; I'm glad I decided to swim in this passion of mine; the next thing is to go back to school and make Mama very proud," Victoria muttered as she stood outside staring at her newly owned shop.
Thanks for reading 🧡
