Her Mistake

∆ TWELVE ∆

Sister Deola and I aren't really that close. It's once in a blue moon I tell her private issues which she always provide solutions to but Remi is very close with her. I on the other hand, isn't.

"Sister Deola, it's not something to worry about. It's nothing I can't handle." I dropped my book back on the bed and laid down on the bed.

I put my head on my hands. How fast the fan rolled suddenly became fascinating to me.

"Remi excuse us. You can take the laptop till I'm done with Tobi."

Remi drops the laptop on the bed and jolted up, "I also want to hear too!"

Our twenty three year old sister brought together her eyebrows getting her forehead wrinkled showing displeasure of what Remi just said. "Get out of the room now!"

Remi hissed with a scowl on her face. She picked the laptop and walked out of the room mumbling incoherent cusses and expressing her anger. She walked out flouncing and holding the laptop carelessly.

"You're free to break your head but not my laptop. If anything happens to it, I'll so beat you, your parents won't recognize you when they get back."

Our parents went to visit a friend of my dad's at Ikene, in Ogun state. We were left in the hands of Sister Deola who's in charge of the house.

I avert my gaze from the fan to the square shaped wall clock that's placed high above the door on our orange painted wall. It read three 'o' clock.

"Tobi, what's the matter?" I felt the bed dip as my sister joined me on the bed. I sat up and turned to face her.

I took a deep breath and recounted all that has happened since we resumed.

"What you're saying now is, you don't know who to pick between senior Adu or what did you call him?"

"Abdul." I corrected.

"Between this Abdul and Daniel?" She asked and I nodded.  "If I should speak like  an adult, I would tell you; dating isn't for you and that your education should be your priority now.  But, I was once in your shoes, a teenage girl in love with one guy in my class. His name was Testimony, he was in SS3 topaz, I was in SS3 emerald at that time." She smiled remembering the memory.

Sister Deola continues her story, "so that's how Testimony went to tell my friend Sandra  he likes me and wants to date me. Sandra told me and as a sharp girl, I did shakara for him. He would buy me so many things, snacks, food, drinks, jewelries and all sort of things. Soon, I finally agreed then we began to date. As our relationship progressed, my academic performance was deteriorating. There was a day mummy almost flogged me to death because I failed one of my tests. Ah, I cried ehn."

She stopped to cough before carrying on with her story. "I still continued with my relationship with Testimony. It was my first time in a relationship and I was enjoying the attention and care I was getting from my boyfriend. Before we knew it, we started our WAEC exams  and at that time, Testimony dumped me for another girl in his class. I cried so much, I was so heartbroken. I couldn't concentrate on my books. I became a shadow of myself. I would cry myself to sleep most times instead of reading. This lead to me failing chemistry, physics and further mathematics in my WAEC. The whole of International Scholars High School couldn't believe it. I was one of the best students in my set so what could have possibly gone wrong? Mummy and Daddy flogged me so much. They were disappointed, the whole school was disappointed. I couldn't take the shame so I went to stay with Aunty Bose, mummy's younger sister in Ekiti."

I could remember there was a time sister Deola left the house and occasionally came home. So it was as result of her failing her WAEC exams, that's why she left. Sister Deola was once a student of ISHS and she's held to high esteem. Teachers would say she was one of the best and was the laboratory prefect but I never knew she failed her WAEC. The only thing I hear is that I'm more brilliant than my sister.

"I became depressed, I decided to work on my self so I didn't write WAEC the following year. Daddy also didn't want to give me the money for the WAEC because he thought I was just going the fail again. Then I decided, I wanted to write the second year. Daddy still didn't want to pay the money since he still believed I would fail. Mummy was the one who paid alongside Aunty Bose. I ended up passing all my subject with distinction. I had only one B, the rest were As. I was proud of myself, mummy was, daddy was. Then I wrote JAMB, I scored 350 making me the highest in that year. That year was a glorious one." She smiled as she ended her story.

"Sister Deola, you mean you went through all these all because of a heartbreak?"

She nodded, "yes. Looking back at it, I was very foolish but I won't be where I am today if Testimony didn't breakup with me. But! Tobi, I don't want you to go through all I've gone through. You may say, at the end I passed my exams but the shame I felt for those years when I failed WAEC is something I can never forget in my life. I even opted for suicide. I was depressed and thought the only way to end all I was going through was death." She crossed her arms and bit her upper lip before speaking again, "Dating is not for the weak. If you know you want to date any guy, you must read twice as hard. If you want to get into a relationship, you have to smart and I don't mean intellectually smart but you have to have sense." She say using her index finger to point at her head.

"Don't let your hormonal teenage years ruin your future. There will be a time, guys will be coming from North, West, East and South to ask you out, you won't even know who to pick. The ball is in your court Tobi, do you want to date and be distracted from your priorities or do you want to concentrate on your priorities?"

Glossary

Patewo and base – An African hairstyle usually made in cornrows.

Oloshi – An abusive Yoruba word.

WAEC – West African Examinations Council.