Christmas and New year celebrations came and went by and things seemed to return to normal between Val and I. Although, she still wasn't attending, she had resumed rehearsals and increased her number of visits to our house. She even slept over once.
We had never been allowed to travel on our own to anywhere so I shocked when one Sunday evening, early in the month of February, Val came over to our house, hurried me into my room and informed me that she would be travelling to Minna which was four hours away to see Kene. "Minna!...For what?" I asked. "To see Kene na" was the reply."Haba na..Minna is four hours away. how do you intend going there without your family noticing? I enquired. "Thats why I have you here". The main issue is that I don't have transport fare but I have a plan" By this time, I was speechless. Val continued "I will tell my parents that we have an emergency mock examination at the lesson centre for which we all have to pay five thousand naira #5000 each and that the mock examination will be hold during an all night class. All you have to do is to reply in the affirmative to every question my parents ask you". "So what if they ask my own parents, how do you intend getting them to agree to your plan?", I asked. "Well you'll tell them about the fee na". Val answered. "Wow! Really, thats your plan.. I can't lie to my parents because of silly boy thats controlling my friend's life with a remote... Lie all you want but don't get me involved.", I said angrily. Val began pleading with me. "I love him and I've missed him. I just want to spend the evening with him and attend his departmental dinner with him. I'll be back first thing the following day, please na.. Teena biko. this one time.. I was worried something might happen to her but Val kept reassuring me she was going to be safe with Kene. She begged me for the next two days so I agreed to only be with her when she told her parents about the 'mock fee' and all night class.. I told my parents nothing.
Two days later, Val got everything worked out as planned for the journey and so we set off for the bus station at about 1pm. I was worried and skeptical about the journey and I told Val but she reminded me that it was Kene she was going to visit and not some stranger. My parents kept asking me why I wasn't going for the mock examination. I had to lie to my parents that I was feeling sick so they could end the interrogatory session they were beginning to subject me to. The following day as promised, Val came back. She seemed happy and very lively but I noticed she wasn't willing to divulge information on the happenings during her short visit to her Kene. I persisted in my asking her for the next few days but when it became clear to me that she would not bulge,
JAMB lessons came to an end the following weekend. The teachers gave us plenty revision questions and encouraged us to continue studying and attempting questions from the questions and answer booklets. I together with some friends from the lesons, created a study group which held at the house of one of our friends, Blessing and I invited Val to be a part of it. During the next few weeks, Valerie became more withdrawn and stayed indoors alot. She stopped coming for the study group meetings and even avoided our friends on few occasions when they met her on the way. I noticed Val was growing fatter, vomiting at intervals and going about sluggishly. She also,often fell asleep while we were revising together in eithermy room or hers. I suspected the worst so one day after she had dozed off during a question and answer session, I woke her up,put up a bold attitude and asked her the million dollar question, "Are you pregnant?". Of course, Val denied this. I reassured her that she could tell me if she was. I even swore to keep any information she gave me confidential. I got no answer. I observed Val closely and I was convinced she was indeed either pregnant or very sick. You might be wondering why neither her parents nor siblings took no notice of the changes that were taking place in the body of their young daughter. See, Val's parents were extremely busy people.They returned from work by 6pm everyday. Also,Val was the first of her siblings. The next two after her were twin boys who were away at boarding school. The last child, 10 year old Vivian was very reserved and still a baby in many ways. Again, since JAMB was only about few weeks away, everyone including my parents excused us from house chores and allowed us alot of time alone inorder for us to concentrate fully on preparations for the examination. Besides, we had never shown any signs or attitudes of juvenile delinquency so our parents saw no need for extra attention.
I asked Val if she had informed Kene about the situation but she hushed me and reminded me that she wasn't pregnant. She warned me about spreading false rumors concerning her. She even asked me to leave her room and not to return, after all JAMB was only 3 weeks away, as she said.
I figured I was pushing Val too much so I decided to let her be.
Kene came back from school some days later. His coming back seemed to have worked a magic in Val as she became livelier and even began coming out of the house more often. She apologized for talking rudely to me the other day. Val introduced Kene to her parents as a senior from secondary school who came back briefly from school and wanted to help her work on her physics and chemistry for a week. Her parents welcomed him and let him come to the house often to coach their daughter. They even promised to pay him back for his kindness. On Thursday, 18th March, 2010, Val told her parents that she was going for an all night physics study at a female friend's (Bosede) house. I only got to know about this later and I was shocked because none of our friends bore that name. Val came back the following morning and I rushed to meet her to ask her where she had gone the night before.
She looked very weak and pale so I assumed she was tired. I encouraged her to try to eat and catch a good sleep so she could be strong. Val agreed and I left her. Later that evening after study group I came by Val's place. Val was awake and more relaxed than I had seen her in a long while. She also seemed a little too slim. I was happy to see her that way. She apologized for leaving the study group and begged to rejoin. I gladly agreed.She lost some more weight,became very active at study group and at home. Infact she was back to the old Valerie we all used to know. Everyone including Val's busy parents, noticed this revival and was thankful.
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