Seventeen

Valentine’s Day was declared lessons free, apparently the school’s management aka Miss Flora took love very seriously.

Henrietta screamed as we got into our room.

‘There are small parcels on our beds! Except Mandy’s’. She added with a small frown.

I had stayed back after they rushed to breakfast so I could place the gifts I had gotten them on their beds. They all eyed me suspiciously as they unwrapped the packages.

‘Omg! It’s so pretty!’ Hen squealed before kissing the charm bracelet. I had seen them on tour with Ekpe and decided to buy them for all of us. They were all in gold and said the same thing; BFF.

Abike hugged me. ‘This was very thoughtful of you’. She said 

‘Calm down. It’s just bracelets’. 

I turned to Vivian who was giving me a smile not one of her smirks or lopsided grins. 

‘You know this is very cheesy right?’ she said 

‘I know you like it’.

‘Awn, look at you all being cute. Group hug!’ Hen said and wrapped her hands around us all before we could escape.

We spent the rest of the morning in our room helping Abike and Henrietta sort through the gifts they had received and the ones they were giving out. Aside the girls, only Rasheed sent me a gift; an iPod with all the songs he knew I hated on it.

Hen said those things were expensive but he attached a note that said it was one of the yearly birthday gifts he got from his big sister so I didn’t have to worry about having his entire savings spent on me.

Vivian got chocolates from Tolu and a handwritten poem that basically told her to stop being a meanie and let out her inner teddy bear. I expected her to rip it into pieces but she glued it to her wall.

Hen was giggling madly as she unwrapped gifts after gifts from her friends, I was glad that she was no longer stressing over Chris, he still hadn’t asked her to the val. Cotillion.

Everything was okay until we heard a tap on our window, we all paused and stared at each other in horror as we heard it again, our room was on the second floor.

‘I’m getting my catapult’. Vivian said and began searching through her drawer till she brought out her weapon, I wasn’t surprised to see her pull out a stone too.

‘Open the window Hen’. She commanded. 

‘Why me?’ Hen whined 

‘You look innocent, no one would want to hurt you’. 

‘Thanks for the compliment but no’. 

I sighed and pushed the window open that almost hit the intruder.

‘Well, I just escaped death’. He said looking to the ground from the ladder. 

‘Chris?’ 

‘Hey witch. Is Henrietta in?’

‘You shouldn’t be here’. 

‘You should usher me in before I fall off this thing’. 

‘It’d serve you right’. 

‘What do you want?’ I turned to see Vivian, her weapon drawn and targeted at Chris. As I shifted, his eyes fell on Henrietta and he climbed in.

‘Lower your weapon, I come in peace’. He said, both hands raised up in surrender. 

‘Through the window’. Abike sassed 

‘It’s not like I could walk in through the door’. He was getting frustrated.

‘Chris, what do you want?’ Hen wasn’t even smiling. I was so proud of her, I had expected her to fly into his arms and ask him to take her away to the moon.

‘I just want to talk’. 

‘You will be talking to all of us because we ain’t going nowhere’. Vivian pronounced. 

‘Fine with me’. He dug into his pocket and brought out a parcel. 

‘I wanted to give you this and know if maybe you’d like to be my date to Val’s cot’. I saw a smile ghost on Hen’s face. She wasn’t one to hide excitement well.

‘I’d love to’. She replied 

‘Great. I’ll see you later’. He was smiling brightly until his eyes landed on Vivian’s cold face and he coughed awkwardly. ‘See you girls’. 

He was out the window so fast I feared for his life.

Hen squealed so loudly we all had to cover our ears. 

‘Christopher Lawal just asked me to val. Cotillion’. She was out of breath 

‘Yeah, yeah congrats. Hope you live happily ever after’. Vivian wisecracked. 

‘Come on Vee, don’t be such a killjoy’. 

‘What? Y’all aren’t falling for that Romeo shit he just pulled, are you?’ 

I personally thought it was too good to be true and Chris had ulterior motives but I wasn’t going to say that. Hen was happy, it should at least last for the night.

Walking into the auditorium with Rasheed by my side, I thought, not so bad. Henrietta had outdone herself, the auditorium was stylishly transformed into a royal ballroom.

‘You think this is better than playing scrabble?’ I asked Rasheed who was scanning the room with awe filled eyes. 

‘Only a little’. He replied 

‘I cannot believe I agreed to dress as Ariel’. Vivian said from behind me. I turned to see her struggling in her fake tail.

‘At least you are not a pregnant whale’. Abike choked out from her humongous costume. Looking at them made being dressed as Captain Hook a little less annoying, we were all doing it for Hen.

Ms. Flora mounted the stage, dressed as what was supposed to be cupid but ended up looking like a medieval hunter. She delivered a long speech about love that nobody paid attention to, we were all concentrating on the free chocolate bars and apple punch being passed round.

‘And now for our first ever valentine couple, I present to you our coordinator, your social prefect; Henrietta Omozele and her prince; Christopher Lawal’.

Clapping filled the hall as Henrietta and Chris walked up the stage hand in hand. My eyes drifted to Vivian for a few seconds and I knew she was having the same thoughts as me but we’d be damned to air it out so I looked back at the stage where Hen was being adorned with a sparkly heart-shaped crown.

She was dressed as Cinderella and Chris was the perfect prince charming. Heaven knows we were not going to hear the last of this one back at the room.

‘The king and queen will now lead us in the cotillion’. Ms. Flora said with a grin and immediately slow music flowed from the speakers mounted at the four corners of the auditorium.

Chris led Hen to the middle of the floor and they began swaying together to the music. After a minute most of the students joined in, they were doing a weird sort of dance were partners were being exchanged within seconds. Jss1 students got to dance with ss1 students and ss3 girls flirted with jss2 boys.

‘What are they doing?’ I asked Rasheed who was carefully sipping his fruit punch. 

‘Why am I not surprised you came to a valentine’s cotillion without actually knowing what a cotillion is?’ He let out smoothly.

‘Is it too late to ask?’ 

‘The definition is right before you. It’s like a cocktail party with slow dance and exchange of partners’. 

‘Okay, that makes sense’.

I caught sight of Mr. Dominic, hands respectfully placed on Ms. Flora’s back, slowly gliding with the giggling woman while Ms. Nancy watched them, gulping down her punch like she had a problem with it. My attention was drawn to a pissed off Becca jeering at marcel, even the spotlight had found its way to them. Marcel looked calm, bored even as Becca threw her angry words at him, words I couldn’t hear because of the music and rising murmurings. 

She finished her rave and turned to march out but her Elsa’s costume was ripped from the waist leaving her undershorts visible to the entire school.

When he was done laughing, Marcel who apparently had stepped on the dress offered her his jacket but she pushed past him and ran off. For a moment there I felt bad for her but it was gone before it fully registered and I turned to see Vivian, Tolu, and Abike clutching their stomachs in laughter, even Rasheed was laughing.

‘Guys, show some empathy’. I chaffed

‘Oh I feel her pain. Dora the explorer shorts? Even my little niece doesn’t wear that anymore’. Vivian said and Abike resumed her laughter which didn’t last long before she was crying and clutching her abdomen which was hard to do in her multi-layered costume.

Vivian and I helped her back to our room and got her out of the costume. She had been complaining about this abdominal pain for a while and they appeared to be getting worse. We all advised her to go home and be checked out but she insisted on staying with the excuse of not wanting to be bored at home.

Henrietta joined us after the party and we only slept when she was done gushing over Christopher Lawal, her knight in shining armor.