JANINA

Resumption Bell

I was busy with my crafts when I got a message from Diana my best friend, it read;
“Hey babe, I love to be the carrier of good news. Jude just informed me now that your school will be resuming on the 14th of May. I’m presently at his place, just stole few minutes to drop this message. Catch ya”

“Oh God!” I shouted
I had gotten this admission since about six months before that day and I had been complaining about the delayed resumption, but as I got the message from Diana, I knew I was far from being ready for resumption. I was thinking of how to inform my mum about it when I heard her voice from the room “Janina, what’s the reason for the shout?!”

I ran to the room to explain things to her and I could see the Joy on her face and feel the Joy in her spirit as she picked up her phone to call her friend Ms Grace and about it.
Mum and Ms Grace were far from being true friends, Mum always called her to inform her about our progress, not because she honors her as a friend of course but to count scores. I was trying to stop her from making the call by explaining to her that I didn’t want any announcements but she looked at me and said;

“My dear, you told me to tell no one about your admission which I agreed to because I also believe the news would be better shared when you are leaving for school. And another reason I agreed to your desire to keep it low was because of some stories I have heard about people who announced their children’s admission into the tertiary institution only to get there and realize their names have been erased. The world is truly wicked you know, that’s why we really have to be careful about the things we tell people about us.”

After her long speech on being careful with announcement of life’s progress, you can guess the next question I had on my lips.
“Mum, if you truly know the world is wicked why then do you still want to call Ms Grace now?. You know she’ll only help you spread it to others and I really don’t see any carefulness in that, at all”

To that, my mum responded with great confidence, “Yes! Let her announce it, people need to know I serve a God who never fails and how my God answers my prayers. And you know she never stops talking about how God used her pastor to pray for Vivian’s admission. I need to make them know that I am the pastor of myself, I prayed to the Lord and he answered my prayers. Her daughter is studying a course that is not even recognized but my God answered my prayers so well that you’re going to study Medicine to be a Doctor. Janina, can’t you see we have been keeping this testimony for too long? we need to tell it to the world!”

At that, I knew it was going to be a waste of time to continue arguing with mum. She was someone who always did whatever she has decided to do anyway, no matter how wrong others think it is. But talking about God answering prayers, I was confused.

Quick Background story

My mum and I lived together since I was five, after she got into a fight with my dad about his irresponsible character and lack of concern for us. And since then, we only attended Church on Sundays because mum believed attending weekly services was a waste of time and the Pastors only added them to the church program to earn more money. We had changed churches so much I even lost count, and her complaints continued to be that these Pastors were only after money, which was another reason she got angry each time Ms Grace talked about her Pastor’s prayer getting her daughter admission into the university.

So you’ll understand when I say mum talking about her personal prayers being answered that day was confusing. We didn’t even know how to pray anyway, so I believed my admission was by hard work and vigorous studies and mum’s talk about prayer was just another excuse to do what she really wanted to do.

I walked into my room to see the clothes I could still take to school. As I packed, I thought of Diana my friend and I smiled to myself at the thought of the plans I had against her. My mum wasn’t the only one with a friendship based on pretense after all.

D.J

Diana had been my best friend since our first year in secondary school, and we went by the name D.J, I really loved her and shared everything with her but she betrayed me. When we resumed senior secondary school 1, as beautiful fast developing teenage girls, we became an attraction to many boys, those of same age and even those that are few years above. I was more beautiful than Diana and it was very clear with so many boys staring at me and some having the courage to call me whenever we walked together. I remember how she’ll accuse me of being wicked and proud for turning down all of their proposals.

There had been signs to make me know she was complete bad luck, but I ignored. One of those signs was a day we were walking back home from school and a very cute boy ran towards us, Diana pushed herself to him in desperation but just as many other times before that day, she was rejected by the line “No, not you, I came for her”. That wasn’t the first time ofcourse, and just as always, to make her feel better, I replied him by saying “If you came for me, then you have come for both of us” and we continued on our journey home, leaving him standing on the spot. I could see the disappointment on his face when I looked back to know his reaction. I felt really bad that I had to do that because I would have really loved to have him as a friend.

Few days after, I got news from my source that he was actually a son of a rich man who came to visit his mum and had traveled back to the U.K where he was based. I felt the pain of that for over one week and almost fell sick. But as a big girl that I was I moved on.

The Betrayal

The greatest betrayal I received from Diana which I never planned to forgive her for was how she took Jude from me. Jude was the smartest guy in our class and I was the smartest girl in the class and just as beautiful and attractive as I was, Jude had the eyes of all girls on him and I was one of those girls. He got a transfer to our school in senior secondary school 2 and since the first day I set my eyes on him, I felt a strange feeling in my belly and I knew I was in love. But, since I wasn’t one of those girls who would push themselves on any guy and most especially because I had a reputation to keep, I had to keep my feelings as a personal secret for so long and didn’t say anything about it to anyone till senior secondary school 3, when Jude began to give signs of liking me too. He came to me frequently to solve mathematics exercises with him and study together.

On one of the days I was thinking of the sweet moments with Jude and smiling to myself, Diana asked the reason for my smile and I couldn’t keep the secret anymore. I told her about it and she agreed to the obvious fact that he truly liked me and promised to get close to him so she could help in speeding him up to approach me.
I agreed wholeheartedly because I trusted my friend, only for Diana who was supposed to give just a catalytic action to turn herself into the main reactant. She kept on pretending to me and telling me to play hard to get by avoiding Jude. She said she was a relationship expert that knew how to make a boy beg for a girl’s attention and I foolishly believed her until she snatched him away from me completely.

I couldn’t blame innocent Jude anyway, he was trying to build a relationship but I pushed him away thinking I was playing the hard-to-get card.

You might want to know what I did when I discovered they were dating and I have been played. Well, I was too weak to react and I had to take a week off school to regain strength. It was during my home rest I got information that Jude applied to study Medicine and surgery in the same school mum advised me to choose. I had refused mum’s idea on the choice of school but immediately I heard Jude had applied for same, I concluded and happily told mum I was ready to be an obedient daughter.

I resumed back to school the next week and Diana came kneeling before me to tender her apologies. I listened to her apologies and promised her our friendship was more important to me than any boy anyway.

As I remembered all of these while checking out my clothes for school that day in my room, I laughed so hard at her foolishness to have thought I really would just forget all about it and move on. Jude and I will be resuming school together, attending lectures together and spending more time together anyway, why should I have troubled myself by fighting her?. As a good friend anyway, I gave her the opportunity to enjoy and have a taste of Love in the short period of time he was still home knowing fully well that he would be mine in a few months time and we’ll spend forever together.

To be continued………

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Did Jude forget about Diana as Janina believed?
What was the result of the announcement of Janina’s resumption?
Will other plans was on Janina’s list as she resumed school?

All questions to be answered in JANINA (The fame)
Continue with us on Faithplane, the journey through faithway..
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