ANIKE- A story by Toyin Taiwo Episode 1 The queue was so long and the sun was not helping matters at all. I had longed to be in the university,after 3years of seeking admission. At 19, I finally got an admission into Federal universities of technology, Minna. My Dad is not a big fan of pri-vate universities, even though he could afford it because he’s rich, if not I would have been in one of the pri-vate universities before now. I was thankful for this admission, but the registration process was too strenuous. Stress and ha-rd sh!pas now become a norm in this p@rt of the country, you don’t get to do anything successfully except you are stressed and drained. Can’t we just do the registration online and get this over with” I said in my mind. “Excuse me” a voice interrupted my thought. plea-se I nee-d to get a cold drink before I faint here, plea-se I’m at your back, can you kindly keep this space for me, I can’t afford to start all over again when I return” “Sure, no problem” I replied “Thanks, by the way I’m Tinuke Oni” “Anike Adams” I said with a smile She asked if I nee-ded anything and I told her to just get me water. She c@m£ back few minutes later and handed a plastic bottled water to me. I gave her money for the bottled water but she rejected, I thanked her in return. Finally I was throu-gh with my registration, I was giving an accommodation in the school hostel. I located room 203 and entered the room. I was surprised when i met the same Tinuke in the room unpacking. I realized she’s my room mate and fortunately for us, we are also in the same dep@rtment. The room was nice but small, though it’s a two be-dded room, we both liked it. I started unpacking too. Hoping that I’ll enjoy my stay with Tinuke. First day of lecture was something else, we got to the lecture theater as early as possible, but to our surprise the whole place was filled up. “Tinuke, these people did not sleep in their hostels?” I asked “Anike, I’m as shocked as you, the lecture is to start by 8am and this is just 7:30 that means we have to be here by 7:00am if we want to get a sitting space” She replied “God! You mean we have to be here by 7:00am for 8am lecture” I queried. “Yes, unless you want us to stand all throu-gh for lectures like today” Since that day, we make sure we were in the lecture theater by 7am just to secure a seat. ★★★★ I was so happy it was Friday, the first week was hectic. It has been 8am- 5pm all throu-gh. “Thank God it’s Friday” I said excitedly when we c@m£ back from lectures. At least we can rest and eat better food for the weekend. The quic-kest food we had time to cook during the week was noodles, then bre-ad. “Which of the campus fellowsh!pdo you intend to attend?” Tinuke asked me while ma-king dinner. “RCF” I replied “RCF is OK by me too, then we can go together on Sunday” Sunday service was awesome, it’s always refreshing to be in the pres£nce of God. We got back to the hostel and prepared lunch. “I hate Mondays” I said while devouring my lunch. “Don’t tell me you are alre-ady thinking about tomorrow” “Why won’t I, 8am-6pm lectures including practical. “Don’t worry we’ll soon get use to the stress” she as-sured me. Tinuke’s phone was rang, she checked the caller ID and smiled before picking the call. After the call, I asked about her b©yfri£ndand she told me about Sam. He lives and work in Abuja. He’s 3years older than Tinuke and they’ve been d@t!ngfor 6months now. Tinuke wrote JAMB thrice, all because she wanted to study medicine but she was adviced to accept the admission she was giving here in FUT MINNA for now, then she can cross later. She explained her plight to me. “So you are still planning to study medicine?” I asked “Yes, I’ll continue writing JAMB until I’m giving admission to study medicine” “Doctor Tinuke I wish all your dreams come throu-gh” “Amen, thanks” I noticed the guy monitors her a lot, she always give him details of all her movements, and she confirmed that the guy is jealous and insecure. “Your turn Anike, tell me about your b©yfri£nd” she said “Honestly I don’t have one” “But I do hear you make calls at night and definitely the caller is a guy” “You are right but the guy is my childhood friend, he calls everyday because we are very close” “So what st©ps you guys from d@t!ngor does he has a girlfriend?” “No he doesn’t” “Then you guys should start something, it’s obvious you like each other. If he doesn’t like you he won’t be calling you for more than an hour everyday” “I know we like each other but I think we are better off as friends” “So you have friend zoned him abi?”she said and we both laughed. Na fahimta(I un-derstand) she added “One more thing Tinuke, you must teach me Hausa o, Abuja girl” ”Ba masala”(no problem) This is an hausa speaking state, don’t worry you’ll learn fast, Lagos girl” she said smiling. Episode 2 Tinuke and I got along so well, we un-derstood each other so much, I couldn’t have wished for a better room mate. People including our course mates do tell us that we look alike. Maybe because we are of the same stature, average height, slim, dark skin and beautiful oval shaped face. I can’t tell who is more beautiful, people can judge that. I was busy with my as-signment while Tinuke was doing the dishes. “Anike, How far with the as-signment Dr. Chuks gave us” Tinuke asked “I’m almost throu-gh. But come to think of it, some lecturers are so mean, how can he tell us to write 100 names of microorganisms and submit it un-der 24hours,all this stress for just 5 marks” She left the dishes apeeped at what I was writing. “You’ve written 80 alre-ady, I only got 48 from the text books I borrowed from the libr@ry” “You can’t get the whole 100 from the text book, I got mine from the internet, Thank God for the internet and who ever invented copy and paste” “Amen Anike, You are very funny” she said laughing “Jokes ap@rt, Tinuke I’m hungry” “OK, I’ll fix us dinner” “Thanks you are a darling” she said smiling “You are welcome” I smiled back at her. The next day, we submitted the MCB101 as-signment to the course rep. “Let’s call it a day, see you next week” the Lecturer said and left the clas-s. Tinuke and I packed our books and left the clas-s. On our way to the hostel, we met a very fine guy, tall, fair and looked bu-ttish. “Hi ladies” he said, all smiles. “Hi” we both chorused “I do see you girls around, are you twins, you two look alike?” he asked “No, we are friends, but people do take us for twins and I wish we were” Tinuke answered, smiling with the guy. “My name is Olamilekan, he said, shaking our hands one after the other. “I’m Tinuke and she’s Anike” “Nice meeting you guys” he said “Same here” we chorused “I just like you girls, you are beautiful, smart and you dress decently and I also like your names, Anike and Tinuke, you could really pas-s for twins” “Thanks for the compliments Lekan” Tinuke said with a smile. “I’m sorry Tinuke, I prefer you call my name in full” “Oh! Olamilekan, noted” she said pla-yfully. “Thanks” he said with a smile. Anyway, I’m a 400L Electrical engineering student. “100L microbiology” Tinuke said “And you?” he asked me “Same dep@rtment” I replied “That’s cool, see you guys some other time, enjoy the rest of the day” “You too” we chorused ★★★★ I ran into the same guy the following week in front of a complex in the school area. “See who I ran into, Anike right?” he said “Yea, I’m good, you still remember my name? “Of course I do, how on earth will I forget your name and that of Tinuke” he said jokingly “You remember my friend’s name too! that’s cool?” “Do you remember my name” he asked “No, I don’t” I replied “Oh, that’s so unfair” “Yea, so so unfair, Olamilekan” I said “So you actually remember my name” he said smiling. “Yes, I was just pu-lling your legs” “Good, so where is your twin sister?” “She’s inside the complex ma-king ph0tocopies, I’m waiting here for her” Tinuke later walked up to us while we were still talking. “Look who we have here, but I’m sorry what’s the name again? She asked “Olamilekan” he answered and gave her a hand shake. “I’m sorry, I’m not good with names, but I won’t forget this time” “It’s OK, I’m happy to see you guys again. Do you mind if I pay you guys a visit?” “No, we don’t mind, Anike can he…… “You alre-ady said yes nau” I said rolling my eyes. “Anike, I just want to be a friend” Olamilekan said s-en-sing my b©dy language. “It’s room 203,providence hostel, we stay in the same room” Tinuke said “I’ll check on you girls before the week runs out” “We’ll be expecting you” Tinuke replied him and he left. “Anike what’s with that attitude, it’s like you don’t want that guy to visit us” she queried on our way to the hostel. “My attitude!” I exclaimed and shook my head “Why are you shaking your head?” “I’m shaking my head for you, You know your b©yfri£ndis the jealous type, this one that you are inviting a guy over, me I’m not there o” “Mumu girl, who told you he likes me” “Really, so you could easily detect he doesn’t like you!” “Yea, I can re-ad him like a book and we’ll soon find out” “We’ll soon find out what? I pity you in advance, and you know the kind of b©yfri£ndyou have ” She eyed me, unlocked the door and we both entered the room. ★★★★ We both la-id on our be-ds busy with our phones, we heard a knock on the door. I left my be-d and went to get the door. “Anike….Hi” he said with a smile. “Hi, plea-se hold on” I closed the door and went back to the room. Tinuke, can a guy come in, olamilekan is at the door” I informed. “Sure” she said and adjusted her t©p” “You can come in” I said. We all exchanged greetings, Tinuke offered him drink but he declined. We chatted for some time, and we all exchanged phone numbers before he left. He also promised to st©p by again. “Tinuke, did you hear him say next time, which means he’ll be visiting again. See don’t call me if you and your b©yfri£ndstart o” I pounced on her immediately the guy left. “Relax, he just want to be our friend and what is so bad in that, we even nee-d someone like him around since we are freshers. And don’t worry about my b©yfri£nd” I went to the school libr@ry to borrow some text books, on my way out I bu-mped into Olamilekan. “Anike, hi” “Hi” “Let me help you with that “ he said trying to collect the text books from me” “Don’t worry, thanks” “I insist, I’m just leaving too, so bring the books, I’ll see you off to your hostel since it’s visiting hours alre-ady” “Ok, if you insist”. We got to the hostel, I tapped the door. “It’s me Tinuke, can a guy come in” I asked. “A guy! plea-se hold on let me change” She opened the door surprised to see Olamilekan. “Hello good evening” he greeted “Good evening, sorry for keeping you waiting, you can come in” “No problem, it’s a ladies room, so I get it. I ran into Anike at the libr@ry, so I decided to walk her to the hostel” “That’s nice of you” “What can we offer you” Anike asked “Water will do” he replied “Just water?” Tinuke questioned “Yes” he nodded Tinuke left the room and returned with a chilled bottled water. We all chatted for a while and he made to leave “I’ve been here twice, when will you ladies come to visit me? although I stay off campus” he said. “You just give us your address and we’ll come” Tinuke replied him “Sure I will and I’ll be glad if you make out time to visit” “Can we come this weekend, Saturday to be precise? Tinuke asked and I gave her a scornful look. “Saturday is fine by me, I’ll be expecting you both. Let me take my leave now” he said and left.
Tbc