Daniella episode 31

🌠🌠🌠Daniella

✏ #Episode_31

It was Monday. A day to resume back to school and to workplaces after two days of recess. The day before, I had returned from my outing before aunt Caro and her family got back to the house. And ever since they got back, I hadn’t spoken to Amanda to thank her for what she did for me yesterday. She had been in her room with Annabelle. I hated to go into their room for anything because that was just me asking for trouble and that was the last thing I wanted in my life right now. It was better to just stay off their business and maintain my lane.
I got out of the kitchen and was heading to my room to dress up for school when I saw Amanda, in her school uniform, coming down from the staircase.
“I’m going to dad’s car alre-ady o.” Amanda hollered, I guess to Annabelle because Annabelle hollered “Okay” from her room.
“Hi Amanda.” I said and she st©pped dead in her tracks. She turned to look at me without saying anything. “Em, thanks for yesterday. You saved me from trouble. I owe you one.”
Amanda smiled; a smile that I didn’t expect. “Don’t mention. Learn to hide everything given to you by Peter. Don’t leave any traces for suspicion. The cap was given to you by Peter right?” She asked.
So it appeared that Amanda didn’t know that the cap was Peter’s and that Peter was in my room yesterday. Well, a good thing she didn’t.
“Yes it was.” I answered.
“That boy likes you sha.” She snorted in a chuckle and shook her head. She walked closer to me and said in a whisper. “Don’t let Annabelle know about that cap unless you wouldn’t like yourself. Off to school. See you later!” That said, she walked off.
“Wow” was all I could say as I watched her leave. I was surprised by her sudden treatment towards me. How did she all of a sudden become as nice as pie? Hope this wasn’t any plan by she and her sister to get something from me because her friendliness was sure questionable. I nee-ded to be careful. I nee-ded to watch my back, in case she had any ulterior motive.
I got to school quite early, at least soon enough to avert punishment. I engaged in a little chit chat with Gbemi and Adam before a teacher walked in. Then series of boring lectures took place before it was eventually break time.

“Oh finally!” I said as the maths teacher walked out of the clas-s.

“So Daniella, where’s my Valentine gift?” Adam asked. Just then Gbemi walked to our seats.
“Am I your girlfriend?” I said.

“Does it matter? Is Valentine for only ro-mantic p@rtners?” Adam asked.

“I wonder o.” Gbemi added.

“Who put your mouth Gbemi? Do you even know what we’re talking about?” I said.
“From Adam’s last statement, I do.”

“Anyways, guess what?”

“What?” Adam and Gbemi asked simultaneously.

“You know I told you that my aunt seized the phone Peter bought for me…”

Adam didn’t let me finish. He was so eager to hear what I had to say. “Yeah, yeah we know. So what?”

“Well Peter gave me a new Android phone yesterday as a Valentine gift.”

“Aw!” Adam cooed.

“Whoa, cool! How does he get money to buy new phones for you?” Gbemi asked.
“I don’t know.” I shrugged.

“And you don’t care to ask him.”

“Peter’s from a rich family, so that automatically makes him rich.”

“No, it doesn’t.” Adam ch!pped in. “What if he steals his father’s money.”

“Or what if he does Yahoo—like swindling people online to make money.” Gbemi added.
“No, no, I know Peter well. He’s not like that.”
“Daniella, you’re lost in love o. Open your eyes and question some things Peter does for you. Just st©p allowing him to spoil you anyhow with expensive gift without you knowing the source. Make he no go use your p@n-t make money o. ” Gbemi said.
Adam laughed.
I rolled my eyes. “It’s not funny abeg. Bad belle people. ”
“I’m just saying o. Be careful anyways.” Gbemi said.
“See her b©yfri£ndis alre-ady waiting for her to be alone. Let’s go out for break and give them some time to be together.” Adam said, pu-lling Gbemi’s wrist as they laughed out of the clas-sroom.
I rolled my eyes. This wasn’t the first time they were going out for break together and leaving me out all in the name of “your b©yfri£ndwants to be with you”. It was getting annoying. Ever since I had gotten back from the village, I hadn’t really spent quality time with them. They were always running away.

“Hey! What are you thinking about?” Peter snapped his f!ngersin my face and sat down on the desk, facing me directly.
I smiled. “Nothing jare. Were you actually expecting me to be alone?”

“Yeah. I never want to disturb you when you’re with your friends.”

After Peter had said that, we both bec@m£ silent. Nothing to say. We were probably waiting for the other to initiate a conversation, because that was definitely what I was doing. It was an awkward silence. To ease off the silence, I thought about asking him how he got the money to buy me a new phone.

“So…”

“So…” We both said simultaneously.
We chuckled. It was more awkward now.

“Ladies first.” Peter said.

“Okay, so Peter I wanted to ask… Em, how did you get the money to buy me a new phone?” I asked, hoping that it didn’t come out in a wrong way that would offend Peter.
He smiled toothily. “I’m a rich guy.”

“Rich guys have their source of getting money.” I shrugged my shoulders.

“How do you think I got the money?”

“I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.”

“Okay well like I said before, my parents ba-rely stay at home. So basically if I ask them for anything I want, they give it to me, especially my dad. And besides, I do save in my bank.”

I knew it. I knew Peter couldn’t have been getting me gifts throu-gh illegal means. Gbemi and Adam were just seeing things on the negative side. But then again, what if Peter was lying. No he couldn’t be lying. At least I nee-ded to convince myself that.
“Oh you’re kinda lucky. I wish I were in your shoes.” I said.

“Trust me, you’d get every thing you want and still feel incomplete. ma-king out time for the ones you love is far more important. And that’s what I nee-d the most.”
“How about those people that don’t get any of the attention, the time or the gift. So Peter believe me when I say you’re kinda lucky.”
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Immediately the bell was rung for closing time, Adam dragged me out of the clas-sroom and said he had something important to tell me. We got to the school botanical garden. Students rarely c@m£ here, especially not when school period was over.

“Adam, this one you dragged me like this to this place, what is it you wanna tell me that you can’t tell me in the clas-s?” I asked curiously.

“Uh…”

Before Adam could say anything, Charles appeared. I was surprised. What the hell was Charles doing here? Did he follow Adam and me here?
“Daniella, I’d tell you later.” Adam said and was going to walk away, but I held him back. “You can’t just leave because of him. You wanted to tell me something important. Charles never has anything important to tell me.”
“Ouch! That pierced Daniella.” Charles said as he moved closer to us.

“I’d just leave now.” Adam said and scurried off.
I was pissed. How could Adam be such a coward to walk away after dragging me down here just because Charles c@m£? Who does that? Oh yeah, stupid Adam!

“What do you want from me Charles?” I asked icily. “I can never d@t£ you. Never!”

“Why?”

“Wire!” I wanted to turn and walk away, but he gr!pp£dmy wrist and spun me around to face him.
“What does Peter offer that I can’t offer?” I withdrew my wrist from his grip and sneered at him, looking at him from head to toes.

“Everything. You have nothing on Peter. You…”

Before I said any further, he held my head and leaned his head over to k!ssme. My heart skipped a bit and even though I didn’t return the k!ss, I didn’t flin-ch back either. I was dazed. I was trying to process what was going on. Then it hit me ha-rd that I was being k!$$£d by another guy that was not my b©yfri£nd. I pushed Charles off me and sl@pped him real ha-rd on his cheeks.
“How dare you?”
I wanted to turn to leave but he held me back again.
“I’m sorry Daniella. But I really like you. plea-se give us a chance.”

“Leave me alone!” I swatted his hand off my arm and pushed his che-st so ha-rd that he staggered backwards.

“I can never d@t£ you.” That said, I walked off quic-kly.

“We shall see!” Charles shouted after me.

I went back to the clas-s, hoping to see Adam, Gbemi or even Peter. But I saw none of them. Peter and I were supposed to walk home together because that was what we agreed on, but he wasn’t anywhere in sight. I looked for him in the other clas-ses, but I didn’t find him. I was so sad, upset and disappointed. This was all Charles fault. I hated him at that moment.
Unfortunately, I had to walk home all by myself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~PETER~ pov~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Daniella and I had agreed to walk back home together, so you can imagine how surprised I was when I turned back to see if she was in her seat and she wasn’t there. Neither was Adam. Had she gone home without me? I put my book in my bag, Zi-pped it close and wore it on my back.
“Buddy, I’m coming to your house today to whoop your as-s in that FIFA19.” Tobi, my seat p@rtner and my best friend, bluffed.
I scoffed. “Like you can. You always say that and I end up beating you.”
“Not today. I’m re-ady for you.”
“When have you not been re-ady for me.” I said, shaking my head.
“We’d see later today.” Tobi said and we did our boyish shake thing before he left.
Just then, I caught sight of Gbemi. “Hey Gbemi! Where’s Daniella? We are supposed to go home together.”
“I think you’d find her in the botanical garden.” Gbemi said.
“Botanical garden? You’re sure?” I asked sceptically. I mean, what could she be doing in the botanical garden?
“I think she’s there with Adam. If she isn’t there, then I don’t know where else she could be.”

“Okay, thanks.” I said and headed for the botanical garden.
On my way, I saw Adam running towards my direction. “Hey Sup dude! Where’s Daniella?” I st©pped him to ask.

“In the botanical garden.” He said like he was in a hurry and ran off.

Botanical garden? What could she be doing there? I got to the botanical garden and got the biggest shock of my life. I saw Daniella k!ss!ngmy biggest rival Charles. I was shattered. So this was it. This was why Daniella forgot our agreement. To come see this j£rk.

I wanted to make my pres£nce known, but I thought better of it. I simply just turned around and walked away.

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🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠🌠Daniella POV

When it was late in the night and I was sure everyone had gone to be-d, I locked my room door and brou-ght out my phone. I c@m£ online on whatsapp to see if Peter, Adam or Gbemi were online. I wanted to scold them for leaving school without me, p@rticularly Adam. If I were to blame anyone for what happened today, it would be Adam. He was the one who took me to the botanical garden and told me he had something very important to tell me, only for him to leave when Charles c@m£. Not only did he just leave the botanical garden, he left the school.

💬So help me God, I will kill you tomorrow in school.

I s£nt the message to Adam when I saw that he was online. The message got delivered but he didn’t re-ad it.

A minute had pas-sed and he still hadn’t re-ad the message. I slid out of his chat board to check if Gbemi was online. She wasn’t. The time when she was online last was 10:32pm and the time was pres£ntly 10:33pm. She had just gone offline.
Then I checked to see if Peter was online. I deliberately checked his thre-ad last because I was pissed at him for not waiting for me just as we agreed. Even if everyone left school without waiting for me, Peter shouldn’t be p@rt of them. I was really disappointed in him. When I tapped on his name, I saw that he was online. What was he doing online by this time when I wasn’t online? The thought of him chatting with another girl crossed my mind and I got jealous instantly. I wanted to type a message, berating him that he was chatting with some other girl, but I thought better of it. I mean, that was me just jumping into conclusion and it was ins-en-sitive. Rather than that, I greeted him.

✏Hey Peter!

✒A minute pas-sed. Two minutes and even five minutes had pas-sed and still Peter hadn’t re-ad, let alone replied my message. And he was online! Peter wasn’t one to reply my messages late. I couldn’t help but wonder why he was doing it now. Perhaps he was online and was asleep. I hope that was it.
I checked to see if Adam had replied my message, but he hadn’t. As a matter of fact, he had gone offline. My eyes were heavy alre-ady, so I switched off my phone and hid it in my luggage. Then I went to be-d and before long, I drifted off to sleep.
↗↗

💘💘💘💘
I woke up with a j£rk to the sound of a c0ckcrow. Everywhere was a little bit bright, meaning that the day had dawned. Oh my gosh! I oversle-pt. I jumped out of be-d and hurried to the kitchen to sweep the floor, warm the leftovers, and quic-kly boiled water that I was going to use to have my bath. The weather was quite cold this morning.

“So you woke up late this morning.” I jo-lted as Uncle Henry said and sp@ñked my bu-tt.

I had a towel wra-pped around my b©dy. Uncle Henry moved towards the sink and dropped his mug, that he probably used to take coffee this morning, in it. “Help me wash it. I’m off to work.” He said.

“Whatever.” I mumbled un-der my breath.

Uncle Henry was walking out of the kitchen but then he st©pped abruptly and turned around. “Daniella, do you know all of these your suffering can st©p if you want it to?” He asked.
I scrunched my brows in puzzlement. “I don’t un-derstand sir. How?”

“All you just have to do is yield to my demands.” He said and I rolled my eyes. “If you can just make love to me, I’d ban everyone from beating you or even disturbing you.”

“I’m fine sir. I can cope.” I said as I took up the mud to wash it.
Uncle Henry wanted to say something else, but Annabelle called him from outside the kitchen.

“Think about it.” He said and then walked out of the kitchen.
I hissed and rolled my eyes when I was sure he was out of earsh0t.

🔑🔑🔑🔑🔑

I got to school pretty late. Clas-ses had commenced alre-ady. The CRS teacher didn’t allow me into her clas-s, despite my plea-s. She told me to kneel down outside the clas-s until she was done with her clas-s. Talk of an unforgiving Christian teacher! When the period for her clas-s was over, she walked out of the clas-s and I walked in majestically. I was kinda in a bad mood because of how yesterday was and how the morning was turning out.
I had my seat without uttering a word to Adam.
“Good morning o!” Adam greeted after some minutes, when he probably noticed I wasn’t going to greet first.
“Morning.” I mumbled. I checked Peter’s seat and I noticed he wasn’t around. “Wait, Peter hasn’t come to school?” I asked Adam.
“Do you see him on his seat?” Adam asked in a duh tone.
“So why are you barking?” I said, rather caustic.
“Do you know what it means to bark?” He retorted, c0cking one of his brows like I had just said something dumb.
Adam also seemed to be in a prickly mood. Our conversation almost seemed like there was a strain between us and I wasn’t comfortable with it. The last thing I wanted was for our friendsh!pto turn sour.
“Adam, what’s wrong with you?” I decided to ask in a calmer tone.
“You were the one giving me cold shoulders, so I should be asking you that.” Adam answered.
“Why did you leave school yesterday without waiting for me?”
“Wait, is that the reason for the cold shoulders?” Adam asked chuckling.
“I’m just not really in a good mood. Okay so answer the question.”
“I’m sorry about yesterday. I just thought Charles was gonna take your time. Besides, Gbemi wanted to go home quic-kly yesterday cause she had a running stomach and she wanted me to esc-rt her.”
“Very flimsy excuse.” I glared at him. “You were the one who took me to the botanical garden, so it was very wrong for you to just abandon me there like that. Very wrong.”

“I’m sorry.” Adam held my shoulder as he apologised.

“So what did you want to tell me?”

“Um… Never mind. It’s not important anymore.”

“Just tell me.” I pushed further.
Just then, the literature teacher walked in and we all stood up to greet her.

The day went by with series of tedious lectures. Our civic teacher even denied us of our break because according to him, we were lagging behind in his subject. Like who cares ? Since he had given us his scheme of work, he could have simply told us to study the t©pics that was pu-lling us behind his scheme and make our note on them, instead of using the time for our break to teach us. Because of that, Adam and I didn’t have the opportunity to continue our conversation.
As the civic teacher was teaching, I zoned out. I was thinking of Peter. What could have been the reason for him not coming to school today? For some reason, I felt something was wrong with him. I made a mental note to pay him a visit.

When the school hours was finally over, all the tired looking students rose to their feet and wore their bags on their back to leave for their houses, including me.

“Um Adam, I want to go to Peter’s house to see how he’s doing, so if you want to follow me, I’d suggest we leave now.” I said.

“No don’t worry, you can go. I’m not even leaving school now. Gbemi and I want to do something.” Adam said, wearing his bag.

At the mention of Gbemi’s name, I realised that I hadn’t even spoken to her today. I walked up to her seat. She was sitting down and scribbling down something in a notebook.

“Hey Gbemi! How are you?” I sl@pped her arm lightly.

“Hey Daniella! I’m fine. You’re going home?” She asked.

“Yes, I am.”

“Okay, see you later.”

“Bye.” I waved at her and then Adam as I left. The instant I got out of the school building, I remembered that I had forgotten one of my note un-der the locker and immediately, I ran back into the school to get it. As I got up to the hallway in the first floor and was about to enter the clas-s, I heard Prudence voice from inside and she mentioned my name. So I st©pped to eavesdrop.
“Daniella doesn’t know the surprise she’s in for when she gets to Peter’s house.” Prudence said.

“But really, is it not just amazing how our plan worked so easily.” Someone said and it was a guy. The voice sounded so familiar. I wondered what plan were they talking about.
“I know, right! She can’t be the only one d@t!ngwhen the rest of us are single. It can’t happen! They must break up.” Someone with a different voice said. Another familiar voice.

I entered the clas-s to see who these people were and to my utter surprise, I saw only Adam, Gbemi, Charles and Prudence in the clas-s. I wanted to speak, but words failed me. I wanted to move, but my legs were fixed to the ground. I wanted to act, but I couldn’t. It was unbelievable! So my best friends were conniving with my worst enemies against me. I was shocked to my bone marrows. But much more than that, I was disappointed. Never would I have thought Adam of all people would betray me. Gbemi could, but not Adam. I trusted him so much. I was beyond disappointed.

The four of them snapped their heads at me and the look on their faces was priceless. They all looked ashamed. They sure didn’t expect to see me. Well so did I not expect to see them together.

I forgot what I c@m£ to the clas-s for and ran out. I kept running till I got to the school gate that my heart was bouncing in my che-st and I was p@n-ting heavily like a p@n-ther. How could Gbemi and Adam do this to me? Why could that have been in cahoots with Charles and Prudence? And then it hit me ha-rd .
Peter!

I ran. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me to Peter’s house. When I got to the house, I wanted to knock but I noticed that the gate was padlocked from outside. Nob©dy was home. I wanted to turn around to leave but my eyes drifted to something that caught my attention. A folded sheet of paper was placed in between the closed gate. I thought of minding my business and just walking away, but curiosity had the better of me. I pu-ll-ed the paper from the gate and unfolded it to re-ad its content. My heart skipped as I saw my name.

💬Dear Daniella,💘
I really hope you’re the first to pick up this letter. But if you aren’t and someone else is re-ading this right now, I’d really appreciate it if that someone finds you and gives this to you. Anyways, I know you’re probably wondering what’s the reason for writing you a letter when I could easily just chat you up online. Well the reason is just to show you how damn serious I mean this I’m about to tell you.

So Daniella, I like you. Like really really like you, but I know your heart beats for someone else— Charles. You’re probably wondering how I know? Well I saw you both k!ss!ngeach other at the botanical garden. Really, if you had just told me from the very beginning that he was the guy you like, I would have un-derstood and just let you go. But toying with my emotions and d@t!ngCharles secretly wasn’t the ideal thing to do girl. You just made me feel gamed.

💔My heart was beating so fast at this point.

And so I’ve been thinking and thinking and I’ve decided to give you up for your secret lover. I guess that would make you both happy and comfortable. Yes, I’m breaking up with you. Trust me, this is ha-rd for me, but there’s nothing that makes me more happy than knowing you’re happy. I still love you, but I can’t be the second option in a love triangle.
Just in case you’re wondering why I wasn’t at school today, well I’ve decided to leave the country for Dublin to start all over with my family. I guess you’re happy for me. I’m gonna really miss you. Take care and my regards to everyb©dy in school.
💔 One love,
💔. Peter.

My heart squee-zed. The tears welled up in my eyes dropped on the middle of the paper and bored a hole in it. That was also how Peter’s words drilled a hole in my heart.

💔I was heartbroken.

💔

💔Story_Continues💘