GIRL FROM CHURCH

Chapter Eight

Jade

I couldn't get why everyone at the teenager's church were staring at me after service. I finished having my talk with Mrs Fejiro and for some reason, I just made her believe that I had accepted Christ as my Lord and personal savior and I believed in him. I didn't want her to keep persuading or talking about it, or even going to the extent of telling my mum, and she wanted me to start wearing my necklace and wrist band. I said yes to her but I did not mean it. Not at all.

I was sitting right there, at the back seat of the car when Vanessa came to me.
"Did you really have to embarrass yourself there?" she asked.
"I haven't spoken to you ever since Nessa, please just go away," I said coldly, flipping the pages of my teen manual which I decided to read just to kill boredom.

"Ugh! Do you know how it feels for people to ask if I am the sister of the atheist girl? I was just about getting popular!"

"I didn't tell them anything I swear. I don't know how they got to know we are somehow related." I still was not looking at her face.

"Maybe you should ask your talkative of a mum."

"Why does my mum have to be the cause of any problem you have? How does she have to get involved in the teenagers church?" I raised my eyes to hers.

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever...I already told people you are not my sister. I managed to accept you as a distant cousin so let it be that way." She walked off.

I shook my head and continued reading. Seriously, what kind of a meeting was mum having? Christian Women Association indeed.

A boy came towards our car just the moment I shut my manual close.
"Hi," he said.

I did not like strange humans. Lol, I know I was a bit weird.
"Any problem?" I asked.

"Ouuu! Take a chill pill babe, I just wanted to introduce myself to you."
I was silent. "So, I'm Otito. You can call me Tito. What's your name?"

"Jasmine," I replied. I did not have to lie.
"Wow, Jasmine. Such a nice name – Jasmine," he said in a dreamy tone. "Can I call you Jazzy?"

"Sure." I faked a smile.

I did not know why I was just being rude at the moment, I was not a rude person. My attitude just depended on my mood. Most especially when I was bored, I sounded rude or sarcastic even though it was not my intention to look that way.

"Wow! You are pretty though and I loved how bold you were to Mrs Fejiro," he complimented.

"Wasn't that embarrassing?" I asked.
"It was awesome."

"My mum is coming."
"Who?" He turned back. "The woman on red?" He pointed to the woman approaching. She was not even my mum, infact my mum was still inside the church. I just wanted him to leave.

"Yeah." I faked a smile.
"Oh..okay then, see you next week." He left.

"Idiot. My mum is prettier than that woman," I muttered. And my mum was even dressed in a purple outfit.

Very soon, mum came and drove us home. I remembered I had school the next day. School was not the best places I went to, I loved dancing and I wished I could register in a dance school. Definitely not in Nigeria because I did not find it interesting there. All the girls did not talk to me at all because the boys from the hip hop class were trying to talk to me or walk me home. I was tired of the drama so I decided to leave and I did not want to go back there. The ballet steps we were even being taught were things I had learned. I wanted to learn new stuffs. And I did not want the girls being too jealous. I couldn't even get the reason for their jealousy.

When we got home, I made to start ironing my uniform and other things. Vanessa was leaving the next day, finally and I was excited about it. I had the house to myself.

I finished with my ironing before heading to my room. Nessa stopped me on my way.

"Just because I'm going back tomorrow doesn't mean you have to be so crazy in this house. It's my father's house and you better learn to respect that fact!"

"Are you always looking for who to talk to?" I asked her.

"I just gave you a warning," she replied before heading downstairs. Honestly, I didn't have her time.

🎀🎀

I woke up to my alarm which was playing the baby shark song. I just liked the nursery rhyme and I made it my alarm tone. I tapped my phone and it stopped ringing. I wanted to go back to sleep but I knew I had to get my ass out of bed because I set my alarm to wake me up at 6:30 instead of 5:45. I needed to start getting ready for school. Assembly started by 7:30. I had a reason for waking up late, my school was like a fifteen minutes drive from home.

I had a quick shower, applied my lotion, and dressed up in my uniform which was a white shirt and green check shirt. I put on my black socks and shoes and a dark green hairband with a butterfly design. I picked up my school bag and phone before going downstairs.

Finally, my last year in High School. I was happy about the thought.

I went downstairs and grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl. It'd be my breakfast. I was not in the mood to eat anything.

"Do you have money for lunch?" Mum asked, walking into the dining.

"Is it necessary? Mum, you know I don't like eating at school. I'm even late, I have to get going."

"And you're just going to have apple for breakfast? If you don't want to take money for lunch then you have to eat something good this morning for breakfast."

"Isn't apple good? It's a fruit, mum."

"Jade?" She handed the currency notes to me. I collected it from her.

"It's way too much. It's like fifteen thousand here."

"Just incase you want to get money for shopping after school. Maybe to give your friend Marie tomorrow."

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, thank you."

I left.

The driver drove me off to Grand Army College. Back to the place where I hated all the students except Marie and some people who were just like me — those treated like trash because we were not teacher's pet or we were not popular.