When Love Is War.

27

Sarayu wanted her first son to study in the UK at her alma mater, and at the same time, she wanted him close to home while Timothy wanted what was best for his son but also what was best for his administration. His son studying abroad like they both did would be a great option for Jason but then what would that say about his administration, that he was just like all the others sending his family abroad with state funds and trampling on the system? Not like he was going to use state funds, he had the money to send his family to any part of the world, he came from a wealthy family and he had made a lot of money in his own right but the people would not understand and he had sworn to be a president who was answerable to the people. Yes, in a moment of weakness he had begged Sarayu to leave the country with his children but her refusal had brought him back to his senses, they would all stay and he would use his money and influence to keep his family safe.

They had both agreed he would stay home for a year after his graduation so on the 1st November 2022 he began his registration at the University of Abuja but it would be far from what any of them bargained for.

❤❤❤❤

Jason's first day on campus started on the wrong foot. He had been up for most of the night trying to get his online pre-registration sorted out because the school portal only seemed to work past midnight. He had spent most of last week trying to do his two-part online registration, uploading his bio-data and paying for his school fees but the site always seemed to hang. Thankfully, he had stumbled on a student-run platform online that advised him to try registering at night and it had worked. The traffic on the site during the daytime was too much for it to handle and he could not help but wonder why they could not solve the issue. After successfully submitting his bio-data and paying his school charges, he went ahead to make photocopies of the documents he would need for the physical part of his registration and he finally went to bed at about 3 am but not before setting his alarm to wake him up in three hours.
The late night or rather the early morning he had slept coupled with the harmattan cold had Jason sleeping through his alarm and being slapped awake by his mother at half past eight.
"Wake up! You were home all week doing online registration and now you are sleeping till this time".

" Good Morning mum", he said as he sat upright.
Was it just him or did pregnancy make her harsh?

"Get up and get ready for school, breakfast has been ready since seven".

As he got up to get ready he did not feel like he was starting his first year at university, where was the freedom when his mom was waking him up and making him breakfast?
Jason got ready as fast as he could but still got a scolding from Sarayu about taking his sweet time. If he could he would have skipped breakfast but she gave him no room to argue.

" God goes with you, His favour and protection be upon you, in Jesus' name", she prayed.
"You know what you are going to that school for and you know where you come from. Everything we have thought you led to this moment, now be the man we expect you to be".

" ok Mum".

"Peter Is waiting outside with the car".

Jason drops his dishes in the sink and tries to collect his thoughts.
" I thought we agreed I did not need a driver".

" You said you did not need a driver, nobody agreed with you. Peter is not just a driver, he is also with you for security. If you like drive yourself but Peter stays".

"Mum it just looks weird having him with me at all times can we just stick with the secret security guys at least they stay mostly invisible".

"See, I do not have the strength for this conversation, go to school. Bye".

Jason storms out of the kitchen and to the garage where Peter is waiting.

" Can I have my keys", he says sitting in the driver's seat.

❤❤❤❤

In all of Jason's life, he had never seen this much of a crowd. Peter insisted on coming down with him even when he insisted on him sitting in the car and waiting for him. To his surprise, Peter retrieved a file from the glove compartment of the car and explained to him that he would also be studying at this university with him. Peter was twenty-one years old and he had been in the army for two years. He joined the army as a recruit because he did not have the funds to complete his education. This job was giving him another opportunity to go to school even though he had to take the same courses as Jason.
A

t the end of the day, all Jason and Peter had achieved was an understanding between them. They would be friends like most people assumed they were. They became registration buddies with a few people who either did not know who Jason was or was cool enough to act chill about it.
It took them the whole week to get their validation done by the faculty and their department. They were officially Engineering Students at the University of Abuja, even though they still had to do their medical and library registration.