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Louise let out a loud squeal and began to bounce on her bed.

Terrified by the noise, her mom dashed into the room, wide-eyed.

"Louise, what happened? Why did you scream like that? Talk to me!"

Louise settled back on the bed and grinned at her mother as though she had won the lottery.

"Nothing ma. I'm sorry. Did I scare you?"

"Nothing?" her mom seethed. "You want to give your father a heart attack this early morning, abi? My friend, will you come out of the room this second before I slap your head! It's almost 5 am. Come to the sitting room so we can start the devotion."

Mrs Iyioluwa peered at the phone that Louise held in her hand.
"And don't tell me you were up all night pressing your phone, again! It's until I seize it. You know me o."

Louise internally rolled her eyes. She quickly stood up and trudged after her mother to the living room, fully aware that her mother could live up to her threat. Plus, she loved her mother too much to want to incur her wrath.

It had been three weeks since she began posting chapters of her ongoing novel on her Facebook page.

She had developed a new routine. Her personal quiet time was moved backwards by an hour, from 4 am to 3 am, allowing her an extra hour before devotion to create the draft of her next chapter which she would thoroughly edit during breaks at the shop.

She ensured that whenever she prayed, she brought her writing before God. She prayed that God would keep on inspiring her; and for everyone who would read the story that they wouldn't just be entertained but that they would see the truth beneath the surface of the stories.

At first, no one regarded her story. The first week was the hardest—no likes, no comments, five views max which included that girl that urged her to start posting online—but she kept posting consistently every day at 7 pm, undeterred by the discouraging metrics.

Now, her story got an average of 30+ likes plus multiple comments. It was like a major leap. What brought her to the limelight was that unknown to her, that girl had taken to sharing each chapter of Above the Storm, giving credit to the author. Soon the girl's sizeable number of followers soon began to troop directly to Louise's page, to get each story update fresh and steaming hot.

Many times the comments made Louise shed tears of joy. Some made her blush. Some made her laugh out loud.

She ensured she took time to reply to every single comment and engage her readers.
This endeared her to them and they would eagerly wait for updates whilst reposting the story and spamming her to hasten up with dropping a fresh update.

Today, the message in her inbox had caught her off guard, hence the squeal.
It was from a Nigerian Christian influencer, one she never dreamed could chat her up in a million years.

It read:

"Dear Louise Iyioluwa, I hope this message meets you well. You might not know it but I have been silently following your story series, Above the Storm. I stumbled upon it while surfing through Facebook. Your style is unique and the story has a profound message that touches me deeply. I can't wait to see how this turns out. I will give you my full-fledged support to see this story become a sensation. Hopefully, in the future, we can collaborate.

From a silent admirer,
Abimbola Olubanwo

Mrs Abimbola was into Christian/modest fashion and was just newly wed to one of the top Christian moguls in filmmaking.
All through the day, that message kept Louise's spirits high.

There was only one small problem. Louise would be resuming back to school next week.
She wasn't sure how she would juggle the hectics of academic  work with this new addition to her life called writing.

~~~

Who else can relate with Louise's mom's reaction?

School and life clashing, ehn. I just hope Louise finds her balance.

Don't forget to vote, comment and share.

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