When Love Is War.

6

Flashback

It had been two weeks since Sarayu Adah joined Gifted Minds Highschool. Two weeks wasn't a long time but it was enough time for people to form an opinion of Sarayu. On her first day of school, she received a lot of curious glances, her blue grey eyes, light complexion and 4A curls attracted a lot of attention. Before the end of the day several of her SSS 2b classmates and seniors had tried to form conversation with her but none had succeeded in getting more than one word answers. So it was no surprise that in just two weeks at the school both student and teachers alike had labelled her a snub. "Who does she think she is", "Miss prim and proper", "Is it because she has an English accent" were some of the nicer phrases whispered by her class mates as she walked by.
At that point in Sarayu's life what people said about her was the least of her worries because going on three months now she lost the only person who had loved her unconditionally for the last sixteen years of her life. Life wasn't the same without her mother. She missed her, she missed her life in London. If only her mother hadn't gone out that day, if only she wasn't knocked dead by that drunk driver. She wouldn't have had to move in with people that didn't want her.
Her father called her Ihotu, he said it meant love and he told her he loved her all the time but these days she didn't feel loved. She met her father for the first time when she was six years old and her step mother and sister when she was ten. Her father called her on the phone all the time and came to see her once or twice a year, she loved him but her mother was her world. Why did God allow this to happen she had wondered a million times. Her mother was an orphan so she had no other choice but to move to Lagos and live with her father's "other family", her step mother and sisters whom she had only met twice in her whole life. They all tried to be nice to her but they were just familiar strangers.

Ene was six and Olivia was four, but they could see that their new elder sister was sad but what could they do. Grace her step mother didn't know what to do with the rude teenager who was mourning the loss of her mother and her husband was a soldier so he was hardly around. He just dropped this burden on her.

It was break time and Sarayu sat at the back of the classroom, eating the snacks that the housekeeper packed for her. Layla Chizoba had been watching Sarayu since she resumed school. She saw right through her cold facade, she was sad and lonely. She needed a friend and she was ready to be her friend. "God how can I get through to her?Lord help me show her she's not alone", she prayed.

A small still voice asked her to sit with Sarayu and she did. Everyday during lunch break she would drag her seat beside Sarayu and eat lunch with her. Sarayu was shocked by this new development, she ate in class because even though she was lonley she couldn't bear their judgemental glares. Layla was not judgemental though, she was friendly and she hardly spoke to her unless she wanted to offer her a cupcake or a cookie.

It was killing Layla to be so silent around Sarayu, she had so many questions she wanted to ask her but there was something keeping her silent.
After two weeks it seemed like her tactic was paying off because Sarayu accepted the cookies she offered and inturn offered her some fried groundnut.
The next day as she sat beside Sarayu she asked asked her if she had any friends.
"I do", she answered.
"Then why sit with me every day"
"I sit with you because I see you're lonely and God wants me to tell you you'll never be alone".
After she said that Sarayu burst into tears and Layla comforted her. That day they became inseparable regardless of what people said about Sarayu.