Two years later, senior high school was the latest news. Everything about high school was so fascinating.
I made it into high school with immense difficulty because my good grades were dying. I had to buckle up and study more to achieve a better grade. Nicole as well did a lot of studying in order not to provoke her Father and tamper with the probation which was still active.
There were the serious students who were often bullied and called nerds, there were bullies, creepy students, talented students, rich and cool students, hilarious students, smart asses, jerks, players… just to mention a few; and then there was Jessica.
Jessica didn't really fall under any category, everyone just thought she was a freak and called her a religious fanatic because she was way too godly and that often annoyed people.
Jessica was the serious and reserved kind; she reminded me of the younger me. Her grades were at the top and she kept her focus on her life, even as she got terribly bullied for it.
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On my first day of school, I had issues with some stuff, most especially my locker—which had technical issues.
No one gave me any attention, Nicole was so busy attending to her fans and I had to deal with my issues alone. Jessica approached me.
"Hi," she said trying to manage and hold tight all the books she had in her hands.
"Umm, your…" I said, intending on informing her about one of her textbooks that was about falling out, and just then, it fell together with everything else.
"Oops!"
"Let me help." I stooped to help her arrange the books and held them in my hands.
"Why don't you just put them in your bagpack?"
"I actually borrowed these from the library and I wanna return them."
"Okay I'll help."
"Thanks, but first…" Jessica said and fixed my locker in a second. "Done," she said.
"Wait, how…"
"I get pretty much straight As in chemistry, physics, and biology so… piece of cake!" she smiled and I gave a light laughter.
We then headed to the library to return the borrowed books.
It was kind of weird how we became friends.
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"You're not as horrible as people make you seem," I said and she smiled a little.
"You too."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean, you hang out with the daughter of a huge celebrity and act like her twin so I expected you to be more of the skanky type."
"Nicole isn't skanky."
"Of course you'd say so, a buddy's gotta be a buddy. Anyways, I've gotta hit the lab. See ya around Stephanie Baker."
"It's Bakewell."
"Oh, right." We both laughed. Her long, curly, auburn ponytail bounced over her shoulder as she took a turn.
Just as Jessica exited, Nicole walked up to me, annoyed she looked.
"Were you just speaking to that freak? Did you just sniff her presence?" Nicole said and I sighed and threw my face away.
"What is it Nicky?"
"You have a boundary. Cool people do not relate with freaks. It doesn't happen and it shouldn't happen. She's gonna rub all over you her freak juice."
"Jessica is not a freak."
"She's even got a name. just gimme my stuff so I can leave for class," she said and I opened my bagpack for a box containing hard drugs.
"Nicole…"
"Don't Nicole me. It's for Kevin."
Despite sticking by Nicole that much, I couldn't explain why I wasn't taking drugs and wasn't as wild as she was.
I did use her drugs once but somehow, I wasn't in anyway interested and she didn't push me into it. I tried smoking once but I ended up with a terrible headache. We just weren't to that extent alike.
I dropped my bagpack on a shelf then went on social media.
Within few minutes, Jessica returned.
"I forgot my chemistry textbook," she said and took the textbook which was just next to my bagpack.
As she grabbed her book, she accidentally drew my bag and it fell on the floor. Nicole's lipgloss fell from it.
"Oops! My bad," she said and picked it up then gave it back to me and walked away. That took my mind way back to when I first approached Nicole and how much she treated me like garbage.
The lip gloss seemed significant as it reminded me of whom I used to be in a really profound manner.
Arthur, Emlyn, and Jasmine were still close friends while i was drawn away from them and acted as if they were total strangers to me.
It had been two years but my love for them still hadn't been conquered.
Every so often, I had the desire to approach them and start up a conversation but I had a cold feet.
At times, I caught them staring at me like they were also having the same feeling as me—attempting to say something.
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I and Jessica became really close friends, so close that I had to ditch hanging out with Nicole frequently and she wasn't bothered about it.
I loved hanging out with her despite her godliness and her opposition towards my kind. She was so delightful and nice. She never criticized me or displayed any act of hatred towards me.
We hung out in my house and she frequently taught me my homework. She covered up for me in class whenever I got into trouble and we had so much fun together.
Jessica made me feel like going back, she made me understand the value of good friends. But it was too late to go back, I didn't think there was hope for me.
I never cared anymore about my diminished ambition, I was just okay with being friends with the celebrity's kid. Just as much as I enjoyed being friends with Nicole, I enjoyed being friends with Jessica but I couldn't make a decision. I couldn't go back, I just could not.
On one faithful day, I and Jessica walked to the school's cafeteria while she spoke to me about dressing decently because I was wearing skimpy clothes.
As soon as Nicole saw me with her, she flushed.
Nicole approached us and sprayed perfume all around me; I gave an unpleasant look.
"Nicky, what is all this?" I pouted.
"I am trying to protect you from all the stink and bacteria, can't you see? Remember, there should be boundaries." Nicole pushed Jessica out of her way.
"I'm so sorry," I pleaded.
"it's okay," Jessica replied.
We got to the front of the dressing room door where there was a bench and I was going to sit there and chill out but suddenly, when I was about asking Jessica about it, she had vanished.
I turned around to look for her but she wasn't close by.
"But… she… was… just… standing… here," I said to myself, puzzled. "Excuse me, did you see a girl standing here few seconds ago?" I asked the black boy who sat next to me with his guitar and he replied, "not really."
Just immediately, my phone rang and the call was from Jessica. I sighed.
"Where are you?"
"Just slowly get up, pack your things, and leave where you are right this moment," said Jessica.
"What are you…"
"No questions Steph. Just leave that place."
I confusingly listened to her and left where I sat to find Jessica hiding behind a trash can.
Jessica discarded telling me why she had disappeared and why I had to leave.
I soon observed that whenever I was walking with Jessica and we got to the dressing room door or even the environment, she would freeze, become nervous, make an excuse to leave, or just race away in a flash.
I was really curious to know the reason for her actions and so I pressed further.
"Why won't you just forget this stuff?"
"Tell me. Do you have dressing room phobia?"
"It's not that. I'm gonna spill the beans but you gotta promise not to spill it too, don't mention it to anyone."
I made the promise and she took me to the dressing room area.
"You're scared of the bench?"
"Not the bench, the person sitting on it."
Jessica was referring to the guy with the guitar whom I had asked of her whereabouts from.
"What about him?"
"That's Jeremy Hart. I've got a tremendous crush on him. He tends to hang out around that area so I'm usually phobia-griped to go anywhere there."
"Why don't you just go over there and tell him how you feel?"
"No way! Plus my Mom says the guy should always make the first move. And you? Who do you have a crush on?"
"Nobody," I replied. Of course that was a big baloney. I still had feelings for Emlyn so much that I got agitated at the sight of him with another girl.
𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝙇𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙧𝙙? Leonard had moved with his family to Chicago after the night of the school show day; the beast who almost caused me to come in close contact with death.
Each time I reminisced about the rape incident, I felt like ending my life. It haunted me so awfully but I couldn't mention it to anyone at all, not even Nicole.
Losing my virginity as a teenager was something I never dared to imagine, especially through rape.
When I initially walked through puberty and started to get curvaceous and attractive, Aunt Dabira took her time to show me the essence of keeping my virginity until I would get married.
In Nigeria, hyperbolizing the effects of premarital sex by guardians was really common, so those of us who were considered naive or a noob would never want to associate with the opposite sex. I wasn't that way though but I was so scared of losing my virginity premaritally; I felt the say I would indulge in such immorality, I would die.
In Nigeria, I was surrounded by people who normalized getting that intimate with the opposite sex; Staying virgin meant absolutely nothing to them, in fact it was considered absurd to stay a virgin as a teen but I thought that I could also set the world straight by enlightening people about such. There I was, battling with what I was meant to help people overcome.
I learned to live with the trauma of rape and keep it a secret. 𝙂𝙡𝙖𝙙 𝙄 𝙬𝙖𝙨 𝙡𝙪𝙘𝙠𝙮 𝙚𝙣𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙥𝙧𝙚𝙜𝙣𝙖𝙣𝙩; 𝙄'𝙙 𝙗𝙚 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙩!
Like thinking about that wasn't enough, I frequently viewed Emlyn with Jasmine, it freaked me out! I could tell neither Nicole nor Jessica that I was being jealous and upset because my prince charming hated me for who I was… who I had become.
Just as soon as Jessica left—the angel, the devil came to me. Nicole had this once in a lifetime smile on her face; she seemed a lot delighted.
"Okay what's up?"
"I'm in love!"
"I know about Kevin, Nicole. He's your boyfriend"
"Not Kevin, someone else."
I paused to process her words. Nicole had broken up with Jerome all because she claimed he wasn't giving her enough attention. After Jerome, she got into different relationships with four more guys. I was highly stupefied when she told me about her feelings for a new guy.
"I went to the guys dressing room to see Kevin but then I saw this guy sitting on a bench with his guitar. I want that guy Steph."
"What?! You have a crush on Jessica's crush?" I blurted and then I realized I had spilled the beans without even shaking the can!
"What did you just say?"
"Nothing. So what's his name?" I tried to outsmart her.
"You said I have a crush on Jessica's crush!"
"Of course not. Your ears sent the wrong message," I gave a short laugh.
"Stephanie! Are you shitting me? That bi**h! Thanks a lot for this valid info, least you're not a freak's friend for nothing."
"Oh damn it! Nicky you have to promise me that you won't do anything stupid. Nicole, you have a boyfriend already… don't do anything."
"Oh know I won't," she replied in an obvious sarcastic manner and I fell on my face.
Stephanie, you've really done it this time.
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The next day, I became glued to Nicole so as to prevent her from taking any crazy action against Jessica. As a result of that, Jessica had the impression that I no longer wanted to be friends with her and so we were away from each other for a while.
I stood by my locker to get my books and Jessica walked up to me with an unusual facial expression.
"If you don't wanna talk to me, couldn't you have at least kept my secret safe?"
"What? What are you talking about?"
Jessica pulled out her phone and showed me a post Nicole made about her crush on Jeremy.
𝘿𝙖𝙣𝙜! 𝙄 𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙣𝙚𝙩 𝙚𝙭𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙨!
"Look, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to tell her, it just sort of slipped out of my mouth. I haven't been talking to you cause I've been too busy trying to keep Nicole from exposing your secret."
"It's fine. I understand," she smiled. "All of this will be over soon. This is high school afterall."
𝙉𝙤𝙬 𝙞𝙨𝙣'𝙩 𝙨𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚
The news spread across the whole school.