Dabira's Diary

20

Friday 31st January

Dear diary,

Betrayal should have it’s limits, right?

If you stop being friends with someone does that give you a reason to ruin their happiness

I experienced this firsthand today

We had been having half class day for the past week because the main competition is next week Saturday so we were supposed to complete all other events like basketball, volleyball, football and some of the races before the main day

We had been practicing from 12pm till 2:30pm then we would go for lunch, go to hostel, rest a bit and getting back to the field by 4 till 6:45 when we had to go for dinner and then night prep

The practice for our football match was rigorous,
We did sit ups, ran laps, even did a bit of jump rope. We were fully prepared for our first match

Our match is against Green house girls while Red and Yellow house were to play against each other. If we win against them we would play with the winner of the other match and if we win that match we become the champions for the junior girls football
If we lose we would play against the loser of the other match for third place

The match is to be played tomorrow by 9am and my teammates were a bit worried about our opponents

Green house girls have been nicknamed ‘The men of girls hostel’. The majority of them had muscular and manly features and according to what I heard from my seniors, they were very good with sports

They have claimed the champion title in almost every sporting events over the past years and it looked like they were ready to take it all again this year

Senior Daniella is part of the team and during our practice yesterday she kept complaining and telling us how we were wasting our time because we weren’t going to win. It was demoralizing and our other teammates began loosing morale for the match

But Senior Abigail wasn’t going to let that happen
“Daniella that’s enough”
“But Senior Abigail, you know I’m right”
“Daniella…” Senior Abigail was getting angry
“Why do we even bother, we already know how the match is going to turn out and it’s not going end with us winning, have you seen those men disguised as girls”
“Daniella, if I hear your…” Senior Abigail didn’t finish her statement because she was interrupted by Senior Hauwa, she’s also on the team

“Daniella, if you want to keep talking loser talk you can do us all a favor and get the hell out of here” we were shocked but she wasn’t done “or even better, you can join your sister and leave the school as a whole the only difference would be that you would be leaving voluntarily or you can also leave the same way your dear sister left”

The look on senior Daniella’s face cannot be described. It was a mix of embarrassment, anger, hurt

The rest of us including senior Abigail were speechless, after a few seconds she had to intervene
“Hauwa that was uncalled for, face your practice and I don’t want to hear your voice again”

She didn’t address senior Daniella, probably because she had been embarrassed enough for one day
The rest of our practice went uninterrupted

Before we began practice today senior Funmi called me aside, she said she had something important to tell me
“Dabira, are you confident about tomorrow’s match?”
“Of course, we’ve been practicing hard so I’m sure we’ll do well”
“Do all your teammates have this confidence?”
“There were some issues yesterday but it has been addressed so we’re good to go”
“That’s perfect…” The look on her face told me she had something else to say and I was probably not going to like it but I didn’t ask because I didn’t want to jinx anything

At that time, I saw Feyi walking towards us with a very unfriendly smile on her face. I knew it was unfriendly because I’ve seen her give that smile to people she did not like when she was about to do something she knew they wouldn’t like
“Sister Funmi have you told her?”
I turned to look at senior Funmi
“Told me what?”
“There was an issue with the house royalty, my mom didn’t allow Feyi to participate in it but she insisted that Feyi take part in the sporting activities and the only one she can do well is football”
“But we’re complete, or is she coming in as a substitute?”
Feyi replied this time
“which stupid substitute, I’m replacing you”
“What?” I refused to believe what she just said but the look on senior Funmi’s face told me that she wasn’t joking
“But I’ve been practicing since day one”
“I’m so sorry Dabira, there’s nothing else I can do”
I didn’t even know how to respond
“At least you’re still marching ”
She said that in an attempt to console me but there was no point

I wanted a medal and they don’t give medals to people that march. I couldn’t open my mouth to say all this because I was scared that the tears I was fighting to hold were going to drop and that’ll give Feyi something to laugh about
“Okay senior Funmi, thank you”
And with that I carried my bag and ran to the hall to cry in private
**********************

That night I went to run an errand for senior uju in block 4 and as I passed by the courtyard I heard Feyi’s voice so I bent down so I could eavesdrop without being seen
“Why did you do that to your friend?”
“Because mummy said I can’t do house royalty and I want to do something for interhouse sport”
“You could’ve marched”
“I don’t like marching, the only thing that interests me is football plus they give medals to the winners”
“You’ve changed, the Feyi I know wouldn’t do this to her friend”
“I didn’t change I’ve always been like this”
“Hope you aren’t moving with the likes of Jessica, I warned you”
“Of course not”

It took everything in me not to expose her to her sister, I just held back and left the place before I did something I was going to regret

It was my turn to clean the dorm windows but Honour offered to do it for me,she told senior Uju that I had a serious headache and even tucked in my net so people won't see me crying
I muttered a quiet thank you
"You're welcome" she replied before she went to clean the windows

So i was able to think about today's events and cry as hard as I wanted,
I cried myself to sleep