Dabira's Diary

30

Friday 9th May

Dear Diary,

The past week was a blur.

I went from hostel to class, from class to dining, dining to hostel, hostel to class and finally, class to hostel. My friends were finally discharged on Monday so we went through the blur together, I didn’t tell them about my dad’s marriage and all the recent developments in my family

They kept asking why I was behaving like a zombie but I just brushed past it because I didn’t want them to feel bad for me so whenever they brought it up, I changed the topic or made a joke to avoid it. They even asked Senior Tofa to talk to me but there is no way I’m telling him anything, he knows too much already.
I think I’m just too embarrassed to tell anyone.

Anyway, it’s time for the Senior Send-Forth preparations. The whole idea is to show the SS3 students how much the juniors in each house actually care about them, we are practicing songs, dramas, imitation of our seniors and other things to show that we care about them.
We were grouped and I fell into the singing group, I had mixed feelings about going onstage to sing because of my stage fright but at the same time, it was a perfect opportunity to showcase my beautiful voice

I’m allowed to be vain from time to time

The song we were singing was a mix of “The Cup Song” by Anna Kendrick, “Graduation (Friends Forever)” by Vitamin C, “Farewell” by Rihanna and “Whenever You Remember” by Carrie Underwood. We were going to add parts of each song to make our own and the idea sounded so cute to me especially because I’m a sucker for The Cup Song, I even know how to do the cup dance thing

While the SS2 seniors were deciding on what part to give each person, we had a break so Honour and I went to get water to drink and on our way there we overheard an argument and by natural instinct we had to eavesdrop

It was an argument between Karen and Melvin. She sounded like she was crying and he was raising his voice at her, I was able to make out some parts of the conversation,
“I know what I saw, you can’t lie to me” Melvin sounded really angry
“I was only explaining an assignment to him, I swear” she was crying while explaining
“So you’re calling me a liar?”
“No, I just…”
“I’m blind and stupid now right?”
“That’s not what I’m saying”
“I know what to do; I’ll tell your parents”
Apparently that was a big deal because as soon as he said that she went on her knees to plead with him. That was a sight i never thought I’d see, I looked at Honour and she was just as shocked as I was
“Please don’t tell them, I promise I’ll stay away from guys”
“Last warning” and with that he walked away

I wanted to quietly walk away but I didn’t see the stack of old textbooks in front of me so I knocked them over and made so much noise that Karen noticed our presence and then it became awkward for like 10 seconds before she cleared her throat and asked how long we had been standing there
“Not too long” I tried to cover up but I am a terrible liar under pressure so it was obvious that I was lying
“You heard everything right?”
“We didn’t mean to”
“Its fine, I’m actually relieved that someone else knows about this”
“We’ll keep it a secret”
“Thank you” she paused for a while like she was thinking about something before asking “do you guys want to hear the full story”
I was very curios but I felt weird saying yes but Honour didn’t mind so she said yes. I’m thankful for that girl

“Here goes…”

She told us the whole story and it definitely wasn’t what I was expecting. Her Father owes his wealth to Melvin’s parents so he promised her to his parents before she was even born as a way to repay them, they were born in the same month but she was born before him and because of that, his parents felt she would be a disrespectful wife when they grew up so they did everything to make sure that they always went everywhere together so he could monitor her.

He repeated two classes in primary school and his parents made sure she repeated with him, when it was time to enter secondary school he failed the common entrance and once again, she had to wait for him. When they were finally admitted into Bright Minds, his parents wanted them to be in the same class but the school didn’t allow them to influence that, so Melvin had to go to her class everyday to check on her. They are even on the same table in the dining hall

When she was done, the first thing I realized was that she’s three years older than the majority of our set mates and if it wasn’t for the issue with Melvin she was supposed to be in SS1.
There were other things that started to make sense; the apology she gave on his behalf, the way she was always trying not to make him angry and why she even shed more tears than expected during our drama presentation.

“What happens if he tells your parents?” Honour asked
“I get a serious beating from my dad and I have to apologize to him and his parents”
“What if you end up liking someone else?”
“Already do”
“Who?” I just had to ask
“He’s in SS2, and the feeling between us is mutual”
“What about Melvin?”
“That’s where it gets interesting; the person is his dorm head. Whenever we want to talk or hang out, he sends Melvin on a very long errand so we can have some time alone”
“So he knows you’re betrothed?”
“Yes”
I found this cute but I still had a lot of question
“What happens when Melvin finds out?”
She kept quiet for a minute and then she replied
“When we get to that bridge we’ll cross it, I just want to live in the moment”
“If it makes you happy, I think you should go for it”
“Thank you so much for listening to me. I feel less burdened now that I’ve told someone everything”
“Anytime”
“Let’s get back to rehearsal before seniors start looking for us”
*********************************

The seniors had picked out the parts but they still needed five people to lead the rest of us into each part of the song so they asked for the first three volunteers from each set and I was part of the lucky three that came forward for the JSS1s and when they had gotten the volunteers, they had a little addition.
I was actually really nervous because of my stage fright but thankfully I was able to sing properly and out of the three of us I had the best voice, so I was picked as one of the soloists

The rest of the rehearsal was actually enjoyable especially because the seniors were in love with my voice and I have to admit, it was definitely getting into my head and I liked that feeling.

I think I might have even gotten over my stage fright