It was a new year, precisely the first week of the month and at the moment I was packing up my luggage in preparation to leave the village. I had spent a week and some days in the village and believe me, I enjoyed every bit of my stay.

The night before the first of January was my best moment in the village. Mama, papa and I went to church for crossover service. The service was awesome as we literally danced our way to the new year. At exactly twelve o'clock on the dot, everyone in the church screamed happy new year and started to hug friends, families and people that were sitting close to them. I wasn't any exemption.

Outside the church, fireworks were set off, bangers were blown. Watching the fireworks made me remember my childhood days in the village when some adults would use those fireworks to scare us children and we would run for our dear lives. It was all fun; I could relive the moment.

The only downside of my stay in the village was the fact that mama's leg got injured while I was here. Ever since that child stoned her leg, she hadn't been able to walk properly. She had even resulted in using a walking stick to move from one place to the other and I'm not exaggerating when I say her movement was as slow as a snail. I just wish I could stay a little while longer to take care of her, but school was calling for me! Pacific college had resumed, so I had to go back to the city in order that I wouldn't lag on my studies.

I placed my luggage and the half bag of garri, mama prepared for aunt Caro and her family, on the backseat of the tricycle that was parked in front of our compound.

"Papa! I'm ready to go o!" I called for papa, who was inside the house. Mama was sitting outside in the porch.

"E nwam! I'd miss you my child. Be good, oh? I'd keep praying for you." Mama said and her voice was huskier than normal.

I ran to meet her where she was seated and enclosed her in a warm embrace. The instant I hugged her, tears trickled down my cheeks. I couldn't bare the thought that I was going to be leaving them once again.

Papa came out from inside the house and walked towards us.

"Eh, my Daniella is leaving us again o." Papa said and pulled me in a bone crushing hug. Those kind of hugs that denies you of breath.

"Papa I can't breathe." I struggled to say.

He chuckled as he pulled out from me. He took my hands, muttered some prayers in Igbo and blew air from his mouth to my palms. He did it thrice. It was something he usually did whenever he wanted to give out his blessings.

Once that was done, I hugged mama and papa once again and I moved into the tricycle. It was really an emotional moment for me, knowing I wouldn't be seeing them anytime soon. And they were ageing each passing moment. I cried and cried as the tricyclist drove me off to the station where I would get a bus going to Lagos. It got to a point he turned back to ask why I was crying. I told him nothing and that he should just focus on getting me to my destination.

When we got to the bus station, I paid the tricyclist and he helped me in carrying my luggage and bags close to the lined up buses. He was actually very nice. I thanked him before he left. Afterwards, I did all the necessary proceedings and finally I was on the bus that headed to Lagos.

As the bus started to move, the only thought on my mind was Lagos here I come.

***

"How was the journey?" Aunt Caro beamed at me as I carried the bag of garri to the kitchen. I got to Lagos quite early but because of the traffic, I reached the house pretty late. Lagos traffic was hell!

"It was fine." I feigned a smile as I answered. She was acting all cheerful, so I had to mirror her mood.

"So you were able to go to the village and return all by yourself? That's impressive! How is mama and papa?" She asked.

I dropped the bag of garri at a corner in the kitchen and faced aunt Caro. "They're fine. They said I should greet all of you." I said.

"You gave them the five thousand naira each right?"

"Yes."

"But they didn't call to thank me." Aunt Caro mumbled.

I shrugged, not knowing exactly what to say.

I hadn't seen the twins and uncle Henry since I got back. Were they in the house? I couldn't help but wonder. Just then, uncle Henry walked into the kitchen, his upper body bare.

"Ah Daniella, you're back?"

No o, this is my spirit. My flesh is in the village. That would have been an appropriate answer for him, but then I still had a lot to live for, so I didn't say it. Instead, I greeted him. "Good evening sir!"

"How are you?" He beamed. That left me wondering why he and aunt Caro were acting nice towards me. It was weird. Seemed like my stay to the village had knocked some good spirit into them.

"I'm fine." I said not looking at uncle Henry.

"I'm sure you enjoyed your stay in the village well enough." Uncle said quizzically. I could read the undertone of hostility laced in his statement.

"Yes I did." I feigned a smile.

"I actually thought she wasn't going to come back to complete her secondary education here." Aunt Caro said.

"That would have been her own loss, not ours." Uncle Henry said. "You know school resumed today right?" He asked me.

"Yes I know. That's why I came back." I responded.

"You've missed a day, you know that right?"

I nodded my head in affirmation.

"Very good. Is there something to eat, honey?" Uncle Henry asked aunt Caro.

"Not yet, but Daniella can prepare semo that both of you would eat this night." Aunt Caro suggested.

Here we go again! I practically rolled my eyes.

The both of them walked out of the kitchen. I'm tired o! I wanted to holler at them, but I knew better.

I sure as hell know that it was definitely going to be a long year for me.

***

"Argh! You stepped on my shoes. Don't you know I just got them polished?" Annabelle snarled as I mistakenly bumped into her while I was coming out from the kitchen. This was actually the first time I was seeing her since I got to the city and instead of her welcoming me warmly, she was being all peevish.

I ignored her and walked past.

"So you can't apologize?" She asked lividly.

"We both bumped into each other, so why are you expecting me to apologize?"

"Because you stepped on me idiot! You're supposed to apologize or clean my shoes."

I almost burst out laughing. "Come back to reality if you'd think I, Daniella, would bend down to clean your filthy shoes. And don't even think I'd apologize either."

She looked at me in a scowl. "I don't blame you fool. I blame my mother for even bringing you to this house in the first place. You don't belong here. You're classless and local. Your place is outside the street. That's where you belong!" She spat out disdainfully. On a normal day, I never let her words get to me, but today for some unknown reason, her words hit a spot. It triggered my anger and I couldn't do anything but cry. I spun around and ran to my room.

Slamming the door behind me, I threw myself on the bed and started to weep profusely. Why did they despite me so much? What was my offense? All I wanted was to be happy with my aunt and cousins in the city, but all I got was hate and sadness.

I was so tired and fed up. How could I just get back to the city and someone was already making me cry? I couldn't take it anymore. No one would determine my happiness except me. No one would make me feel inferior without my consent. No one!

I got up from the bed, wiped the tears off my face and took to the bathroom. Once done with having my bath, I slipped into my school uniform and got myself ready for school. The only thing about the city that I had missed was school. Not the school per se, but the friends in school, especially my Peter. I had missed him so much. I was excited that I was finally going to be meeting him.

"Ma, please pocket money." I asked aunt Caro as she gave me the permission to enter into her room.

Aunt Caro reached for her bag and took out a hundred naira note. "For today and tomorrow." She said as she handed the note to me.

"Thank you ma." I said and left her room.

When I got to school, the students were marching into their classes already, so I just went straight to my class.

"Daniella!" I heard Gbemi's voice from behind me and before I could turn back, she had enclosed me in a hug.

She let go and I spun around to warmly hug her. "How are you Gbemi? I've missed you o."

"Aw, I've been good jare and I've missed you too." She beamed at me. "How was your stay in the village?"

"It was fun, I must say."

"Ah Daniella, you never told me you had returned from the village." Someone said from behind me and I didn't need to turn back to know it was Adam. I had missed him and his alluring voice.

"Adam!" I beamed, pulling him in a hug.

"What did you bring for us na?" Gbemi asked.

"Yeah true, what did you..." Adam was saying before I spoke up.

"I brought myself. You should be happy that at least I got to Lagos safely. You guys won't believe I journeyed my way to the village and back to Lagos all by myself?" I told them and they both seemed astonished by the news.

"Really?" They asked simultaneously, popping out their eye sockets.

"Uh-huh. I'm still surprised myself. It's something I never thought I would have done at this age."

"Why didn't your aunt or her husband take you to the village themselves?" Gbemi asked.

"According to my aunt, she didn't want to go to the village." I shrugged.

"Then I take it that it wasn't her idea for you to go to the village." Adam said.

"It wasn't. She actually didn't want me to go because she needs someone to do the house chores for her. But I really needed to see my grandparents. I had missed them, so I called and told my grandparents to tell her that they wanted to see me."

"Oh I see." They both nodded their heads in realization.

"So enough about me, tell me about your holiday? I'm sure you guys had fun here in Lagos."

As soon as I said that, Mr Nnamdi walked into the class. Adam, Gbemi and I walked to our respective seats.

"Good morning everyone!" Mr Nnamdi sounded cheerful.

"Good morning sir! You're blessed!" We all stood up to greet him.

"You're blessed too. Have your seat! Why are there just few of you in the class today?" He asked, his eyes roaming the classroom.

It was then I took my time to look around the classroom. Mr Nnamdi was right. There were just few students in the class. Peter also wasn't in the class; perhaps he hadn't resumed. And he was the one I was really anticipating to see.

****

"That was how I spent my holidays. Not so fun-filled like Gbemi's own. You know I'm not the party time." Adam concluded, while he, Gbemi and I were strolling back to the class from the school canteen.

"Not bad." I said.

"Hey ladies!" Charles called out, walking abreast us.

We tilted our heads sideways to look at him.

"There's a guy in our midst o." Gbemi said.

"I think the holidays made him lose his eyesight." Adam said, rolling his eyes.

"I didn't know Adam was a guy." Charles said in a chuckle.

Adam halted in his strides. We all stopped to look at him. From the look of things, Charles had obviously struck a nerve.

"Okay, obnoxious dunderhead! If you've come here to insult me, please stay far away. We don't need bad energy around us please." Adam snarled.

"Guy chill out!" Charles voice sounded high. "I was just joking."

"Jokes are meant to be funny, but yours wasn't. It was grossly insensitive!" Adam said with enough spark to add impact to his words.

"Hmm!" Gbemi let out.

I fought the urge to laugh because the tension was pretty intense.

"Oh wow I'm sorry." Charles said, squeezing his full brows.

"Whatever!" Adam continued his strides with his arms folded around his chest.

"Charles, that was a very wrong thing to say, y'know?" Gbemi asked.

"But I already apologized." Charles said.

"And he said whatever!" Gbemi rolled her eyes.

"So where are you guys going?" Charles asked after a split moment of awkward silence.

"To our class obviously." Gbemi said in a duh tone.

"Daniella, happy new year o. You don't want to talk to me, right?" Charles asked and I fought the urge to roll my eyes. The truth was that he had spoilt our mood.

"Happy new year to you too." I said, not sparing him a glance.

"Why don't you just tell us to go and that you want to have a word with Daniella. Since that's what you usually say." Gbemi said.

I shot Gbemi a look that implied she shut up.

Charles chuckled, "Oh yeah, please can you excuse us."

"We would. But forget it Charles, Daniella can't date you." Gbemi said and dragged Adam as they walked off.

Charles burst out in a shrill laughter. It was so contagious that I had to giggle.

"So what?" I asked him when he was done laughing.

"I missed looking at your beautiful face."

"Oh jeez." I facepalmed. "Is that all? Can I go now? Yes." I said, turning around to leave.

"Chillax na." He held my arm. "Babe, why are you treating me like this?"

"First, don't call me babe. And secondly, how am I treating you?"

"Like that! Always giving me the cold shoulders. Just because I am not your boyfriend doesn't mean we can't be friends."

"Okay well, I'm sorry about the cold treatment."

"Apology accepted. So err, I have a pleasant surprise for you."

"If it's chocolate, that wouldn't come as a surprise." I shrugged.

"No it's not. It's something you'd love to see."

My curiosity had the better of me now. "What's that?" I asked.

"Give me your phone number? I'd send it to you on WhatsApp. You're on WhatsApp right?"

"Is that the best tactic you've got Charles?" I shook my head at him.

"I don't understand."

"So you want to use that cunning means to get my phone number, right?"

"No, no, I really want to show you something. If I wanted to get your number, I'd have directly asked."

I looked at him skeptically before I finally decided to give him my number. I mean, was it not just a number?

When I got back home from school, I did the usual house chores very quickly. The surprise Charles said he was going to send to me on WhatsApp was still on my mind. I was so curious to know what it was. I hoped he didn't just trick me into giving him my number.

Once I was done with the chores, I went into my room, locked the door and brought out my phone. I opened WhatsApp and a ton of messages started to enter into my phone to the point that my phone froze for a while.

I got a message from Peter and a new number. The number must be Charles'. I tapped the thread of the new number to read the message.

Hey! This is Charles. I'm sure you must have guessed. Just save my contact now to your phone.

I saved his number to my phone before replying him.

I've saved your number already. Now can you just send the surprise. I'm curious asf.

Luckily he was online. So immediately I sent the text, he started typing.

I'd send it now. Warning: you'd not just be surprised to see it, you'd be heartbroken.

When he sent that, I cocked one of my brows in puzzlement. What was he talking about?

Before long, Charles sent me a video. Immediately, I downloaded and viewed it. To say I was shocked by what I saw would be an understatement. I was shattered. It was a video of Peter and Prudence kissing passionately.

My heart twisted.

Tears streamed down my eyes as I watched the video.

Hello!

Daniella are you there?

I'm sure you must have seen the video already.

That's your boyfriend who you love so much kissing Prudence.

I ignored the messages from Charles. I was too heart broken to even reply back. I went out of his thread to see the message Peter had sent to me.

Hey baby boo! How are you?

When I read his message, the tears in my eyes dropped on my phone screen. I wiped the tears off my phone, shut it and kept it under my bed. After which, I buried my face in my pillow and cried my eyes out.

Peter had betrayed me.

_____________________________________________

It would be so unfair of you if you've been reading this story and you've not been voting. I take my time to write each chapter, the least you can do as a supportive reader is vote. So please kindly vote on this chapter and every one you've skipped. Thank you all for the support thus far.

What's your take on the surprise Charles sent to Daniella? I'd love your response.