Opeyemi

i cant remember the exact first day i met opeyemi....but wen i met her,i knew i wud neva forget her.

it was in second term...approximately january 2009...my besties chisom,awelle and i were on our way to goodness knows(it was probably break tym)and opeyemi passed us *actually it was a whole group of ss1 girls dat passed us* and in our regular fashion -as per SS3 girls,we took absolutely no notice of any of them...except our resident idiot awelle(yhu know i love yhu).

awelle- did yhu guys notice those girls?

chisom and i(we cudnt care less)- which girls??

awelle- i cnt believe dat yhu girls ddnt notice them,evryone has been talkn bout dem!!

chisom- den tell us wat happnd for goodness sake..

(I WAS BUSY LOOKING BACK AT THE GIRLS TO SEE IF THEY HAD SPROUTED EXTRA HEADS OR ANYTHING EQUALLY AMAZING AND OR FREAKY!!)

awelle- those girls are best friends,there also in a clique and they call thmselves BRACES GIRLS....cuz dey all wear braces...


okay i wont bore yhu with evry single detail but yhu sha get the point..

well,yhu kno dat thing dat happens wen someone has bin under yhur nose for years and yhu neva notice it but d day yhu FINALLY see it,yhu keep seeing it over and over..dats wat happened with the BRACES GIRLS...i kept seeing them everywhere i went.
and AWELLE our resident Defender of the Helpless made friends with them so they Automatically became my friends...

well,netym i spotted any of the braces girls (Chinwe,Dansia,and of course Opeyemi), i wud call out braces or any similar sounding thing because dey would always answer.
Desperate boarder dat i was at dat tym,i wud always extract deir ipods or phones from dem and return it weneva their batteries died..
On one such escapade,i went with my beloved basketball team *coff coff* to ikeja and forgot to return opeyemis ipod to her...d next day,she wasnt evn vexd dat i returnd it to her late..rather she just hissed in dat cute way we all know and playfully hit me on my head...and dats how my real friendship with opeyemi started....

every wednesday....ope wud wait outside d dining hall...she adored the donuts and wud neva let us rest till she had extracted some from us..

i remember the day she had her shoes*bright blue*,earrings,wristwatch and hair ruffle seized...i met her outside our class sobbing...i had 2 really plead with debbie dat day to release it...

soon...ope seemed to look sick to me..and weneva i wud see her i wud ask her wat was wrong and she wud always tell me she was fyn...i wud den insist dat she was sick.
it became annoying...'VANESSA FREE THE GIRL JO' awelle startd to tell me..nd i tried to stop sayn it....wer d spirits tryn to show me something???...i wud neva know.

den in about april,wen all the ss3s wer goin home to get ready for jamb and stuff,and opeyemi was standing with me at the gate...i was about leaving and she was sayn all the usual holiday yarn...'write well oh,dont get fat'...
i yelled back 'ope,dont forget my birthday oh'
and she yelled back 'HOW CAN I? WHEN ITS THE SAMW DAY AS MY SISTERS BIRTHDAY'
and with a final wave i was gone
i neva knew dat was the last thing ope wud eva say to me...

On a peaceful sunday,a week or so after writing jamb..i was fuming at d dining table,my brother had wrestled d laptop away from me and i was not happy..
my phone rang and i answered it b4 i realised dat awelle was flashing me AGAIN..

i ddnt want to call her back...but she kept flashing and flashing so i decided to call her back..at least i could rant about how annoying brothers are..so i made the phonecall dat changed my life..

wen i called awelle..she was hysterical and cryn and telling me dat OPEYEMI was DEAD!!
'very funny' i told awelle...but she insisted on it,she told me dat she hrd it from CHISOM.....who also sed dat ope died of sickle cell..
...'but awelle' i sed,'opeyemi DOES NOT have SICKLE CELL'....(in my face).d only sickle cell we know is shalom...mayb its shalom....
awelle tld me dat she knew dat opeyemi DID NOT HAVE SICKLE CELL...but since shalom was also awelles AFAM...she was still cryn

'chisom' dat joker,i assured awelle dat i wud call her and get to the bottom of this.

i called chisom and proceeded to thoroughly harass and interrogate her...
'but Vanessa,i can neva joke with death..opeyemi is dead... Cynthia ogueji told me and she heard it from her sister Juliet dats in ss1 with opeyemi'

OPEYEMI!!! DEAD!!.....'Chisom sorry,i hear yhu but i dont believe yhu'


i called awelle back and relayed the info..adding dat i ddnt belive it..i promised to call her back wen i had more news

i lay on my bed and thought ov wat to do...FACEBOOK....i used my fone to log on and quickly checked the recent status updates......RONKE OYEBANJI--(i cnt remember her actual status but it had to do with the death of her friend)....WHAT TO DO WHAT TO DO?

I got ronkes number of facebook and called her ' YHUR ACOUNT BALANCE IS LOW'...all the calling chisom and awelle over and over again had killd my credit..i cut the fone and checked my credit....50 naira left...do i call first or buy another card first...

i called....'hello ronke this is vanessa and i dont have much credit but please just tell me who died......and just as the fone cut i heard one word...OPEYEMI

dats wen the world stopped....i ran madly across out of the house with tears streaming down my eyes....d same tears running down my eyes as i write this..
i buy credit and rush home...back into my room...sobbing....how can she b dead??

i call ronke back to get the details...SICKLE CELL...ope,yhu neva told us dat yhu had sickle cell..u ddnt evn look it....im so hysterical...i calm down..i still have to call awelle and it wudnt do for me to cry wen she was alredy hysterical

i call and gently break d news to her..i finish my credit consoling her...
i log onto facebook and stare at her pics

OPEYEMI???? DEAD????

OPEYEMI IS DEAD??

OPEYEMI IS DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



WORDS can neva express how much i miss yhu and wish yhu were here...
R.I.P...
..::SLEEP WELL MY FRIEND..::