I was in SS3 two years ago when I decided to leave school to visit a guy I met on Facebook. The only thing that saved my life was because I told three of my friends in school where I was going. Yes, I was in boarding school then; at Model college, Lagos.
Ok, so this is what happened.
I met him, Myke, that’s how he spelt his name, M.Y.K.E. it was on one of those long vac holidays when I got a friend request from him. I clicked ‘Accept.’
Immediately, he began to chat with me on fb messenger. We exchanged phone numbers and we began to send photos to each other.
But at that time also, I was preparing for my exams, so whenever I went to school, I couldn’t chat because phones were not allowed in school but when I got home, I would just buy N500 data and we would chat all night. I felt I knew him.
He told me he had fallen in love with me. I believed him because, see, nobody ever told me they loved me.
My parents? Well, lets just say my mother. I know she is trying, especially after my father had an accident at the saw mill. He was a furnishing man but since then, things had been difficult for us.
He couldn’t work like before and it was my mother that was helping with everything, feeding a father and five children. My mother sells food at new garage, so life was hard for us.
Though we sold food, it’s not every time we had food at home. So, when you meet someone who sends you money, ha, that was something o.
How did he send it? I have a friend in school who has a Gt account, so I used my friend’s account number to receive the money. Sometimes I got N5,000; sometimes maybe N8,000. Which at that that time, for me, was a whole lot! Remember I was still in secondary school at that time. So the thing entered my eyes!
Anyway, so we came home for Christmas vac, that was when I had time to really chat and he came to visit me at my mother’s stall at New Garage. He came like a customer; you know. He bought food, I sat to chat with him, he paid and asked me to keep the change.
My mother was busy serving other customers, so I don’t think she noticed.
We had been sending love messages, nudes, and so, sex was something I knew would happen but I wanted it to be after I finished secondary school, though two of my friends in school were already disvirgined by their boyfriends in school but me, I wanted it after secondary school.
We were to return to school a few days later so Myke and I agreed that I would go back to school and change from my uniform to mufti so I could sneak out of school without the security men knowing I had left. The school security guys can’t know everybody in the school, have you been to any model college before? There are more than 3,000 students, how many will you recognize if they are not in uniform?
And you know on resumption days or even visiting days; students will come with their brothers or sisters or cousins who have come to see them off. So there would be many children looking like students, the only people that would be allowed out of school will be those in mufti, if you are in uniform, they will just chase you back into the school compound.
So, I got into the school that day and went to one of the deserted classroom to change to mufti. Myke promised to meet me at the gate.
The arrangement was that we would go to an eatery nearby and talk and I would return to school later in the evening, like a late student. I had told my friends to wait for me in the classroom with my house wear; my uniform was in my bag.
That was it, my friends agreed to cover for me during inspection in the evening. The housemistress would usually do a roll call the day we resume to know who returned and who didn’t.
I was meant to be back before 7pm because I got to school at 3.30 and snuck out so I could be back at 7pm. It didn’t happen like that.
I met Myke quite alright but he came with two friends and we went to an eatery. From there, we all ate, they said I should come with them to a party that they will follow me back to the school before 7pm. I was reluctant because in the first place, I didn’t expect him to come with anybody. But anyway, I followed them.
It was a hotel, somewhere at Abule Egba side. They were smoking and drinking and making noise. I was given drinks too but I thought maybe because of the food I ate as well, I was just getting tired and drowsy so I became anxious, I wanted to get back to school because at this time, though I didn’t have a wristwatch, I checked the time with Myke’s phone, it was almost 6.30pm. so I told him to hurry up and finish his drink and take me back to school.
He didn’t answer me. Instead, his friend got up and later came back and said we should follow him. I looked at Myke, where? He just pulled me up.
We went upstairs ; to a room in the hotel. By this time, I should have been screaming for help but I was so, so tired. They said I should lie down that they would take me back to school. I refused. Though I was very drowsy, I was still resisting. They began to touch me roughly. I began to beg Myke to tell his friends to leave me alone.
Then, Myke asked me to remove my clothes; in my mind, I said, no, maybe you will kill me today, o. I said I want to go back to school. One of them just slapped me and tore my clothes…
They raped me for three days straight and I was a virgin.
My breasts, my…everywhere…I was in deep pain. I cried but the sound didn’t come out, I begged them for my life, they did not stop.
I don’t know what happened, after the third day; around 4am; very early in the morning, they wrapped me in the bedsheet and carried me on okada and dropped me at the school’s gate. I was half-dead.
It turned out that my friends, when they didn’t see me return that day, were forced to tell the principal what happened to me the following day. Because I had signed in on the day of resumption but didn’t sign out, so when the housemistress didn’t see me during roll call, she knew my close friends would know about it, so she reported to the principal.
They notified my parents, my poor parents. I feel so ashamed. They were looking for me. But it was that very day Myke and his friends dropped me at the school’s gate.
The security men didn’t even know it was a human being in the wrapped cloth. They were shocked when they opened it and saw me. They went to call the principal, she looked, said she didn’t know me. But other teachers and house mistresses too came, it was my housemistress who identified me. That’s how they called my parents to come and carry me.
Hummn.
When my mother came, she had to carry me on her back, straight to the house first. She was crying, asking why I was suffering her. I was half dead from pain and blood was everywhere.
I spent three weeks at the general hospital. I came back to school, served my punishment and sat for my WAEC exam!
I will never, ever befriend any boy again, ever! Especially on that nonsense facebook
(Series written and edited by Peju Akande and based on true stories)