"Each of us can make a difference.
Together we make change." - Barbara
Mikulski.
%°%°%°%

Dedicated to DamilolaIdowu8

¶BOLU¶

"Okay babies, y'all have a goodnight and whatever you do, don't get pregnant! Bolu you kuku know mom will kill you!" Kanyinsola playfully warned.

"See you talking as if mommy will not kill you too. Abi is it not you convinced them to let me go?"

"Orh shioor..." She hissed. "Slying is a thing. I'm a pro at it and so I do it for a living, you grab?"

I faked horror and gasped. "So you would sly your one and only sister?"

"Yes oh. Anytime, any day my nigga," she replied and patted my shoulders twice. That got Joy and Nina laughing hard.

I shook my head at my sister. Sometimes I wondered how we came out of the same womb. Describing her as crazy was an understatement.

Kanyin laughed too and after a while, we got down and waved her goodbye.

The gate front where Kanyin dropped us seemed like there was no soul behind it because there was not a single sound heard at all. It was around 8:00pm and the party should have started but it did not seem so. The giant brown gate, which looked like prison ones, were locked?

"Are you s-sure...we got the right address?" Joy-Anne asked clinging on to me swiftly, looking around with fearful eyes. Geez, I wonder how this girl was so brave when it came to forking a boy's butt but legit scared of the dark?

I laughed. "Come on, Joy. I'm sure we got it, right Nina?" I turned to her and she was busy on her phone chatting with God knows who.

"Yeah...sure na." She pushed her glasses back on her nose and kept her phone in her bag. "Don't worry, this is always how the area is. I've been here before," she assured as she walked up to the gigantic gate and knocked it.

Joy-Anne's grip on me relaxed as I wondered how many of our classmates' houses Nina knew.

Joy and Nina shrieked and I flinched when the gate opened itself without anyone controlling it. Realizing it was an automatic gate, we started giggling.

"I've been here three times and I'm still not used to this gate...geez," Nina said as she shook her head whilst smiling as we walked in.

The silence was still deafening until we got to the main door of the freaking huge house.

No, I swear it was huge! It was painted green and white and surrounded with flowers, carefully and creatively designed.

I turned to my right to see a hut at one side of the compound and the gatekeeper's house. I don't think they had one and if they did, he would just be a lazy one, considering he would just be remote controlling everything.

Nina twisted the door knob and we walked in. It was then I realized, discovered and found out that we had legit stepped into the house of an OBO (Omo Baba Olowo) − Similar to the Otedolas'. The house was Nigerian style on the outside and Indian style on the inside. No cap, it was breathtaking.

The extremely large parlor whose sofas were already spread out was now decorated with different lights, colored red, green, blue, yellow... popping from wherever.

Round tables were arranged with round seats surrounding them. There were at least three bars at certain corners of the room.

A stage was at the far front and it had a smoking machine. I started wondering why they set up a stage and if anyone was gonna perform tonight.

Mad oh! On top birthday! What will wedding now be like?

We stood at the door, not wanting to mix with the dancing bodies of teens and young adults that swayed to whatever music the DJ blasted from the speakers. I don't know how but it was like they invited the whole of our set and even some people I couldn't recognize, probably from other schools.

I finally understood why the house seemed so quiet from the outside. It was because this house, or rather, mansion had a soundproof system on the inside. It could be turned on or off.

"I just texted Ninu and she said Fred would come get__" Nina started but was cut off by a deep voiced scream.

Trust me it was a deep voiced SCREAM. And yes, we were able to hear it through all the noise. It was Fred's voice. He rushed towards us and squeezed us all in a hug. I almost died.

He finally released us and gasped dramatically. "Oh my freaking daze! You girls are dripping and I'm tripping for real! Like...what?" He put his hands on his face, forming an astounded expression. "Nina, I'm taking you out, no questions or answers. No, like for real, for real, you guys are smoking hot!" He exclaimed.

"Thanks Fred, you look amazing too," Nina commented sweetly.

"Yeah, I love your skinny jeans," I told him truthfully, as I took in his outfit of a loose beach shirt, a very flowery and colorful one and a red bandanna tied around his neck, making him look like one of those hippies. He wore high tops, probably black; I could not tell 'cause of the lighting. His hair was in its usual curls and dyed gold this time than the normal dark brown he always put it.

Frederick Gold had his own style and I loved it.

"Absolutely stunning," Joy added.

"Thanks guys. I have to snap with you people oh," He said grinning from ear to ear.

"And that will happen after you take us away from all these moving bodies," I said with a disgusted shiver as I sighted some of my classmates rocking and grinding and doing trash at one corner.

One reason I hated going to parties. Scratch that...one of the reasons my parents never allowed me to go to parties. It took a lot of Kanyin's convincing to let me go to this one.

He laughed and grabbed Nina and Joy by the hand and I followed behind to where he led us. He opened a door that led outside to the backyard...a very massive one at that.

It had a pool in the middle and people were there too but not many. Some were in the pool doing PG 21 stuffs while others stood, laughing gisting and whatever.

Fred took us to a particular side in the backyard that had seats and I began to see familiar faces. Getting closer to them, chaos 101 broke out as Jeremy Tosin sighted us first.

He legit ran with full speed, lifted Joy's small framed body and threw her over his shoulders shouting like a mad man while Joy kept saying:
"Jeremy! Put. Me. Down. Now! I'm gonna murder your family planning if you do not..." She continued hitting him but it fell on deaf ears as uncle Jeremy just kept spinning her around.

We all burst out laughing.

Jeremy Tosin was a guy I actually really liked. He was not so tall, as I was an inch or two taller. He was friendly, nice and always joking. Trying to make people smile and happy. We were not particularly close but we were definitely more than mere hi buddies. Funny thing was he is best friends with Ore Jumai - the cocky idiot.

After he put her down, she didn't murder anything like she said she would. She was clearly exhausted but did not hesitate to glare at him whilst crossing her arms.

Jeremy smiled goofily at her and then turned to us. He nodded his head at Fred in one of those boyish ways.

"Hey Bolu, hey Nina, you guys look good," He said reaching out to us for fist pumps.

"So we finally get noticed," I stated with a playful glare, crossing my arms and refusing his fist pump.

Nina hugged him instead. "You don't look so bad yourself."

"Come on, Bolu, don't leave me hanging," he whined with a very funny nose voice that got us all laughing after pulling away from Nina's hug and I finally budged, giving him the fist-pump.

The other hostel boys came to greet us and exchange pleasantries, commenting how good we looked with Joy receiving most of the compliments.

Fawaz Adepoju, one of our set's clowns started acting film when he got down on one knee and was supposedly about to 'propose' to Joy. It didn't happen 'cause Jeremy slapped his head hard and laughter erupted from all of us.

Fred snapped tons of pictures with us and I fainted mentally from the stress. He posted them on his whatsapp status with stupid captions like; 'lucky is the nigga with plenty babes' I smacked his head when I saw it. That did not deter him from posting other stupid captions sha. Unconsciously, I found myself looking out for someone...

"Where's Ninu?" I asked as we finally sat down.

...and it wasn't Ninu.

"I'm thirsty, I'll get us drinks," Joy offered as she stood up to head to the mini bar in the back yard.

"Nothing alcoholic, please," I added and she nodded. What? I wasn't getting drunk tonight. Hate me all you want.

"Ditto!" Nina added.

"I'll come with," Jeremy said and followed behind Joy.

Those two ehn...

"Ninu should be here in five, four, three, two, one..." Fred said and:

"Oh my God! Oh my Jesus! My freaking, FREAKING, FREAKING DAYS!" Ninu literally screamed as she saw us from a not-so-far distance, catching attention as she did.

"Called it!" Fred said and relaxed in his seat.

Ninu finally reached us and squeezed Nina and I in bone- crushing hug.

Again, I almost died for the second time today.

After she released us, acknowledged other people around us and gave Fred a knock on his head as a sign of greeting - he glared hard at her, she took the seat in front of me, which was Joy's seat. She looked stressed but fab and dashing in her outfit.

"You guys came to kill today oh, Bolu, even you?" She said. "I'm blown away! Stupefied! Astounded, in fact! Wawu!"

"Thanks b. You're glowing too," Nina said.

"Couldn't agree more," I nodded. She wore a pink crop top hoodie from NAI brand and jean mini skirt. On her feet, she had on one of those black wedged sneakers. Her hair was braided and packed in her usual Ninuola Adams' style. Her make-up was top notch, showing how good she looked. How did she even get a NAI brand outfit? From what I know, this particular outfit's collection was yet to be released. Yeah, I literally stalk NAI collections on instagram.

"You look ugly," Fred said and wiggled his brows once with a teasing smirk.

"Awww, thanks love, I learnt from you, baby," Ninu smiled and replied with serious sarcasm and sass dripping from her tone.

He scoffed and pouted like a little kid, picking up his phone and typing away.
"Wait o, Ninu, how'd you get this crop top? It hasn't been released yet," Nina said, voicing out my exact thoughts.

"I was wondering the same thing." I said.

"Well..." she drew out and flipped her hair dramatically. "Before we started exams, NAI himself, the CEO, called me, told me he checked out my IG page ..." She paused.

"Continue nau!" I ordered and she smiled.

"Okay, okay. He told me he liked my pics and that I had the natural poise and elegance of a model. So he asked me if I'd like to model for his yet-to-be released brand and I said yes, so...here, I got paid and free clothing after I signed the contract, with my parents' consent off course."

"Mad oh!" Nina and I said with my eyes bulging out of my sockets.

"Guy, you have blown oh!" I commented again.

"Abi na. I'm sure your followers would have skyrocketed. Ah! God when?"Nina added.

"You guys should calms na." She laughed. "They only just released the photos today. I just posted it this evening sef."

My eyes bulged out even more. "This evening? I gass to see this!" I picked my phone from the backpack I carried and opened my instagram page.

Ninu's post was the first I saw.

@iamninu_a.

To say she looked dazzling was an understatement. I realized it was just one post that had a tag so I clicked on it and opened the official page of NAI collection.

Her picture was in the first post and I opened it immediately, checking every single slide with Nina and Fred poking their heads into my phone.

"Wow Ninu! I'm so happy for you. I can't believe I have a friend who's gonna be a super teen model," Nina said after removing her big head from my phone, leaving Fred's bigger head still poked in it.

"Like, heck yeah. We're gonna blow together."

"Essss, essss, you guys should not steal my best friend abeg oh," Fred shouted and went to squeeze her in a side hug.
I clicked on Ninu's page again and my eyes legit removed from their sockets.

Her followers had reached 10k, just with that post. "What? 10k followers? From 1k to 10k?"

We kept on gushing about Ninu and her followers and Fred didn't stop claiming the fact that they were best friends.

"And before I forget, Joba said to say hi to you," I said remembering Joba's message. Nina and Fred were still gushing.

"Oh, okay...but who's Joba sef?" Ninu asked and I wanted to laugh and cry for him.

If he found out she didn't even remember him, he'd be heartbroken.

"Joba nau, my younger brother."

"Oh...oh, that fine boy, the one who's cuter than you. I can't even forget sef. He's a vibe."

Okay...Joba will just die if he heard she called him fine and cute. No way am I telling him that sha.

"Fine ko, finale ni. I'm way cuter jhor!"

That's what people always say. Your younger sibling is finer than you are.

"Pele my dear...keep telling yourself that," she said sarcastically. I crossed my arms and hissed. She winked at me.

Joy-Anne and Jeremy arrived with the former holding a tray of drinks and the latter holding two boxes of pizza and suya plates.

The night hadn't even begun and they already got food. Of course, I was more than okay with it. Food was the loml.

"Ninu, hey!" Joy greeted with a smile as she dropped the tray of drinks on the table, passing all our drinks to us and us mouthing 'thank you' to her. We...I mean, I did not wait for anyone to tell me to eat the food placed on the table.

"Hey, you look good," Ninu smiled back but it seemed unreal.

"Thanks, you too," Joy replied with the smile still on her face.

I didn't understand why there was this awkwardness between Ninuola and Joy-Anne. I had this hunch that Ninu did not like her.

She hadn't originally wanted me to invite her over to my house but I still did because I considered Joy my friend. We even argued 'cause of it.

Jeremy acknowledged her presence too and gave her a fist pump, commenting on how good she looked and I might have imagined it o, but at the same time, I could swear I saw Ninuola blush. It went as soon as it came though.

"Uh...Ninu, I'd like to take my bag, it's possible you're resting on it," Joy said and reached over Ninu to take it while Ninu's eyes widened in realization.

"Oh, am I in your seat? I didn't know, I could just get__"

"No na, it's fine, I'll just sit beside Nina, there are two empty chairs beside her," Joy shrugged it off.

Ninu nodded but immediately, Nina looked up from her phone.

"Actually..." she drew out. "I was keeping those seats for two people."

"Which two people?" I asked turning to Nina.

"Two people na." She shrugged and went back to her phone. I eyed her suspiciously.

"Oh, I'll just get another chair."

"No need for that," Jeremy said and in one swift movement, pulled her to his laps and wrapped his arms around her waist, which was bare.

Joy was light-skinned and that was a disadvantage because we could see her blush.

It caught everyone by surprise but I only cleared my throat, Nina smiled creepily before going back to her phone, Fred whistled as if he didn't see anything. Joy was too flustered to protest, as she just looked down at her fingers, her face resembling a tomato.

Ninu looked at Joy and then stared at Jeremy (who was busy staring and smiling goofily at Joy) for a long while before looking away.

She made eye contact with Nina, Fred and I - with an expression I could not decipher on her face - before looking at her phone. She gripped her phone tightly, staring at it as she did.

Awkward... what's up with Ninu?

"Babes just be blinding me anyhow this night. God! My eyes!" A male voice, a very loud one at that, yelled and we all turned to see Monjola Taiwo a.k.a MJ, the boy with the loudest and deepest voice in our set walking with Ayo Balogun, the quietest boy in our set.

I don't understand how loud MJ and quiet Ayo were best friends. Opposites do attract? Similar to Jumpy Chidera and gentle Ashley; also similar to Smart Nina and dumb Bolu.

Lucky enough, it cleared the almost awkward atmosphere we experienced few seconds ago.

"Finally, they show up," I heard Nina mutter under her breath and I turned to look at her. She was smiling. I cleared my throat. She looked at me and I wiggled my brows, smiling creepily at her. She knew why.

Ninu also knew why 'cause in that exact moment, she looked at us both with a deadly, yes, a deadly creepy smile that I wondered if she was the same person who gripped and glared hard at her phone just now. Her creepy smile was directed mostly at Nina though.

I did my best to keep my hyping low-key tonight if not, only God knows how many videos of me being totally insane would go viral.

Keep it down on a low-key... Bolu. You can do this.

No hyping tonight. Calm down!

Finally, they both got to us and MJ greeted and complimented us with his loud voice, shaking our hands vigorously with so much energy.

I was a bit shaken up but I laughed anyway. Ayo, on the other hand, just stood and observed; with his hands in his pockets. He mouthed a short greeting to everyone before taking his seat directly beside Nina, hugging her without being shy about it while MJ took the other one.

And behold, ladies and gentlemen; that was how I became an eight wheel.

Yes, an eight wheel once upon a time in Ashley's birthday party...

Hey! Hey! Hey!

Again😁

So...what do you think of this chapter???

Bolu became an eight wheel??

Have you been any wheel before???

Me??

Yup. Lots of times. Since primary five sef😂😂😂😂

So what are your thoughts on Bolu? We finally know why she's been ignoring Ore😁 Is it a good enough reason?

And...

Nina?

Ayo?

Ore?

Ninuola?

Jeremy?

Joy Anne?

Tell me what you think about them all.

Please vote. Honestly, when I realize the number of votes I get on this book, I feel really discouraged sometimes but remember that I write not for the votes but to express myself and make y'all and me happy.

Nevertheless, still vote.

And comment

And share!

Hope you have a wonderful Easter. Spread the love to all!!

God bless you ❤️

~Ife😊😊😎