Valentina: A Valentine Story – Part 1 (The Women I Love)
As a SSS 1 student, the first St. Valentine’s Day we celebrated, set the tone for the rest of our secondary school life.
This is the story of Valentina.
Valentina, my classmate who was one of the most beautiful girls in the whole school. She is a sight for sore eyes, soft-spoken, and extraordinarily gentle.
From the first day we got into school, every boy in my class had been trying to get noticed by Valentina. Boys in other classes too. Even senior students.
Valentina was the crown jewel of our school and every boy was doing all he could to claim her.
After my experience with Tinu, I was in no hurry to get hurt again. Thankfully, Valentina sits at the row close to the door. It was impossible to miss her when you walk into my class.
During the break-time, you need to see the way guys were falling over each other to get at Valentina. If she sneezes, five boys will be offering her their handkerchiefs.
It was ridiculous watching boys compete to do her homework, justle with each other to carry her bags and books. The girl was just relaxing and being taken care of.
Who can blame her? She never asked for any of this. All she did was be beautiful and everything was falling into place for her.
The girls in my class were constantly jealous of Valentina. The fact that their boyfriends were often caught staring, jaws agape, didn’t help at all.
Although a few girls were friendly towards her, most were hostile and would give an arm to hurt her.
I should mention that Valentina’s beauty did have an effect on teachers too. Most male teachers were extra kind towards her.
A few wanted to prove themselves to be tough and would constantly pick on her unnecessarily. Same with some female teachers. I think theirs was out of jealousy too.
But Valentina did enjoy beauty-privileges for the most part. It was the way she was treated that got me thinking about beauty-privileges in the first place.
I remember one morning when Mr. Ojo, our vice principal wanted to flog the whole class for noisemaking.
Our class captain had failed to call our subject teacher, and instead, we were discussing the Champions League match from the previous night.
Mr. Ojo was giving each person six strokes of the cane. When he got to Valentina, the intensity of the first stroke was more than halved.
You need to see the way she burst into tears. He insisted she kept up her hand for the second. Her wailing when the cane hit her was out of this world.
Let’s just say the rest of the class got off with a warning while Mr. Ojo had to take Valentina with him to try to console her.
Wilson Joshua is a Video Editor, Content Creator, and Creative Writer.
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