#StoryTuesday: Shalewa (Episode One)

Today we begin another story titled SHALEWA which is a story about the life struggles of a young lady. The story will be published every Tuesday and you can follow all our stories on social media with the hashtag #StoryTuesday. Read episode one below:

Shalewa is seventeen years old, her parent are divorced, she grew up with her father in the United States but now stays with her mum in Lagos. Her mother doesn’t have time to take care of her as the only thing she has time for is her business, though if there is one thing Shalewa didn't lack it was money, her mum made sure she had more than she could spend. Few months after she came back from the states her mum bought a car and employed a driver to drive her around.

Shalewa didn't have any friend in Nigeria at least not for the first three months she started living with her mum and this was one of the major reason why her mother bought her a car.

During her first month she was always going out with her mum but that changed when her mum traveled to Dubai as she was left alone at home. They live in a duplex in Lekki, aside her and her mum the only person that stays with them is the maid. Her mum knew leaving Shalewa at home alone was going to bore her to death so she asked her niece to come stay with her while she was away.

Kikelomo had just came home for the holiday, she is a student of Babcock University studying Mass Communication in her third year and she is three years older than Shalewa.

Kikelomo became Shalewa's first friend in Nigeria even though technically they are cousins but she was the first person she related with physically since she arrived Nigeria, every other person she spoke or related with were her friends in the States and that was via Skype. Her dad seized her phone before she came to Nigeria so on her arrival the first thing her mum did was to get her an iPhone.

Shalewa wasn't the party type though she goes out occasionally with her friends but it's either to go see a movie or a musical concert but her dad didn't like that at all. Most times whenever she was bored she would go out on the block with some guys who rap and sing, this group of four called themselves 4 Nations. She had this great passion for music and also those that are into music and this was one of the things that caused problem between her and her dad who wanted her to study medicine and become a doctor like him.

Shalewa is a brilliant girl, before leaving the States her grades where good, that was something her dad was proud of, the only problem they had was her extra curricula activities, her dad wanted her to always come spend time with him at the hospital so that she could be picking up some medical terms but her love for music would always make her rush to the street corner. There was a time her dad signed her up for a voluntary work at the hospital where he works but Shalewa stopped going after the first week of the program. She had form a greet bond with 4 Nations that the second week she started the hospital program, 4 Nations were participating in a musical show and she couldn’t miss out of it. She lied to her dad that she was going on a school trip only for her dad to later find out that her school didn't organise any trip and this he didn't take well, upon her return he grounded her and took away all her gadgets and this mark the end of their loving father-and-daughter relationship they have enjoyed over the years.

Even though she was grounded and had all her gadgets seize from her, Natasha who is the only girl in 4Nations had a way of getting through to her, either by climbing her window late at night or somehow getting pass the front door, she made sure she saw Shalewa almost every night, she was her bestie. Natasha is a Kenyan by birth, Nicholas is a Jamaican by birth while Floyd and Pedro are both American and Mexican respectively and together they were known as the 4 Nations. What her dad didn't understand was that aside from her love for music Shalewa was more of an easy going girl, she never had a boyfriend until she got to Nigeria though both Floyd and Pedro tried asking out but she turned them down.

Being in Nigeria was a different ball game for her, she had all the freedom she had always wished for, she was more like a queen in her own kingdom because she practically made the decision on what and what she wants compared to when she was in the States with her dad. Her mum didn't pay much attention on her compared to the way her dad did, even though her dad was always busy with hospital work he finds a way to make sure he had her time but with her mum the reverse was the case. The only time she and her mum usually speak is when they argue about how much she was giving her in terms of money, aside from that she and her mum hardly speak about what is important. For instance, her mum never asked her why exactly she decided to come live with her in Nigeria even though she knew that the agreement she made with her dad won’t come into play until she was twenty

Note: Names, character and every other event in this story are in no way connected or related to any real life event or person (dead or alive). Next episode to be published next Tuesday.