Me- Chapter 2

   She was making spaghetti and tomato paste when she heard the knock on the front door, she knew it couldn't be her mother, not at 5pm. She wasn't expecting any visitor either so she was slightly irritated at the intrusion into her time. She flounced to the front door and checked thru the peep hole, she was surprised to see Bisola and her boyfriend.


   They both looked glum as they walked into the kitchen behind her. She was curious but knew her friend well enough to know that she'd talk only when she was ready to. She didn't have to wait too long.

  "He's cheating on me" she said simply, Tayo looked crestfallen. Suddenly Zen was tired, she didn't the energy to mediate in a lovers tiff. Bisola was paranoid about her Tayo, a stray glance on another girl could cause a quarrel, talking to another girl- war!

  'Get your acts together both of you, WASSCE is in a few weeks and we don't need this kind of drama. If I were either of you I'd take a break on this relationship until after the exams"

'So says the ice queen" Bisayo sneered

 "You know I'm the ice queen and you came to my with your troubles, I think your issues can only be solved by a competent psychiatrist and not a sixteen year old ice queen"

She walked out the house in a huff as Tayo shot her friend apologetic glances, the young man was fond of Bisola and it was sad to see how she strung him on a string and moved him wherever she pleased. Zen locked the door after them and went back to her cooking

As she stirred the tomato paste in hot oil she remembered when she told the class the meaning and reason for her unusual name. Her class teacher had given the class an assignment- find out the meaning of your name and the reason your parents gave it to you, you'll tell us all on Friday during the literature class. She remembered the confidence with which she told the class about the meaning of her name- Zeus gives. Zenobia had been a warrior in roman times who'd been as beautiful as Cleopatra and had been chaste, her mother gave her the name because she wished she'd be as beautiful as the original Zenobia and as chaste as her.

That was the trouble! Chastity. They were only in primary five but her classmates mocked her after she'd told the story and they named her ice queen because they said she'd never let a man come close to her. She couldn't see the rationale for that line of thought but the name had stuck to her from that day even until now that she was in her final year in secondary school.

She prayed fervently that no one from her secondary school would go to the same university with her so she could make a fresh start without the ice queen moniker attached to her. She had no intention of dating anyone in the university though, she was going to wait until after her PhD before she'd even let herself think of a man. Men had the power to derail dreams and she had too much riding on her dreams to even let that happen.