Mmachi saw a different shade of rage, one as crimson as the blinding lipstick which sat on Chidiogo's lips as she threw her head back in laughter at something Justin had said, and burning as bitterly as the morning sun which made it a mission to incinerate every being that walked the surface of the earth.

Her grip around the edges of her newly-purchased pencil tightened and the pencil almost snapped into two. She kept staring at Chidiogo, noting that she had done something different with her hair.

She let it down, the same way Mmachi usually did. But this time, she had chopped off the entirety of her front hair, leaving a fringe to frame her forehead.

The rest of her hair cascaded down her back in large curls, stopping somewhere above the middle of her back. To say she looked gorgeous was an understatement.

Mmachi stared at her for a long time, observing her hair. It still looked rich and full, even with the amount of torture Chidiogo had put it through. She straightened it almost every opportunity she got and it wouldn't come as a surprise to Mmachi if she used heat to achieve the curls she had on at the moment.

Something else burned within Mmachi as she continued staring at Chidiogo and thinking that someone who would get rid of so much God-given hair, just to achieve a style which wouldn't even last for more than two weeks, didn't deserve any hair at all.

She was still lost in her thoughts, considering fixing the same style or buying a wig that looked like it since she wouldn't cut her hair even to save her own life, when a voice detracted her attention from Chidiogo.

"Have pity on the poor pencil."

Her eyes snapped away from Chidiogo, who was now talking animatedly with Justin, and landed on Paschal's perfectly sculpted face.

His bronze skin glowed more than it usually did and for a moment she was tempted to ask if he had a skin care routine. The thought floated right out of her head the moment she conceived it and she blinked, remembering she hadn't replied him yet.

"Go away."

Two words. That was all she spared him before she returned to glaring at Chidiogo and Justin. She was vaguely aware of footsteps and obnoxious chattering from students moving up and down. Break periods were always rowdy, more so when the next periods that followed were sports periods.

"Don't tell me you still think she's the one responsible for what happened to you at Voile's party."

She grumbled before turning to look at Paschal.

"Which part of 'go away' don't you understand? And what do you even mean by . . ." She trailed off, finally making sense of his words.

She almost face-palmed herself as she stared at him, wondering why and how people always managed to confuse her and Chidiogo. Apart from things you could only notice when the two of them were really close to each other, like her being a few inches taller, Chidiogo's skin was practically flawless.

Her skin glowed even from a distance. The only thing that spoilt her perfect skin was a hideous scar crawling down her shoulder to the upper part of her arm. A scar which she hid for reasons known to her. Mmachi, on the other hand, had a ton of scars decorating her body.

If everyone seemed to be blind to that detail, they should have at least noticed that Mmachi almost always had on a long sleeve. Chidiogo mostly had on short sleeved clothes.

Only Amelia seemed to be able to tell them apart and most times, Mmachi just got tired of telling people which twin she was.

She had almost forgotten what a drag it was to have a twin when Chidiogo was in a separate school.

"You were saying?"

Paschal nudged her, arching a brow. She shook her head, waving him aside. Her eyes went back to Chidiogo and Justin and her frown only grew deeper.

She couldn't help trying to figure out what they were talking about for so long and why it got Chidiogo laughing so hard.

"Anyways–"

Her glare cut off the rest of Paschal's words.

"Did I offend you in any way? Why have you decided to pester my life this morning!?"

She snapped, finally out of patience.

"I just wanted to know if you were okay with hanging out later this evening."

Paschal rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke and Mmachi held the urge to roll her eyes. Her lips had already formed 'no' as a reply when she stopped herself, thinking it through.

"You mean like a date?" she asked, raising a brow at him.

"Well not really but if you want–"

"It's a date," she said, interrupting him. A smirk danced on her lips as she said the next words, "You know I'm Diogo, right?"

"Of course," he said with a chuckle which only caused Mmachi's smile to widen.

"What time?" she asked suddenly.

"Huh?"

She almost pulled her hair at Paschal's cluelessness.

"What time should the date be?"

She refrained from adding the word dummy.

"I don't know . . . What time would be good for you?"

"Well . . . " Mmachi tapped her chin, pretending to be in thought. "Anytime before prep should be good so four is okay, baa?"

Paschal nodded, a cute smile forming on his lips.

"Then it's settled. We'll meet at the cloister!" Mmachi's grin nearly tore her face in two.

"You can leave now," she said, her expression becoming closed off again.

She didn't bother to look at Paschal again even though she was aware that he hadn't left. She stared at Chidiogo for a long time after that, getting more irritated everytime she saw her smile. What she wouldn't give to see that smile vanish for good.

---††††---

Chidiogo walked down the vacant hallway. The sound of her footsteps were thrown back at her at intervals, reminding her that she was the only one present within the entire perimeter.

The thought unnerved her, triggering her uneven heartbeat each time she heard a stray sound-be it the rattling of leaves or the whistling of the strong winds. By the time she got to the cloister, she almost felt like leaving everything and bolting.

But Justin had texted her saying he wanted to hang out. Even though he made it clear that morning that they were just friends, she couldn't help feeling the way she did about him.

It came as a surprise to her that he didn't make a big deal about her kissing him and they were able to just put it behind them.

She decided to stay within her limits, knowing better than to get involved with someone else's boyfriend. He genuinely loved Mmachi. She could only hope Mmachi felt the same way.

Her eyes roamed the arcade for a minute before scanning the garden. The grasses had been trimmed to perfection, framing the edges of the crosswalk.

She stepped onto it, still looking around for Justin. The evening breeze tossed her hair around and swayed the palm trees.

She pushed the hair out of her face, coming to a halt at the intersection. She looked around, frustrated that there was still no sign of Justin.

She pulled out her phone to call him. After three attempts without an answer, she gave up. She turned to leave but stopped when a baritone voice called out to her to stop.

She watched Paschal jogging to where she stood, her forehead puckered.

"Hey," he said, when he got to where she stood, holding onto his knees and taking in long drags of air.

"Hey." She forced a smile.

"So sorry I'm late. I lost track of time," he said, straightening up.

"Late for what?" she asked when Paschal started leading her to one of the gardens.

"For the date."

He stared at her like she should have known what he was talking about. The crease on her forehead only grew deeper.

"What date?"

He scrunched his face as he stared at her.

"You're Chidiogo right?"

"Yeah?"

She stared at him, waiting for him to elaborate. He only shook his head.

"Sorry, I got confused for a moment because of the hair. It was different in the morning. This looks more like the style Mmachi had. Why are you asking weird questions though? Were you joking when you said we should go on a date earlier?"

Chidiogo blinked. She tried to remember if she ever said anything about going on a date but her head was blank.

"When did I say that?"

"This morning . . . Is something wrong?"

She didn't reply. She finally understood what happened. She hadn't spoken to him all day but she had seen him with Mmachi earlier. It only meant that Mmachi impersonated her again.

"Did you prepare anything for the date?" she asked, trying to know if it was too late to cancel it.

They had both settled on a red and white picnic mat spread out on the grass and Paschal had produced a basket of snacks out of nowhere.

"Not much. I just picked up a few snacks from Munchies and . . . "

The moment she heard Munchies, she knew it was over. Even with its ridiculous name, it was the most overpriced snack shack in the school. Just to get a plain donut there cost a fortune.

She could just imagine how much he spent with the amount of snacks he displayed from the basket. She even started feeling bad at a point and wondered why Mmachi always had to do unnecessary things like this.

"You didn't have to do all these," she said, genuinely concerned that he had spent more than he needed to.

"It's nothing, really. I've had a lot of extra cash on me for a while now. It's better I spend it than it gets confiscated."

With the way he waved it aside so easily, Chidiogo almost believed it wasn't a big deal. Maybe she was just overthinking it.

They eventually started eating snacks and slurping down drinks. It was more or less like a picnic. He started asking random questions at a point. At first she was reluctant to answer most of his questions, like why she didn't get along with Mmachi and why she changed schools, but eventually, she began to relax.

She still didn't answer a lot of questions, and he let them slide, but she did have fun. She learnt a lot about him too, like how overbearing his mother could be and the fact that his parents got a divorce because of her attitude.

She also learnt that he had a brother he knew next to nothing about. She learnt that he could sing and they both sang along to Without me by Halsey featuring Juice Wrld playing from his phone.

They guffawed over silly incidents from their childhood. Chidiogo still clutched her stomach as she laughed, while the sky darkened progressively.

A tinge of orange stained the sky, bright and shinning just like the glowing ball descending out of sight and beyond the horizon. They paid little attention to the beautiful sunset as she recounted a story about how Mmachi got lost in a seaquarium in Miami.

They eventually had to leave when the flies became too much, tormenting them with their unceasing buzzing. Since they had unintentionally skipped prep, they decided to head back to their various hostels.

They took the subway at Chidiogo's insistence and as Mmachi had said, it was truly dead during the night. They were practically the only ones on the train.

Paschal stopped earlier than she did. He turned to leave but as if on a second thought, turned around and placed a soft kiss on her forehead.

She was left blushing and thinking that he wasn't such a bad guy. And as dates went, it certainly couldn't have gone better.

That was what she thought until she was about to get down from the train and saw a note sticking out from the glass rubber seal of the window.

It was a small white paper folded in half with a red heart on it. This time she felt her heart crawling down her chest as she picked the paper with shaky hands.

She looked around the train and it was still as empty as it had been when she first stepped into it. She managed to steady herself before unfolding the note.

In the same cursive writing, stood the words:

'Enjoy that smile while it lasts.'

And that was enough to wipe the smile off her face.

A/N: LOOK WHO DECIDED TO BREAK HER CONSISTENCY BECAUSE SHE THOUGHT SHE WAS SUFFOCATING Y'ALL WITH UPDATES🥲. THAT AND THE FACT THAT EMBRYOLOGY WAS PRACTICALLY BEGGING FOR ME TO ATTEND TO IT.

I'LL TRY TO MAKE A STEADY UPDATE ROUTINE THOUGH. I DON'T KNOW WHICH DAY WOULD BE BEST BUT I GUESS A WEEKLY UPDATE WILL BE JUST PERFECT FOR EVERYONE.

THAT ASIDE, WHO IS SHIPPING PASCHAL AND CHIDIOGO? DEFINITELY NOT THE PERSON WHO LEFT THAT NOTE😂💔. WHO DO YOU THINK IS LEAVING ALL THESE NOTES? DO YOU THINK IT HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH OUR BELOVED STALKER?

AND WHO ELSE IS WONDERING WHAT TO CALL CHIDIOGO'S SHIP?😭😭 I SUCK AT SHIP NAMES 😂. FINALLY, WHO ELSE THINKS I'M THE PRETTIEST?😌

OKAY, THAT WAS UNNECESSARY 😂. ENOUGH WITH THE QUESTIONS NOW. YOU CAN STILL DROP YOUR COMMENTS AND PLEASE I NEED ALL THE ACTIVE READERS TO DROP A VOTE ON THIS CHAPTER. IT'LL HELP ME DECIDE WHAT MY UPDATE ROUTINE SHOULD LOOK LIKE.

FINALLY, I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER. A VERY GOOD NIGHT TO YOU🥰.