Chidiogo was still grounded to a spot when Amelia snapped her fingers in her face.

"Hello? Do you want to have lunch or not?"

Chidiogo snapped back to reality, blinking at Amelia. "Huh?"

"You're unbelievable! Come on, let's go."

Amelia grabbed her forearm and led her to the line of students waiting to be served their lunch.

"See what you caused!" Amelia said, huffing and crossing her hands over her chest once they got to the line. "There's a line now and we'll have to wait! What even made you stop?"

Chidiogo shrugged. "I was just shocked by all the things you knew. And you say you aren't a stalker."

Amelia's lips formed a perfect circle. "Oh! That's why you stopped? I actually made like half of that stuff up. I mean some of them are true but they are just hunches. I haven't confirmed them yet."

Chidiogo nodded, even though she didn't believe her.

"And I just wanted to know whether you actually liked Justin or not," Amelia continued, "I only need the truth. Do you like him?"

Staring into Amelia's doe-like eyes, Chidiogo almost felt like spilling the truth. Amelia hadn't given her any reasons to doubt her. But again, she was Mmachi's best friend.

"I don't," Chidiogo said, deciding to play safe.

Amelia hummed and faced front, craning her neck to find out why the line wasn't moving. As Chidiogo watched Amelia, she mulled over a question in her head. One which might be dangerous to ask.

She bit into her lower lip trying to decide whether or not to ask her the question but eventually she gave in to her curiosity.

"Lia?"

Amelia tilted her head a bit to Chidiogo's side, giving the slightest indication that she was paying attention. Chidiogo continued speaking.

"If, say, my answer had been yes, what would you have done?"

Amelia remained facing front after Chidiogo had asked the question, still stretching her neck to get a view of what was happening in front. Chidiogo was already regretting asking the question when she spoke up.

"It depends. If you have a crush on him, it's totally fine so far you don't plan on acting on it and try to kill it off instead. It would be a problem if the reverse were the case.

"Because you acting on the crush would mean hurting Mmachi and Mmachi is like family to me. I won't hesitate to hurt whoever hurts my family."

Chidiogo remained silent after Amelia's words. She couldn't get herself to give any sort of response to Amelia's not-so-subtle threat, not even when Amelia began laughing minutes later while claiming it was a joke.

But Chidiogo knew better than to believe her. Nothing about the deadpan expression she maintained while uttering the words made it feel like a joke.

"Relax," Amelia said, giving Chidiogo a playful nudge which caused pain to radiate at the side of her ribs where Amelia's arm made contact with hers.

Cuss words slipped out of Chidiogo's mouth as she clutched onto her sides, trying to blink back the tears which quickly fogged her vision.

"Are you alright?" Amelia asked, her voice rising in panic.

Chidiogo managed to keep back her tears before nodding.

"Are you sure?" Amelia asked, "Because that wasn't supposed to be painful."

"I'm okay," Chidiogo said but her voice came out cracked. "Maybe it wasn't your intention to hurt me but it happens. It even happened with Sky some days ago," she added, in a bid to reassure Amelia.

"Wait, hold on. Sky nudged you and you felt pain? Has anyone else nudged you recently?" Amelia asked.

Chidiogo only thought for a second before she remembered that Kamsi had also given her a painful nudge, although she believed hers was intentional.

"Yeah?"

"And you felt pain everytime?"

She stared up at the ceiling for a moment before nodding.

"That's not right. Asides from when you're nudged, do you feel any pain? And where exactly?"

"Well, just a little. Around my entire thoracic region, including my back. It was much worse the days that followed immediately after my attack but when I told Justin about it, he said the doctor instructed me to just get some rest and said it was nothing to really worry about. The pain hasn't stopped since then but it's more manageable and only spikes when someone nudges me or bumps into me."

Amelia looked like she was in thought. "After you passed out, Justin asked me and Mmachi to go home while he and Paschal took you to a hospital. I was busy when they got back and as soon I got to your room, you woke up.

"I didn't get the chance to ask Justin how it went but Paschal said something similar to what Justin told you when I eventually asked him. But I still feel something is off. Like the doctor should have asked for you to return for a check up or something to make sure everything was alright eventually."

"Maybe the doctor did but it slipped their mind?" Chidiogo suggested.

"Possibly." Amelia placed two of her fingers on her pursed lips. "You know what? Let's go get our lunch and then find them. I have some questions to ask."

Chidiogo complied and in a few minutes, they both carried their lunch trays and headed towards the other end of the dinning where their group used to stay in the past.

That was before Mmachi went psycho on Chidiogo and spilled her lunch on her. After that, the group seemed to disband and sometimes a couple of them could be found dinning together in fragmented units.

They met Sky and Chikaima as they looked around for Justin, both carrying food trays of their own while looking for a table to join.

"Happy birthday," Sky said, the moment Chidiogo and Amelia got to where they were. "I haven't wished you yet, right?"

Chidiogo shook her head, thanking Sky.

"You're welcome. The year's gone by so fast. It feels like it was just New year yesterday and soon, we'll celebrating New year again," Sky said.

"We're still in November," Chikaima said, rolling her eyes.

"Only three days left and November will be over. Isn't today twenty seventh?"

Before Chikaima could reply, Amelia interrupted them. "Please has any of you seen Justin?"

Identical creases appeared on their foreheads before they exchanged glances.

"I don't know," Chikaima spoke up, "I think I saw him heading in that direction."

Amelia and Chidiogo followed the direction she was pointing at and soon found both Justin and Paschal seated on a table in a corner.

"Thank you," Amelia said, using one hand to balance her tray and the free one to pull Chidiogo along.

Chidiogo's tray shook a bit from the disruption as she tried to keep up with Amelia. Once they got to the table, Amelia let go of her hand. She slammed her tray on the table afterwards, drawing Paschal and Justin's attentions together with that of the two other girls seated there.

Chidiogo hadn't seen any of the girls around before and assumed they had to be from a class under them since the S.S.3's had a corner reserved for them in the dinning. Judging by their straight cut skirts, they definitely had to be in senior class leaving only the possibility of them being in S.S.1.

Amelia flashed everyone on the table a broad smile before addressing the two girls.

"Uh, I need you guys to please find another table. We"—she gestured between Chidiogo and her—"want to make use of this one."

Their brows pushed up as they exchanged a glance before one of them turned back to her. She looked her up and down and let out a humph.

"Who is this ashewo talking to?" she asked the girl sitting next to her. "And isn't the other one the same person they said killed her sister?"

Amelia let out a chuckle while Chidiogo's brows went up on their own. Amelia turned to Chidiogo, muttering 'sorry' while grabbing the plastic cup on her tray.

Before the girl could process what was happening, Amelia had dumped the yoghurt and the ice cubes inside the cup on her. She gasped, her mouth remaining wide open as the drink made it's way down her newly made braids and uniform.

"Will you take your friend out now or do you want to leave looking like her?" Amelia asked the other girl.

She shook her head frantically and started trying her best to pull her friend, who was still in a state of shock, out of the table. She succeeded after about a minute of trying.

"Oh and carry your tray with you and only yours."

The girl obeyed her and lifted her tray from the table with slightly shaky hands before dragging her friend away. Amelia pushed the second tray down from the table, not at all bothered by the mess it made on the white tiled floor.

Chidiogo sat on the chair next to hers, not knowing what to make of the scene that just played out.

"I'll get you a full pack of yoghurt on our way out," Amelia said, snapping Chidiogo out of her thoughts.

She nodded slowly.

"You shouldn't have dumped that drink on her. Maybe you should have asked her to kneel instead," Paschal said, just as Amelia raised her forkful of fried rice to her lips.

"And she shouldn't have called me a prostitute," Amelia said, pushing the food into her mouth. "That's beside the point now. We didn't come here just to eat, I wanted to ask you both something important."

"Go on," Paschal said, while Justin looked up from his food, giving Amelia his full attention.

"After Chidiogo fell unconscious at Voile's party, you guys took her to the hospital, right?"

Paschal and Justin looked at each other before Justin leaned forward, resting his hands on either sides of his plate.

"Yes," he said while Paschal looked away and began picking at his food.

Amelia watched the both of them closely. "And which hospital did you take her to?"

Justin pressed his lips together, sparing Chidiogo a glance. Chidiogo looked down when their eyes met and began eating her food.

"Lia, can we talk outside?"

"No, there's nothing wrong with talking here."

Justin glanced at Chidiogo again before speaking. "We took her to Cedar crest hospital."

"Hmm. Lovely place. You got their flier on your way out, right?"

"No, we didn't have the time."

"And a patient card?"

"They don't give cards, everything is computerized."

Amelia nodded. "Did the doctor say anything about her coming back for a check up?"

"No, he said it was something minor."

Amelia hummed. "And x-ray reports? Surely he didn't fall from the sky and conclude that she didn't have any major injuries."

The clattering of cutleries on ceramic plates followed Amelia's words and she looked up from her food to find Justin staring at her with his mouth hanging slightly open.

"What happened?" she asked, trying to cut a portion of her chicken with her fork and knife.

"Nothing, I just realized that I forgot to come out with the reports," Justin said.

Amelia dropped her cutleries with a loud clang before fixing her eyes on Justin. "Enough with the lies already! Aren't you sick of them?"

In the silence that ensued, Chidiogo remained staring at her food and taking small bits of it.

"We didn't take her to a hospital," Paschal admitted with a sigh, "We took her to a Chemist."

Amelia's head snapped to Paschal. "You did what!?"

"I can explain—" Justin started saying but Amelia cut him off.

"Explain what!? A chemist is a place where people who either can't afford to go to a proper hospital or people who just want to die go to."

"Well we didn't have much of a choice. The nearest hospital was thirty minutes away and you know just how bad the traffic can be. Coupled with the fact that we're literally still minors and none of our parents would have helped us out at that point. Tell me what exactly did you expect us to do?" Justin said.

"I don't know. Anything that's not gonna jeopardize her life?"

"You're exaggerating, Lia," Justin said with a sigh, "The chemist was run by a nurse. I think a nurse is qualified enough to at least offer some form of medical help."

"Right. I bet she's just as qualified as I am." Amelia rolled her eyes.

Ignoring her tone, Justin continued, "The point remains that we were stranded and we just had to make do with what we had."

Amelia picked up her cutleries again and returned to cutting her chicken. "Enlighten me then, on the medical advice this your qualified nurse had to give."

When she didn't get any response, Amelia looked up and found Justin staring at Chidiogo.

"Say what you want to say plainly," she said, stealing his attention away from Chidiogo.

"Well . . . There were no visible injuries," Justin started slowly, "Only a few scratches and a slight discoloration at the side of her head. From what the nurse said, she thinks Diogo might have hit her head somewhere and had a severe concussion and maybe that's why . . . " Justin trailed off, his eyes moving to Chidiogo again.

"There's something called internal injuries," Amelia said, "She'd have known that if she was so qualified. Maybe suggest running a few tests to check it. But let's wave that aside. What exactly were you saying about the concussion? Please be clear."

Justin took in a deep breath. "When someone has a severe concussion, there are rare cases when it leads to hallucinations."

His voice was extremely low but Chidiogo still heard what he said.

Amelia remained quiet for a moment before she found her voice. "So you're implying that she was seeing things and she made up a story about being attacked? Can you hear yourself?"

"Lia, you have to understand. We're not saying she's wrong or lying or making up things, this just happens sometimes," Paschal said.

Amelia shook her head, clucking her tongue.

"Mmachi and Chikaima were both in the garden, none of them saw her being attacked," Justin pointed out.

Amelia's grip on her cutlery increased. "That doesn't mean anything."

"Even you went out to the garden right after she did. You didn't see her attacker nor did you see her getting attacked," Paschal added.

"It's not my fault the garden was a fucking maze!" Amelia said, raising her voice slightly above the noise in the dinning.

"One would think you would have gotten used to it after all the time you spent going around it that evening," Justin said.

"It doesn't matter! What matters is that the both of you had one job to do and you screwed it up!" Amelia said.

Justin let out a sardonic laughter before responding to her. The three of them became so engrossed in arguing that they didn't know when Chidiogo carried her tray and exited the place.

A/N: HELLO EVERYONE. HAPPY SUNDAY. I'LL START WITH THE FORMALITIES AND APOLOGIZE FOR TAKING A REALLY LONG BREAK. I'LL SPARE YOU ALL THE CLICHES OF RANTING ABOUT HOW I HAD EXAMS TO FOCUS ON.

IF I CAN PROMISE ONE THING AT LEAST, IT'LL BE THAT I WON'T EVER ABANDON THIS BOOK FOR SO LONG AGAIN.

HAVE A NICE DAY AND DON'T FORGOT TO VOTE!❤️