"You only become a loser when you consent to it."

The words followed her long after she left the counsellor's office, long after she slammed the metal door in an attempt to shut out the words with the loud bang of the door.

It was frustrating and a bit comical how it wouldn't let her go even after she'd run past several blocks and was just mere inches away from her class.

She'd done everything she could to shut up the wretched voice. Screamed, pulled at her hair, stopped in the middle of the hallway and rammed her leg into the nearest wall-not at all bothered by the number of students who stopped to watch, all the while wondering if she was alright.

Even then the voice wouldn't leave. She couldn't help the unsolicited anger she felt towards the short woman with her oversized cheeks and dumb glasses which the woman probably thought would symbolise the wisdom she definitely lacked.

Of course the school was dumb enough to think a psycho seated behind a desk with a plate tag and a seemingly perfect life was what she needed to fix her apparently fucked up life.

Her thoughts ended abruptly when she collided with yet another one of the idiots who had the misfortune of being in her path. She was rewarded with a loud yell and string of profanities which she ignored as she moved on, barely even looking at the person.

She let out a groan when another figure appeared in front of her. She was just about cussing out the person when she looked up to find Justin staring down at her.

She rolled her eyes, sidestepping him. She stopped again when she saw Chikaima coming out of her class.

She looked back at Justin who still stood where she left him, staring at her with his dark eyes. She looked away, uncomfortable by the intensity of his gaze before throwing a glare at Chikaima and walking into the class.

She barely took note of some other students from the C.O. class as she made her way to her seat. She could feel three pairs of eyes following her movements but paid little attention to them.

Once on her seat, the questions began to flow.

"What happened?"

"Where were you?"

"Are you okay?"

She ignored Amelia and Kamsi but the last question caught her attention. She looked at Chidiogo. Her face bore an emotion she couldn't place. Concern? She scoffed, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. Sure, it was concern.

She got distracted for a moment by how perfect Chidiogo's hair was and wondered how hers looked after her brief period of madness.

She could hear Amelia and Kamsi saying something about how she hadn't given them an answer but Chidiogo's voice again caught her attention.

"Are you okay?"

She repeated the same question and it rang in Mmachi's head for a while. Are you okay?

She could feel the anger which had begun to wane threatening to resurge as she kept staring at Chidiogo's face.

An image of her pushing a knife through Chidiogo's face flashed through her head causing her to look away. She nodded, managing to choke out a 'yes'.

Amelia and Kamsi's questions didn't cease and she was about looking for an excuse to leave when she saw the the Government teacher walking into the class.

She had never been happier to hear the words 'CLASS COMPLIMENT'.

She grabbed her Chemistry note, grateful for the distraction. She was out of the class even before the greeting was over.

At least Chidiogo would be occupied with the Government class and even Amelia and Kamsi would be off her trail since she was heading nowhere near the Chemistry lab.

---††††---

The air was heavily filled with the clattering of cutleries, the aroma of freshly made pasta, chattering of students and occasional yells.

Chidiogo sat silently in a lonely corner munching away at her food while observing the filled dinning room. Students breezed in and out of the dinning room at uneven intervals.

Chidiogo watched a particular table not too far from the one she occupied. Unlike hers, it was filled to the extent that extra seats had to be added to usual arrangement.

The table consisted of Mmachi, who sat next to Justin, Amelia on her right. On Justin's left was Chikaima, followed by Kamsi. Quinn, Amarachi and a light brown skinned guy who Chidiogo hadn't seen before were also present on the table.

Chidiogo was particularly surprised by the seating arrangement. As far as she knew, Quinn and Mmachi disliked each other and Kamsi hated Amarachi to the extent that Chidiogo feared she would actually prefer her dead.

Amelia was pretty neutral during the whole book incident with Amarachi so she couldn't tell how she felt about her.

Their table didn't exactly seem any more exciting than hers. She occasionally heard them burst into laughter-although Quinn, Amarachi and Mmachi hardly smiled-but then they soon returned to normal.

Mmachi particularly kept frowning. Ever since the incident with Miss. Esua the previous day, Chidiogo hadn't really seen her.

They were in the same class, the same dorm room yet for weird reasons it felt like they saw more of each other when they were in different boarding schools than when the both of them finally ended up in the same school.

At least the class part was a bit understandable since Chidiogo was an arts student and Mmachi was a science student. But then being in the same room, it was a bit hard to fathom how she could stay a whole day without seeing her.

She didn't see her when she returned to the hostel the previous day and she didn't return until Chidiogo fell asleep. Unfortunately she didn't wake up at night to find out when she returned.

Chidiogo found the cycle a bit disturbing but it had only been on two occasions. She wondered if it was too early to be concerned.

She waved it aside focusing on her food.

Halfway through her meal, someone joined her table. She glanced up briefly to take a look at the person. A honey brown skinned boy with warm eyes smiled back at her. He sat opposite her on the table.

She awkwardly returned the smile before returning her attention to her food hoping the person wouldn't attempt to start any kind of conversation with her.

She almost cursed her luck when she heard his voice.

"Hey."

She pretended to not have heard anything, scooping a fork full of pasta into her mouth in hopes that he would leave.

"Hello?"

She sighed. If she ignored him again then she would just make him look stupid and then she'd feel guilty for the rest of the day.

She took a deep breath, mustering the sweetest smile she could come up with before looking at him.

"Hey. Sorry were you talking me? My mind's all over the place and-"

"It's okay," he said giving her a reassuring smile.

"Right," she muttered with a stiff nod.

"You're Chidiogo, right?"

"Yeah. Any problem?"

"I'm Paschal Edet. We're in the same class but I'm not sure you've noticed me before."

Chidiogo kept the smile on her as she nodded, hoping he would say whatever he wanted to quickly and leave.

"I wanted to ask you to hang out with-"

"Hey guys!" A voice came from behind, interrupting him.

They both turned to see Mmachi walking towards their table. She placed her tray of food on their table, when she arrived, taking a seat next to Paschal.

"The pasta's lovely, isn't it?" she asked smiling at them.

Chidiogo stared at Mmachi. She had just one question on her mind which tipped her tongue, almost spilling out. Why are you here?

"Yeah," Paschal said with a smile.

From the few minutes Chidiogo had spent with him, she concluded that he was the kind to be unnecessarily generous with smiles.

Mmachi returned the smile which felt a bit odd since she had been scowling since lunch began.

"I see you decided to settle for my counterfeit since you couldn't get over me."

Chidiogo stopped eating her pasta for a moment and stared at Mmachi wide-eyed. Did she really just call her her counterfeit?

Paschal shrugged and from his tone, Chidiogo could tell he wasn't offended in the least.

"I just came over to invite her for the social night. You never told me you had a twin though."

Mmachi twirled around her pasta with her fork. The plate was still full which meant she hadn't been eating.

"What's to tell?" she asked looking up from her plate, "As for the social night, she should be aware. She was present during orientation."

"I know. Just wanted her to hang out with my group."

Mmachi dragged her next word. "Right."

She twirled around her pasta as she spoke. "Come to think of it, you guys never attend the social night. What do you do during that time?"

"She'll find out when she joins."

"Too bad she can't come."

"Why?" Paschal and Chidiogo said at the same time before turning to look at each other.

Chidiogo looked away. She wasn't exactly thrilled to hang out with strangers but she didn't appreciate Mmachi making decisions for her.

"We're going home for Grandma's funeral or did you forget?"

Chidiogo's face scrunched in confusion.

"Grandma's funeral?"

Mmachi face-palmed herself. "Of course you forgot. Guess I always have to be around to babysit you."

Chidiogo wanted to speak but Paschal was already on his feet, his tray in his hands.

"Oh. So sorry. I didn't know."

Mmachi rolled her eyes. "Of course you didn't."

"Guess I'll leave now. See you later."

His smile was the last thing Chidiogo saw before he disappeared into the swarm of moving bodies.

After he left, Chidiogo turned to Mmachi.

"What was that about?"

"What?"

"Grandma's funeral is this Saturday?"

"No, the upper one."

"So you lied."

Mmachi shrugged and continued twirling her pasta.

"Why must you interfere in my life!?"

"It's a bad habit. Picked it up from you."

She finally shoved the food into her mouth. Chidiogo stared down at her own food suddenly loosing her appetite. She picked up her tray and left the dinning.

                  ---††††---

Chidiogo stared at her reflection, concentrating on her honey brown eyes. She'd decided to try something new with her hair, letting it down just like Mmachi did.

She couldn't tell if it was the lighting or it was just in her head but the hair seemed to make her eyes more noticeable. Browner than usual if it even made sense.

She stared at her reflection letting her eyes wander to her neck. A thought flashed through her head and she leaned in closer to take a look.

She soon spotted an almost invisible line, more like a scratch. It ran down her neck, a stretch of broken skin and clotted blood. With tentative fingers, she touched the spot. Staring at it, she finally had her answer to one of the numerous questions that gnawed at her.

None of it was in her head.

A/N: Hey once again people. How is your day going?

I'm not really in the mood for writing this plus I haven't edited this chapter yet so maybe I'll just skip to next time.

Drop your thoughts on the chapter and please don't forget to vote ✨