Birds chirping, trees dancing in the cool breeze, traders and buyers haggling over prices of goods and the two girls sitting in the car with me singing loudly. This might have been a normal scenery for the Sarima they knew and were taking home. But this wasn't the Sarima they knew. This wasn't even the Sarima I knew.

Everywhere around me looked so strange, it was like being abducted but in this case, I was a willing abductee. The whole thing had felt like a joke to me at first. I'd sworn they were playing a prank on me until they brought out their phones and showed me pictures of us having fun together. Pictures that didn't look photoshopped in anyway. Pictures of me in the University.

I guess it was out of fear that I lied. The fear of the unknown made me laugh and tell them I knew who they were but was only pulling their legs.

It was really funny that the last thing I remembered was scrolling through Instagram, seeing my friends post matriculation pictures and I was almost giving up on getting admission. Now it turns out I spent a whole year in University and I couldn't remember any of it.

Look on the bright side Rima. Your dream came true. Only that it felt like one of those good dreams you had and you just wake up remembering nothing.

"Or pineapple?"

"Huh". I was so lost in my thoughts I didn't hear what the girl with long neon braids was saying. She popped her gum, took a deep breath and repeated.

"I said would you like pepperoni or pineapple?"

"Pepperoni or pineapple what?" I frowned at her.

" Pizza,of course. Haven't you been listening?" She popped her gum again. It was annoying.

"Umm" I thought for a while, trying to ignore the light pink bubble she was blowing. Did I still like the same things? What if they were just testing me and if I said they wrong thing they'll know something was wrong. I took a deep breath. "pepperoni."

"That's two for pepperoni and one for pineapple. Pepperoni it is." She smiled victoriously and began tapping on her phone.

"Why not both?" The girl driving sighed.

"Order your own then, Gen". The gum popped across her face, covering part of her nose and her lips.

Gen? I swear that's what I heard. I've never seen someone called Gen. Was it a short form for Generator? Generation or General? Who the hell gives their children these names?

"Stop na." She laughed and made a turn at a bend. "That boy was a fool. How can he not know how to spell Jane?"

Oh Jane. That's better.

"That's your business. I've saved your number as Gen in my phone. It's true sef. Rima, what did you save my number as in your phone? Because I know you're always saving people's numbers with stupid names. " The neon haired girl had removed all traces of the gum from her face.

"Remember 'tiro eye' ". They both laughed.

I didn't. I didn't remember who I'd saved as 'tiro eye'. I didn't even know where my phone was.

"Mave you're wicked o." Jane turned to the neon haired girl. Mave. So that's her name. Another name I haven't heard before. Well, thank goodness I was getting somewhere. "So you really saved my number as Gen and I was busy using heart emoji for you. I'm changing it right away."

The car came to an abrupt stop and before I knew what was going on, the driver's door and the back door were opened. The two girls stepped out and were already walking towards a tall building. A tall ugly building.

It was painted the ugliest colour combination I'd ever seen. The uneven vertical and horizontal strokes of ash and orange made it look like the painters were playing fruit ninja with the paint brushes. I wondered if they'd painted it recently or we'd moved into the house with it looking like this.

The building had three floors and was shaped in a 'U'. Our room was on the second floor. I guess. I heard Jane mutter about always having to climb to the second floor and how we needed elevators.

I didn't meet anyone on our way but I sure heard a lot of noises from loud oldies music to annoying moans. I heard it all. What kind of place is this?

"Stupid people. Always making noise as if they're the only ones in this compound. Mtcheeew." Mave sighed. And I knew the noise she was talking about wasn't the music.

"Sarima, what's up?"
I looked up the stairs and saw a dark head looking down at me.

"Um, I'm fine." I replied the tall boy sitting on the stairs. He was holding a closed textbook on histology so I figured he was a medical student and maybe our neighbor and friend.

He raised a brow at me, shrugged and opened his book. I wasn't in the mood to talk too so I ignored him and kept walking.

Finally, we got to our door and Mave pushed the door open revealing a messy room. They just walked in like it was a normal thing to leave the room messy but I had a problem. A big one. How on Earth was I going to sort out my things?

Clothes were scattered all over the floor and a large pink bra was hanging on the vanity mirror. Definitely not mine.
I bent to pick up an opened textbook from the floor and a note fell out. 'anatomy test. Page 706'. Well, my handwriting hadn't changed. Wait! Anatomy. Was the dark boy on the staircase my coursemate? Was he reading for the test too?

"I'll arrange." Jane dropped to the floor beside me and picked up a black dress and began folding. "you just have to sit back," she opened the wardrobe and placed the folded dress in. "Relax," she turned to me "and tell us why the hell you skipped Ceecee's birthday party and had us worried the whole night and why the hell we found you in an empty classroom, sleeping in yesterday's clothes."

"Ceecee? Cynthia Duke?"

Jane nodded. "Why are you now calling her full name na?"

"Are you okay?" Mave held my shoulder.

" What's today's date?" I shakily asked.

"Twenty third." Mave answered calmly. She was so much nicer.

Twenty third. So yesterday's date was twenty second. Cynthia Duke's birthday.
Finally!!! Someone I remembered.