Dedicated to dheenmah 

I'm low-key crushing on Prince Amir, from 'When Golden souls collide' 😂😂

Ifechi seemed to be the only one high on cloud nine during break. She couldn't stop smiling in a way that even her friends found suspicious.

"Why are you smiling like that?" Dami asked her.

"Be like this exam sweet for you" Anita replied with a dull expression.

Ifechi mouthed 'nothing' in reply because she left, no hopped happily to the school's canteen to buy some snacks.

The canteen was full to the brim with students, most who were sitting with their friends on the new furniture the school had thoughtfully supplied the previous week. There were dozens of long plastic tables with chairs around each adorning the area in front of the canteen that used to be a large, empty space.

Not many of them seemed to mirror her facial expression, they looked rather tired and dull thankful that half of the days paper was almost done.

Ifechi didn't feel the same way.

Infact, she felt so elated and confident enough that she could write a test on any subject, even the ones that weren't scheduled for that day. What could she say? Mathematics paper was extremely easy and she couldn't seem to remember any question she did not answer correctly. The civic they held after was just a cherry on top to boost her mood.

She was walking cheerfully towards the senior block with a small, black nylon in hand when someone called her name.

She knew who it was before she turned back.

"Ah ah, this one you're smiling like this" he commented at the blushing girl who mentally rolled her eyes.

"Good morning"

"Haa, she's even greeting me on top, what's the good news?"

"Nothing" she was quick to reply, the fair boy raised an eyebrow and tilted his head to one side, an expression she recalled vividly from the last time they'd met which was 3 days ago.

When they had been alone for almost 10 minutes.

"What's with the glasses?" He asked suddenly reminding her of the abomination on her face, she touched the brim of the accessory.

"Oh..this, I just felt like wearing it, I use glasses"

", Hmm really, doesn't seem like so"

"Well apparently, someone told me to wear an eye patch to school" she sassed and he gave her a brief look before bursting into laughter.

"You still remember that" he said. "Well if it'll soothe your ego, I think it looks good on you...I mean the glasses" he said flashing her a smile that threatened to mess with her senses.

How can somebody be fine like this?

"Well thank you" she managed to reply

"What do you have there?" He said pointing to black nylon in her hand.

"Snacks" she replied in a duh tone.

"Hmm, just this?"

She frowned slightly "what do you mean?"

He didn't reply instead her grabbed her hand "Follow me"

"To where?" She asked, but didn't need to because he was leading them back to where she'd just come from.

Ifechi didn't miss the attention he brought to himself at the canteen. A few girls on the table and even some on the other next to it waved at him as he passed, to which he acknowledged, a girl in particular threw her a weird look before going back to admiring the boy.

She wanted to start protesting but her mouths remained closed when they met some of his classmates at the table near the middle, he exchanged brief hand shakes with a guy while she stood some feets apart waiting for him to finish his greeting so that he could explain why he dragged her.

"Wait here"

She opened her mouth to speak but he was already walking off. Unlike the rest of the students who lined up outside the three food stands, he went straight into the building emerging minutes later with two huge takeouts.

"Here" he handed her one, she stared at him unbelievably before her eyes wondered to the huge plastic bag in his hand, the bag was full, really full and she could see the silhouette of varieties of snacks in it.

"No thank you"

It was his turn to frown "why not?"

"Did I ask you to buy anything for me?"

He rolled his eyes, a long exaggerated eye roll that left even she in shock "All these girls and their shakara, just take joorh"

"No"

"Okay I'll just send someone to drop it for you in your class" he said and for a moment she thought he was joking till he called out to one of the junior boys lurking around and motioned for him to come thereby attracting more attention to themselves.

Ifechi snatched the bag from his hands "ok ok, I've taken it, pls stop shouting"

He chuckled at her horrified expression "Better"

"But why did you buy it, I mean..," she started which earned a small groan from him.

"I felt like spoiling someone today...."

She paused in shock for a second before her usual, nonchalant look returned "peele Dangote, you have excess money"

"Ehen na, so I gats spoil my friends"

Oh wow

"So we're friends?" She said when they started walking back, she noticed some people especially senior girls giving her not-so-subtle glares. She scoffed within herself.

"Aren't we?" Was his reply.

She bit her lips from replying, staring down at the colorful cemented tiles that adorned the pathway to the class building.

"Thank you" she spoke up after they'd walked for a while "...for this and also last week"

"Last week?"

"Yeah the clinic, for staying with me..I appreciate" she added recalling, there was nothing special about the day, after asking him to stay, they barely spoke to each other with him relaxing comfortably into the chair and staring at her while she looked everywhere else but at him.

It was an awkward but satisfying moment for her which didn't seem to last long because the bell signalling school over went off few minutes after.

He slowed down when they were close to the entrance "you're welcome"

Then he started to back away.

"Aren't you going up?" She asked staring at his retreating figure while he was still facing her.

"My friends are waiting for me"

"Oh ok" she said a little dissapointed.

"See you later cutie!" He said and winked at her, leaving her a blushing mess at the foot of the stair case.

'bye' she wanted to reply but he had already gone far. She turned back and led herself up the staircase to the third floor.

Anita's eyes widened at the content in her hand when she walked into the class, including some of her classmates but still, it didn't wipe the stupid smile that was plastered on her face.

~

It was already Wednesday of the mid term exam week and Ifechi was deeply engrossed in the further mathematics textbook in front of her.

"Is this one even listening to what I'm saying" Dami said nudging her, she forcefully peeled her eyes away from her textbook before fixing them on the face of her friend.

"You read too much!" Anita blurted, she turned her attention to the girl who refused to meet her eyes but stared at her nails instead.

"She's right o, since we finished Biology, na so your head has been in that textbook, isn't further maths tomorrow"

"Yes which is why I'm reading it"

"Peele o, thank God that I've finished my own test"

"Aswr" Anita said

"Oya you people should leave me that has not finished lemme read" Ifechi said almost irritatedly, they ignored her as Anita ranted on.

"Omo did you hear that Grace now has 24k followers on Instagram" she said dazedly causing Ifechi to almost hiss at the irrelevance of the information.

"Wait which Grace, Williams?" Dami asked

"Ehen na, which other Grace do you know, of course na Grace Williams.. na so I checked this morning o, babe is now doing influencer tinz, I even heard she's now brand ambassador for Rachel's mother's clothing brand"

"Wait Rachel's mother has a clothing brand?" Dami asked bewildered. Anita let out a small scoff.

"See this one you don't even know what's going on, Omo na to start famzing like this o, lemme know if I'll get conne for this my modeling career" Anita said dreamily earning an eye roll for Ifechi.

Modeling ni... She muttered quietly.

"Abi o.." Dami concurred which surprised Ifechi, momentarily tearing her gaze from the maths figures on her book to look at the fair girl in her front.

For two girls who seemed to have a strong dislike for Grace and her gang, they were behaving like camouflaged fans.

Ifechi was debating whether or not to make the unpopular remark in her head when Naomi walked into class holding a bunch of exam scripts.

"Maths is here o" she said immediately gaining the attention of all their classmates as everyone began to surround her in order to see their test scores.

For people who claimed that the test wasn't important to them, they were sure eager to check their scores. Ifechi thought to herself as she and Dami remained on their seats while others struggled to get their papers including Anita.

"You people should chill ni, the paper is not running away, you guys want to suffocate me" the bigger girl holding the white papers in her hand yelled at them.

Some of her classmates muttered 'sorry o' and backed away from the girl and she began dishing out the test scripts.

"18 over 100!" Someone shouted, a male. Everyone looked at the direction of the noise to see Samuel staring at his paper with a stupefied look.

The latter on seeing everyone's attention on him, replaced the look of dismay on his face with a nonchalant one as he squeezed the paper tightly before tossing it into the bin as if he was throwing a ball. "Sha, las las I no dey use this school do anything, musicians don't need maths" he said with a smug expression.

"No be only musician, with this your yeye voice and overgrown beards... if you like don't take your studies seriously dey there and be forming I don't need maths" Aliyah jeered at him earning laughs from their classmates at the boy who only glared at her.

Others continued to receive their scripts with the majority grunting in displeasure at the marks they got. The maths teacher, Chief Udochie was known for his thoroughness and strictness when marking student's exam papers.

Guys can you imagine "42 over 100" Anita said strolling to their corner with a script on her hand and a scowl on her pretty face.

"That man sef eh...no joy" she said.

Or maybe next time you read. Ifechi wanted to say but kept her lips pressed as she stared at the class prefect who kept dishing out scripts.

A girl whose name Ifechi did not know brought a script to their corner before dropping it on Pedro's desk. The brown boy, whom always seemed to go unnoticed because he had been silent all through picked his paper before glancing through it, a satisfactory smirk etched on his face.

Ifechi wondered what he got that he looked happy.

"Wow you got 75, that's amazing...you're so smart." Anita said turning to his seat which was directly at her back and taking in the contents of his paper, he didn't stop her, infact he let her hold the paper, with the tips of their fingers brushing. Dami turned to Ifechi and gave her a sort of teasing look at their friend's cheesiness.

Ifechi started to wonder what she got before a scream was heard, more like someone hailing whoever seemed to get the highest score.

"Osheyyyyy our brainy queen, 98 over 100...congrats girl" Naomi smiled at the girl that could only be Grace, stretching the paper carefully to the girl who didn't move an inch from her desk, her paper was brought to her, like it always was.

Grace received her paper with poise as usual, her eyes gliding through it with a proud satisfaction. She'd only failed one question, which would have been a problem to her, except she was sure that she would still be the highest in the class as usual.

Her friends and other classmates gathered around her, all wishing her congrats on her amazing score, except for Ifechi and her corner mates and some other students who were too busy cross checking their scripts using textbooks.

Dami got up to receive her paper from Temi who passed it to her meanwhile holding hers close to her chest, as if she didn't want anyone to see her own score.

"What did you score?" Anita asked.

Dami shrugged in reply "72...no biggie"

"No biggie? That's like twice my score" she whined, Ifechi rolled her eyes about to correct her when Dami did it instead.

"Mumu..42 times 2 is 84 not 72"

"Remind me say I no Sabi book na" The other girl retorted playfully earning a low hiss from her friend.

Ifechi looked around at everyone peering into their exam scripts and started to wonder where hers was. She was about to stand up to inquire from Naomi when....

"Haaaaaaaaaaaaa!" The girl screamed alerting everyone immediately, the class grew quiet, so quiet that a feather dropping to the ground would probably make an audible sound, that's how quiet it was. Everyone looked at the girl whose eyes were widely opened, a hand covering her mouth as she gazed almost unbelievably at the last paper in her hand.

"I...If...Ifechi?" She stuttered more like asked, she couldn't recall someone having that name in their class.

Ifechi stood up and the girls eyes immediately shifted to her, her iris expanded even more as she extended the paper.

"You...you got..."

"Wow wow, wow......this is unbelievable!"

"Wetin dey do you na talk something" one of their classmates commented

"Asin eh, why you con dey behave like siren, which one be wawuwawu again"

"Naomi do fast and tell us what she got, if it's so remarkable" Someone at the front muttered disdainfully.

The girl took in a deep breath dramatically before turning the piece of paper for the entire class to see

"You got 100 / 100"

A/n

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, pls vote and comment if you did, it really encourages me....and if you do, I'll dedicate the next chapter to you.