This chapter is dedicated to D_vine22 for voting on all my chapters...😘

Friday began with her opening her eyes to see the time was already 7:23am.

She cursed herself as she hurriedly put on her sports wear, regretting her movie binge the previous night. She should not have stayed up till 3am watching romance movies recommended to her by Damien.

And she only made herself watch it all because it was his favourites and she wanted something to talk to him about when they hung out.

She joined the latecomers kneeling at the entrance of the school hall except she, of course, didn't kneel as she was a senior. Naomi the bell ringer and punctuality prefect gave her a quizzical look as she drew nearer.

"You are never late, what happened?"

Ifechi sighed. "I overslept."

Naomi nodded in understanding and turned to the rest of the students whose knees ached from being on the Sandy tiles. Most of them were in senior classes, SS1 and 2. She sighted Anita standing in front of the door some steps away and smiled as she walked over.

"Wear your jacket" Anita told her when they saw each other. Ifechi was surprised to see the girls on her complete sports outfit and scanned the place to see that the rest of the students including the prefects also had theirs on.

What was happening?

Ifechi nodded and scouted for the blue jacket inside her backpack.

"I'm not with it."

"What?" Anita whispered to her, the principal was currently addressing the students and the hall was quiet.

"Mister Segun said he's checking it today, no one is exempted, even SS3s"

She froze. How could she have forgotten.

The Sports master had sternly warned them the previous day, specifically to the SS3s who liked to default the dress code, that incomplete dressing would not be tolerated any further. Everyone had theirs on, even the stubborn senior boys in C class, she was in deep trouble.

"I think..I think I left it at home while I was rushing"

"Haa! You better not enter the assembly then" Anita advised

Ifechi began to worry. How could she have forgotten her jacket? It was worse that she stood as the outcast amidst the mass of students who had their complete uniforms on.

"So what do I do now" she asked Anita even though she didn't expect the darker girl to have a reasonable answer.

"You can have mine" a voice interrupted them, a male voice. Anita was first to turn, and when Ifechi saw her mood lighten up, she knew it could only be one person.

"PG" her friend smiled happily then scowled. "You're standing outside too"

"I'm on duty" he shrugged and slipped his jacket off.

"Here" he said extending his hand to a baffled Ifechi.

"What are you doing?" Anita frowned at him.
"Yeah what are you doing?"

"You know you'll get in big trouble if you come out in the afternoon without this on" he said dangling the cloth in his hands. Ifechi and Anita turned to each other.

"What about you? What will you wear?"

"I'm the sports prefect, I'll easily get away"

Ifechi looked at Anita before accepting it, the darker girl simply rolled her eyes.

"Thanks" Ifechi said and accepted it.

She saw Damien after the assembly, but he didn't give her his signature smile.

She walked over to where he was and stopped when she saw Aliyah with him.

What's he doing with this girl again? She thought and frowned. For a while she hadn't been bothered about Grace and her minions and their little dislike for each other. Was this the devil's way of bringing bad things back into her life?

Inhaling softly, she forced a smile on her face as she strolled over to where they were.

Aliyah whispered into Damien's ear before taking her leave.

Good riddance.

Ifechi greeted Damien with a big smile but he didn't reply in his usual cheerful way, she asked what was wrong, but he only told her that he wasn't feeling too well, and she decided not to ask further.

In the following days, she would notice more changes in his behaviors towards her like how he stopped seeking her out when he came to their class, or how he started going to the game room alone, not bothering to ask her if she wanted to come along. He also made excuses when they were supposed to work on their club's project together, while Dera, his assistant captain showed up in his place.

She would also notice, that he was no longer in his class during their free periods when she went to see him, but somewhere else, with Aliyah, his new company, who made it a habit of excusing herself whenever Ifechi approached them together.

Something fishy was up, and she knew this, but her infatuation led her into denial. It was fueled more when she told Dami about it. Dami looked horrified at first, and Ifechi caught a glimpse of a knowing look somewhere in her stare, but she smiled and happily nodded in appreciation when Dami assured her that nothing was wrong.

She pondered upon it for an entire week and decided she was fed up with his attitude.

She decided to confront him on Friday afternoon.

"Would you tell a guy you liked that you had a crush on him?" She asked Amanda in the safe walls of their modest room.

Her sister squinted a bit and wiped food stains off her lips before replying. "Are you talking about Damien?"

Ifechi didn't fight the urge to smile. "Yes"

"Hmm...." Her sister started. "It's very uncommon..but I mean, yes you could, especially if he likes you back, doesn't he like you?"

"I dunno...." Ifechi answered more uncertain than she had ever been. "...these days he's been acting one kind, and we don't hang out as usual"

Her sister seemed to be in thought for some minutes, but when she finally spoke, Ifechi did not like her response.

She asked Anita the same thing the next day and found her reply more comforting.

"Maybe he's just shy and scared cause he's actually really into you, guys do that sometimes yunno"

Ifechi bit her lips and hoped that her friend was right. Her words sounded far better, in contrast to what her sister had told her the previous night;

"Guys are usually sure of what they want. If he's giving you attitude that you don't like, dump his ass, he's probably found a new girl to toy with"

The statement was harsh and it hurt her terribly- the fact that her sister thought she was just a toy. But deep down she felt a sense of truth in it. However, what she needed wasn't truth, but assurance and Anita's leniency gave her just that.

"Did you tell Pedro that you have a crush on him?"

Anita cheeks grew wider. "Yes I did, ever since sef...."

"And? What did he say?"

She rolled her eyes playfully before adding "....he said I was cute."

There was a pang of dissatisfaction and perhaps even disappointment in Ifechi's heart and she wondered how she would feel if Damien told her the same thing, that she was cute, a response Ifechi thought of as an euphemism for "I don't like you back!"

She was going to try her luck the next day, after two days of pep talking herself that she could do it.

Walking along the pathway that led to their class block, she nodded at some junior students who greeted her and some of her mates who waved at her wondering what it would be like if she and Damien were dating.

We could be the popular couple.

When she reached SS2C, two classes away from hers, she took in a deep breathe, bracing herself for what she was about to do- telling her crush that she liked him.

It couldn't have been in her wildest dreams that she would bump into Damien on his way out.

He seemed like he was in a hurry.

"I...I need to tell you something"

They went to the empty class at the end of the corridor. Ifechi paced back and forth twice before letting out a deep breathe.

"I like you!"

His eyes beheld amazement for some seconds before it switched to a knowing look, followed by sadness.

"What's wrong?"  Ifechi asked when he didn't reply.

"I... I..I don't know how to say this Ifechi"

Oh no, he doesn't like me back. She could already feel crumbs of her heart falling as she stared at his handsome face, basked in uncertainty as he struggled with what he wanted to say next.

But never in her life would she had expected something so cruel, a revelation so painful that scarred teenage romance in her eyes forever.

"...I like someone else, it's Aliyah"

Dun dun dun!!

Chaiiii....my heart is weeping for Ifechi, what about you?

Has this type of thing happened to you before? If it has, leave me stories in the comments, I wanna read.