Exams were fast approaching with only a  week left to study. Not that it bothered students like Ifechi who had already finished the term's scheme before midterm break.

She was rather concerned about what to wear on their upcoming event: cultural day.

Out of all the "fancy" extracurriculars, Anita had told her the school hosted every term, the one she'd mostly looked forward to was cultural day.

Maybe it was because she had always fantasized about showing up to school in anything other than the school's uniform.

"I must do your make up tomorrow o" Amanda told her the morning before the big day.

Ifechi chuckled as she squeezed pack of hair attachments into her school bag. Classes for that day were going to be cut in half in order to finish the preparations and Ifechi would leave early to make her hair.

She was finally getting braids.

Except this time she did it for herself rather than to impress him. She'd come across a Pinterest hairstyle that would go well with the gele she was going to tie.

The next morning she woke later than usual to have her bath. The event was slated to start at 9 o clock sharp but with the famous African timing, Ifechi knew nothing serious would happen until at least 10:30am.

She showed to school an hour later looking as stunning as ever.  Her gold attire made her fair skin even more pronounced,  her gele shown under the class bulb once she stepped in and her local handfan completed the perfect look of a beautiful African woman.

Ifechi's outfit

"Wow!" One of her classmates, Jimmy was the first to voice out his amazement.

He held a hand out for her which she accepted and twirled her around whistling as he did. She giggled at his flattery and continued the walk to her class trying her best to keep a straight face despite all the looks of admiration thrown her way.

Anita and Dami looked dumbstruck.

"Guys whatsup?" She'd asked when the lollipop in Anita's mouth hung still and her eyes widened suddenly.

The two girls were in their cultural attire as well, beautiful bubas and iros as the Yoruba wore.

Dami was the first to get out of her trance, she cleared her throat and spoke.

"You're winning best dressed this year...that's for sure"

Ifechi let out a hearty laugh. " There is actually an award for that?"

"Hm...not officially,  but seniors, get to choose which girl and guy has the best outfit every cultural day, Grace usually gets nominated for girls" she added with an eyeroll.

Moments later,  Grace and Rachel stepped into the class looking flawless. No one needed to tell Ifechi that her (Grace) make up was professionally done. Being Igbo as well, she had on the traditional Igbo attire, except her gown was strapless and her bosom was covered in beautiful red beads, there was also a crown on her head.

Grace's attire

Ifechi could see why she always won best dressed.

Suddenly feeling intimidated as usual, she turned her attention back to her mobile device, they could bring phones on extra curricular days. She took numerous selfies with her friends, and a ton of other classmates that asked.

When she looked up from a snap chat video she was doing, her picture perfect face morphed into a scowl.

Damien and Aliyah were in front of the class.

Not just that, they currently had all the attention to themselves because of how gorgeous they looked.

And they looked so gorgeous because they were matching!

Yes, matching!

"Wahala for who no get lover o" Jimmy yelled and Ifechi felt a small dislike for him at that moment while her eyes trailed back to admiring the couple.

How was it even possible? Damien was Igbo and she was sure Aliyah was Hausa but the couple managed to pull it off. Aliyah wore a black, female Hausa outfit that made her light skin pop, while Damien rocked his black senator and Igbo cap.

She was Jealous.

"Yunno envy doesn't look good on you"

She knew who it was before she even looked.

P.G was adorned in his own native attire, a brown, tailored long sleeved shirt with black trousers that came as a surprise to Ifechi because she didn't know he was Igbo. He didn't go all the way as some of the other guys she'd seen did with their outfits, but he still looked good.

She snorted and decided to ignore him.

"It must be hard seeing them together, isn't it?"

No answer.

"Oh come on, you won't talk to me?"

"What is it Pedro?" She snapped at him but he didn't back away, didn't even flinch, rather he raised a brow at her.

"Pedro?"

She mirrored his actions "isn't that your name?"

"Uh..nah...only my friends can call me that it's P.G to you"

As much as she disliked him, she didn't get why that statement seemed to upset her.

"Whatever"

She glanced around, wondering where her two friends had suddenly gone to. How was she so unlucky that anytime he came to disturb her, there was always no one in sight that could help her.

She felt heat rise to her cheek when she turned and met a certain person's gaze on her.

Damien had an unreadable expression on. His perfect facial features still gave her tingles and she cursed at the butterflies that were dancing in her stomach before exiting the class.

The air outside seemed so much fresher.

Cultural day was worth all the hype it got. Many thrilling events gave Ifechi a good feeling she didn't want to end. Art presentations were inspiring, fashion parade was entertaining to watch, even the dance from SS1 boys had her pounding her palms together in applause.

To top it all, the food menu was looking sumptuous as well.

"Are you sure you can eat it, it'll burn your tongue o" someone teased her on the food line.

She rolled her eyes at Jimmy who was grinning mischievously. Being Yoruba- and Yorubas loved to add a lot of spice in their food- he teased Ifechi about not being able to handle the pepper.

"You'll just turn red" he added as the caterer scooped another spoon of Ofada stew onto Ifechi's plate.

She hissed playfully as she returned to the table where Anita and Dami were. Jimmy followed suit and immediately trotted over to where Dami sat and Ifechi couldn't help but smile.

His new crush on her friend was amusing and perhaps even cute. She wondered what would happen if one day Damilola decided to shun him, or worse, if she ended up liking another guy and becoming his girlfriend instead.

This made her think about a certain someone.

She shook her thoughts away as she dug into her food, mistakenly shoving the hot food down her throat without thinking twice.

"Easy o, easy o...shey I told you the food is hot, you no gree listen" Jimmy said when she began to cough and she didn't miss the smirk on his face, Damilola joined in laughing at her best friend.

Anita came to her rescue with a bottle of water.
"Thank you joorh..." Ifechi said eyeing the other two.

The four of them gisted as they ate, Ifechi doing more listening than talking. The food was indeed spicy, she couldn't risk choking on food due to her carelessness.

She regretted going for the local sauce few minutes later, after downing two bottles of water due to the spiciness. Mother nature couldn't be cheated, and now her excretory system was sending an alarm.

She excused herself from the three of them, who seemed rather busy to notice: Anita was scrolling through Instagram, and Jimmy and Damilola were seeing a movie on his iPad.

She walked hurriedly to the class building, willing her legs to go faster while remaining balanced on her wedged shoes. She wasn't about to trip in front of all her admirers now, was she.

On getting to the last floor where her class toilet was, one would wonder why she didn't just use the ones downstairs, but Ifechi didn't trust those junior students a bit.

She pressed the button on the water closet a few minutes later and stood in front of the mirror to adjust her Gele. Her eyes settled on the adorned face staring back at her.

Wasn't she pretty enough?

She stepped out of the convenience too quickly that she bumped into something hard, a wall perhaps, but walls didn't have hands to wrap around her waist to prevent her from falling.

"Geez, I'm sorry"

Neither did walls talk.

She steadied herself before looking to see who the culprit was and backed suddenly when she saw him.

He looked at her too and for a brief second he was stunned by how gorgeous she looked and muttered the first word that came to his mind.

"Wow"

He couldn't get over how mesmerising her eyes were coated in thick black liner and how her plump lips appeared more kissable than ever.

Focus D, you have a girlfriend. He chided himself.

"Well...um" he started to say but Ifechi had regained herself and had started to walk off.

How could she just walk out on him like that?

He ran after her, which was more like four quick steps because her shoes couldn't make her walk any faster no matter how badly she wanted to be as far away from him as possible.

"Wait, please wait...can we just talk pls"

"Talk about what?" She surprised herself by not snapping at him.

"Everything! I mean....what happened...between us.....you and me.."

"What happened to us?"

Her calmness seemed to scare and comfort him at the same time, maybe she wasn't as mad as before, maybe she'd gotten over the fact. What he didn't understand is why that seemed to offend him a bit.

"I...erm..yunno .."

She paused and spared him a glance "We have nothing to talk about."

"Pls can you just give me a chance"

She cringed. "Okay what do you want?"

"Us to be friends again"

She scoffed. "You have a girlfriend"

"So?"

"So we can't be friends Damien. Do you....are you even serious right now"

"What exactly did I do wrong?"

"Play with me!" She yelled then inhaled deeply after. She'd promised herself she wouldn't go off.

"You knew I liked you, didn't you?"

Her words tasted bitter in her mouth and she could already tell the answer from his eyes.

Damien was tongue tied, not that he knew what he'd wanted to say to her to begin with. Their bumping into each other was coincidental and he figured he'd made use of the opportunity to settle what was wrong. He actually did miss, he really did.

"I'm..I'm sorry"

Ifechi fought the urge to laugh.

"Look, I really am...I knew you liked me and I'm sorry I led you on?"

"Oh so you admit you played with my feelings?"

"Can you give me a break, I'm trying to apologize here!!" he suddenly raised his voice, taking her by surprise. "I did nothing wrong by asking someone else out, plus it's not my fault you naturally assume that every guy who gives you little attention is in love with you or something, can you just chill?!"

Her heart broke.

"You're right, I was foolish" she said, her voice breaking and it occured to him, the words he had just spewed.

"So..sorry, I didn't mean it that way"

"No its....its okay.."

"Ifechi please...." He moved to hold her but she backed away.

"I..I..goodbye"

And she ran off in tears, the fear of ruining her makeup forgotten.

A/n

I finally updated, lol😂
Thank you guys for your support, I keep seeing new likes and views even though I don't update consistently and I'm just really grateful for your support.

God bless you all❤️