Dedicated to euchariaezeanyika, essimau12. And Jolaoluwa17😁

"So do you want to talk?" Pedro said after at least 5 minutes of total awkwardness. He turned and looked at Ifechi when she didn't respond.

He cleared his throat.

"Do you want to gist?" He repeated.

She sighed whilst scribbling furiously on a fresh page. "Gist about what?"

He shrugged. "I dunno, anything..."

"...well I'm not in the mood to talk about anything..." She said stressing the last word. "...and besides, as you can see I am very busy" she said motioning to the note on her laps.

"Now that's exactly what I want to gist about, what's up with you and Grace?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you've been acting weird lately, like a puppet"

She stopped writing and frowned at him.

"Ok sorry I didn't mean it like that"

She hissed.

"But..."

"Mind your business!"

He raised his hand in surrender. "Alright"

"Good" she said and went back to writing.

"I'm still curious yunno..." He started after a few seconds, Ifechi groaned in response.

"What?"

"Just answer me, why are you writing her notes?"

"Who said I'm writing her notes?" Ifechi sassed. He looked at her as if to say "are you serious?"

"Urgh fine! If you must know...." Ifechi said preparing to reiterate the lie she'd invented that morning. "I owe her"

"Uh hmm.." he said folding his arms and nodding his head. He clearly didn't believe her.

"What?" She scowled.

"That's a lie" he stated making her scowl to deepen.

Ifechi hissed. "Don't believe na." she went back to writing her notes.

"She's got something on you" he stated rather than ask, Ifechi's hands paused for a second before resuming.

"Yunno if you tell me what's really going on, maybe I can help you...who knows?" He said again.

"Yeah right...thanks but no thanks" she replied rolling her eyes.

"A problem shared is a problem half solved..." He said in a song-like manner.

She scoffed in reply. "Or a problem turned gossip of the town"

"Come on, you know I'm not like that"

She only hmmed in response.

"So t...."

"Gosh you're disturbing me!" She said hitting the top of the book, her pen flew off in the process. He picked it up and gave it to her, smiling.

"Yunno if you tear her book, you'll be in real trouble right?" He teased and Ifechi wanted to slap that smirk off his face.

"Whatever, just stop talking to me."

"I'm sorry but that isn't possible, I'm bored and you're the only one here.  You'd have to find another place to slave away your time if you don't want to interact with me"

She eyed him scornfully and resumed writing.

"Should I help you write small?"

"No"

He laughed and leaned back on the wall, crossing his legs and placing his palm at the back of his head.

Ifechi finished the note she was copying and closed her pen with a satisfactory smile. Apparently, the note wasn't even that long, only three pages, Grace just needed an excuse to annoy her that morning.

They stayed quiet.

She leaned back too and stole a glimpse of his face. He was looking at the sky with a weird amount of concentration.

He began humming a tune to a popular song.

She tried all in her will to keep her mouth shut but her profound dislike for awkward silence would not let her.

"Shey it's wizkid that sang that song?"

He glanced at her, then looked back up and continued humming.

She stared at him agape. So he really wanted to be childish?

Okay, two can play that game.

More awkward silence.

"Okay fine I'll tell you." She finally gave in and a loud chuckle escaped Pedro's lips while he leaned forward and fixed his gaze on her as if he knew she'd give in soon.

"Let's hear it"

She sighed. "Grace and I aren't the best of friends... we're not even friends at all"

"No surprise"

"She knows something she shouldn't concerning me" she said truthfully.

Pedro placed one hand under his chin and rested it on his knee. "How so?"

Ifechi exhaled deeply, unsure of whether to proceed. "Last year, I went to her house"

"Didn't we all?"

"What...no, okay I think you get me wrong, I'm not talking about the party. I actually went to her house, for visiting"

"Visiting?"

"Yeah"

"Alone?"

"Hell no...I went with my parents"

He raised a brow.

"Our dads are friends"

P.G sat up straighter. "For real?"

Ifechi shrugged. "I guess so, they used to work together"

"Wow...that means you must be rich, like super rich"

"Huh?"

"You said your dads are friends"

"Yeah but how does that..."

"Grace's father is a very rich man, a senator"

Ifechi rolled her eyes "Yeah, I guess everyone knows that"

"If your father is friends with someone as affluent as Grace's father, couldn't that only mean they're of the same class"

Ifechi snorted. If only things were that simple. Perhaps under normal circumstances, the rich should only want to be friends with the rich, but in this case, it wasn't so.
"I don't think that's always true but anyways..."

"Go on."

"She didn't like seeing us, well at least me in particular so she found a secret she's using to torment me"

"What secret?"

Ifechi sneered at him. "it's called a secret for a reason"

"Yeah sorry my bad"

She didn't reply.

"Well How bad is this....secret? And how exactly did she find out" he asked again.

Ifechi was short of words. "Um...well..she....I dunno, please don't ask me"

"Hmm...okay" he said.

"So you're okay with being blackmailed then?"

She looked at him "Blackmailed?"

"She's using your secret to make you do things for her, that sounds exactly like blackmailing"

"Hmmm....whatever, just...stay out of it."

He sighed and closed his eyes briefly. She sighed too and leaned back on the wall.

"Why do you always do that?" P.G said after a few minutes.

"Do what?"

"Dismiss me rudely"

"Huh?"

Pedro shrugged. "It's true. Anytime I try to raise a conversation, you either ignore me or you answer me in monotones, as if I'm forcing you to talk to me"

Ifechi was surprised. "Well...I...."

He turned to his side, facing her completely. "You're a snob Ifechi"

"Excuse you? I am not a snob" she blurted and he looked away. "Sometimes I'm just not in the mood to talk but that doesn't make me a snob, If anyone's a snob between us two, it's you"

"It's alright, there's....wait what?" He stopped midway to stare at her in disbelief. "Me...a snob?"

"Yes..." Ifechi said satisfactory. "You snobbed me first"

"How? When? How?" He asked surprised, Ifechi huffed at his bewildered expression.

"Hmm lemme think..." She said rubbing her chin. "...third day after school resumption, this new girl Ifechi was trying to make some friends so she turned to this cool looking dude by her side, he was drawing something on his book and she said "hello" to him with the best manner of approach she could muster. But all he did was stand up and walk away leaving her to look like a fool" she finished with a scowl, P.G buried his head in his arms shaking them continuously.

"You still remember that?"

"Of course" she pulled her lips into an unimpressed look.

"I am...so sorry, like for real. I don't know what was up with me that day but I'm truly sorry"

Her expression softened at his unexpected apology. "Um...okay"

"Is that the only reason you don't like me?" He asked.

"It's the first, but not the only one. There are many reasons we aren't friends"

"Really, tell me" he said with a weird amount of seriousness.

Ifechi sighed loudly. "okay, well asides the fact that you ignored my existence for majority of the time, you pretended not to recognise me when Damien brought me to meet you guys..." Ifechi said with a hint of sadness.

"... that was crazy, I apologize..."

"...then you started treating me like I was some sort of cheap girl in desperate need of his attention..."

"What?....oh shit! I'm sorry about that too"

"....and then of course, the cherry on top, you kissed me... without my consent."

He stopped talking. Ifechi looked at him with a frown.

"You don't feel sorry for that one?"

"What?..." He cleared his throat "....I do, I'm sorry, that was messed up"

"Really messed up"

He cleared his throat again "I was drunk"

She scoffed. "No you weren't"

"How do you know?"

She bent her head low with her eyes wide open. "I'm not stupid yunno" she mimicked his accent on the last word which made him  chuckle.

"Fine, ok you're right"

"So why did you do it? were you trying to play with me or something? Let me guess, you made a silly bet with one of our silly class boys?" She twitched her lips and folded her arms staring intently at him, he suddenly felt shy under her gaze.

"Um...no, not at all...it's just...."

She waited for him to continue.

"Well I just...it was dark...the lights were dim...everyone was all cozy and sort of had a...." He cleared his throat yet again "....partner, sort of"

Ifechi looked at him incredulously, her eyes squinted and lips pursed.

"You're not making any sense yunno" she said.

"Should I be honest?"

"Obviously"

"I...I kinda like you.." he blurted.

"What?" She said baffled.

"....well I did.. I liked you....not like like, but yunno like as in, nevermind." He said waving it off, she squinted at him weirdly.

"O...k...ayy" she drawled.

"It's just, you looked really good that night at the party"

She hid the smile that threatened to show due to his 'compliment' and sassed instead.
"So that was why you wanted to stick your tongue in my mouth?"

"What? No...geez! This girl sef.." he said breaking into uncontrollable laughter and soon she found herself joining.

After a while, he broke the silence and said  in a more serious tone.

"I'm very sorry Ifechi, for real. I never knew I was being such a jerk."

"It's okay, stuff like that happen, I've not been the kindest towards you either so I guess it's GG" she replied.

"I hope we are cool now?"

"Sure"

"Friends?"

She looked at him strangely, his hands were outstretched with a little smile tugging at his lips, the friendliest she'd ever seen him look.

After much hesitation, she reached out to accept the handshake.

"Friends"

They both smiled.

**

The next day Damien walked into their class.

And no it wasn't to see Ifechi.

She exhaled deeply when she saw him at the front of the class, but unlike before, she didn't feel any hurt or constriction at her chest.

Kudos to moving on.

Rachel thought otherwise though.

"He doesn't like her that much" she said out of the blue, Ifechi turned to her side and gave her a questioning look.

"I mean Damien" she said.

"I know, I'm just wondering why you said that, and how do you know?" Ifechi replied.

"Well, I used to be her friend and I've seen them hang out a lot. Damien doesn't really like Aliyah, sometimes I feel like he's forcing himself to be with her"

She didn't know what to make out of this unnecessary information so she kept quiet.

"I feel he likes you..." Rachel whispered recapturing her attention. Ifechi scoffed.

"Its true... " The brown skinned girl continued unrelentingly. "I mean, okay I can see what he's attracted to, afterall, she's hot and all that...." Rachel said rolling her eyes. "....still I just feel that he doesn't really like her like that"

It was Ifechi's turn to roll her eyes. "Okayyy, so why are you telling me this?" She said in slight annoyance.

"I think he's more interested in you, infact I bet he'd be more happy with you" Rachel replied and it took all of her effort not to roll her eyes again.

"Whatever, it's none of my business" she replied. She'd already made up her mind to let go of all these wahala, she didn't need Rachel's assurance.

But a part of her wished she was right.

Ifechi looked up and to her surprise, Damien was looking at her. He held her gaze for a few seconds not shying away as she thought he would. Eventually, she broke eye contact and sighed.

Like she said, no more wahala.

The next teacher entered for their period and Ifechi got kicked out again, for not writing notes this time.

What type of week was this?

She went to her usual spot to chill and stopped when she saw who was already there.

"You again"

"You again"

Her and Pedro said at the same time and started laughing.

"Have a seat mon ami" he said motioning to the space beside him.

"Seems fate has brought us together again...why are you here?" Ifechi said to her amusement.

"Decided to skip this one myself, that English teacher is boring as heck..." he said to which Ifechi chuckled. "...what about you?"

"Got sent out....again" she sighed exhaustedly, P.G gasped in fake surprise.

"A whole you, straight A student, I'm terribly dissapointed mon ami" he shook his head, Ifechi rolled her eyes but a smile was on her lips. Who was this guy she was talking to, it definitely wasn't the P.G she knew.

"Shut up joorh"

Yep, they were that cool now.

"Do you want to play a game...yunno to pass time?" He asked when she'd lowered herself comfortably beside him.

Ifechi had other plans to read but she waved it off instead. "Which game?"

"20 questions" he replied. She seemed confused while he shrugged.

"Let's get to know each other better na" he added and she nodded.

"Fine"

"Okayyy, so let's start simple...what's your favourite colour?"

"Seriously I dunno sha but lemme say orange"

Pedro scoffed playfully. "I thought you'll say pink"

She rolled her eyes. "You nko"

"Green"

"Why though?" She was really curious.

"It's the symbol of fruitfulness and fertility"

"Makes sense" she nodded and they moved on.

"Favourite movie?"

"Spy kids!" She said and his eyes grew wider.

"No way! I love that movie!"

She was stunned as well. "For real!"

"Yeah!!"

"Maddo! you seemed more like the marvel type to me "

"Oh I love marvel, iron man is my favourite now and forever but spy kids?...nah that movie is G.O.A.Ted"

"What's your favourite part?"

"Part 3...Game over" she replied.

"Game over" they said at the same time again, his jaw dropped.

"Just marry me" he said raising his hand in exaggeration, Ifechi burst our laughing.

"It was the coolest, most surreal thing I watched when I was small, the movie producers of that film did an amazing job" she added and he nodded in agreement.

They gisted for a long time and Ifechi felt elated, she loved this new side of her seat neighbor. Pedro found out they had more in common than they ever expected.

Alas the period was over and it was time for break.

They stayed put to their seats, well absorbed into their gist until someone broke their conversation.

"Ifechi....Ifechi" the person rushed in calling her name as they ran.

It was Rachel.

"Yes?"  Ifechi stood up alarmed.

"haa thank God I've found you." The girl stopped running seeing as she'd found the person she was looking for. She stood beside the wall and bent over, gasping as she tried to catch her breath.

"What....what happened?" Ifechi said feeling weirdly anxious. What had happened? Was something wrong? Had Anita and Dami fought, she had a feeling they were going to sooner than.....

"You won't believe what just happened!" Rachel blurted, an eerie looking smile on her face, Ifechi knew then that it had to be something unserious. She mentally rolled her eyes and folded her arms, glancing back and forth at Pedro who was still seated looking equally confused.

"Go on.." she urged the slim girl who stopped panting and as if she was about giving a top secret info, took a deep breathe before revealing the news.

"Aliyah and Damien just broke up!"

"What?"

"Yes! And its all because of you!"

A/n
Dun dun dun....wetin don happen?

Aliyah and Damien have broken up? And it's all because of Ifechi? How, when, why...we will find out soon *wink

On a side note, Ifechi and Pedro are now becoming closer. Are you sensing what I'm sensing? *Another wink 😂

Pls vote and comment your thoughts below, I would really love to read them and I'll definitely reply. Till then, thanks for reading.

God bless you ❣️