Chapter dedication: TinuDebbie , Detulekunmi. And oma5372
Thank you for your votes and comments.

Quick notice: Please re-read towards the end of the previous chapter, I made a little update. Let's assume that the picture above is DCA's field 😁🤭

Inter-house sports competition was forthcoming.

The sports master had informed them during assembly that the list for assignment of houses would be out by break. Excited murmurs and chatters filled the air but Ifechi didn't see any reason to be excited.

"God I pray they put me in yellow house again" she heard the girl in her front mutter.

"Me too" the person sitting beside her said.

"Omo please let it be green house this time..." Dami whispered beside Ifechi.

"Which house do you want to belong to?" She asked and Ifechi shrugged.

"I don't know, anyone I get assigned to I guess"

"Oh yes..." Damilola chuckled. "... sometimes I forget you joined us this session, the best are yellow and green but pray you'll enter green"

"Alright" Ifechi said with a lopsided grin but within her, she didn't care. Asides being new, sports competition had never been her thing. In her former boarding school, she rarely participated in any thing during inter-house sports and she didn't think it would be different this time. She was content with being a complete spectator so the house she belonged to wouldn't matter.

But some people had other plans.

"....pleasseee"

"For the last time guy Noo!" their assistant sports prefect said walking so briskly that the boy beside him struggled to keep up with his pace despite having long legs as well.

"Abeg na..."

"Guy wetin na, I don tell you, it's mister Segun that compiles the list. Wetin you wan make I do"  he stopped and turned sharply. Damien sighed deeply.

"Just help me make sure we are in the same house"

"You and who?"

"Ifechi"

The lanky boy face-palmed himself. "So you sef you don join all those hopeless guys wey dey disturb person to put their babe and them in the same house" he began walking.

Damien frowned.

"Ah ah guy na, what's that supposed to mean? See if na you, you no go like am? Abi you no go want make your babe dey the same house you dey... Ehn?" He said jogging calmly.

"No" Tunde replied sternly.

"Really?"

"Yes. It's a sports competition not a honeymoon...and besides, didn't you just get out of a relationship" he said giving him a judgemental look, Damien frowned.

"Forget that one"

"Hm..."

"Guy abeg na, I take God beg you" 

Tunde stopped walking again and turned facing him with a dissapointed look. He couldn't believe why Damien, of all the guys in their set, could be begging so much for such a silly reason.

"Hard guy hard guy, see wetin girl don do you..." He sighed and shook his head in mock pity. Damien rolled his eyes.

"You go help me abi you no go help me?" He asked. Tunde eyed him before shrugging.

"...I actually can't help you, for real, I don't have any interference with the house assignment. However, since you want it so badly, maybe you should talk to P.G. Afterall, you two used to be very good friends" he finished and hurried off leaving Damien with a scowl on his face.

Talk to P.G.

Tunde was right when he said they used to be very good friends.

Used to.

After the incident at Grace's party, things got colder. P.G was unapologetic for what he did and even if he wasn't, Damien did not deserve an apology, he had a girlfriend afterall, what right did he have to complain?

He decided to let go of his ego.

"Why should I do that?" Pedro asked him upon hearing his request.

"Please, I really need your help"

"She told you she doesn't want to talk to you" he said and froze after realising what he'd said. Damien raised a questioning brow.

"I heard your convo on Saturday" Pedro confessed. He didn't mean to eavesdrop but he couldn't help himself when he saw whom the speakers were.

"Fine, I screwed up" Damien raised his hand in surrender.

"You did"

"But I want to fix things now"

"How will being in the same house help you with that?" Pedro titled his head in fake wonder.

"Leave that to me, so will you help me or not?"

Pedro thought a while and finally sighed.

"Fine! But you owe me big time"

Damien grinned. "My guyyy"

**********

"Yellow house members, yellow house this way" someone yelled from a booth.

The names were finally posted on the notice board during break. There were seven in total: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Pink and Purple. The school had ended lessons early so that they could use the rest of the day to start planning.

"I can't believe they put you in green house, you that don't even care" Dami hissed to Ifechi's amusement while they walked towards the field searching with their eyes the banner that indicated where each color was situated.

"At least we're in the same house" Anita said.

"The worst house in the school" Dami rolled her eyes.

"That's actually blue house"

"Abeg..."

"Oh there's purple house" Ifechi stopped abruptly and pointed in a direction. Her friends sighed loudly and waved her off.

"See you after then"

"You too"

Ifechi took a deep breath and began searching for her house. She found it not long after right in the middle of the bleachers.

"Oh my gosh, we are in the same house!!!" Rachel screamed causing those around to cover their ears and hiss at her with a frown.

Ifechi giggled. "Yayy!!" She said pumping her first upward. She acknowledged some of her classmates and waved at the junior students who called her name.

Their joy was short-lived when they saw who a fellow house mate was.

"What's she's doing here" Rachel snorted, Ifechi had a frown on her face as well.

"Hi guys" Aliyah said with a smirk once she got to the booth, some of their classmates who were also in green house waved at her while junior students greeted. Her expression turned sour when she saw the two girls.

"Urgh, seems they put the worse for us this year" she said with a fake yawn. Rachel wanted to snap but Ifechi held her back.

"She's not worth it"

Soon their booth was filled with all their house members and more that were still coming.

The guys arrived last.

"Wassup" PG greeted them first.

"Heyyyy, sports prefect dey our house, we go win this year o!!" Someone hailed and excited chatters rose among them. P.G laughed as he fist bumped some of his classmates. He searched around for Ifechi and smiled when their eyes met, she smiled back.

Then she froze at the person beside him.

Damien.

"Hi" he said with a smile and she nodded in response and shifted uncomfortably when he took the empty space next to her.

Damien paused upon seeing his ex in the same booth, Aliyah had a similar look on but she snorted and hissed while he turned to P.G with a quizzical look but the boy simply shrugged.

Ifechi was aware of the whole thing and so was some of their other classmates. To make it worse, Rachel cleared her throat from behind where she sat.

Awkward.

Their house matron finally arrived to Ifechi's relief. The woman was the P.E teacher as well as their social mistress.

"What do we start with?" She inquired after they'd greeted her.

"Let's elect house captain" someone suggested.

"Yes yes" everyone chorused. The woman nodded.

"Okay then, you guys should nominate, one girl, one guy"

"P.G!!" The guys hailed and everyone immediately agreed.

"Okay then, our sports prefect it is, what about girls?"

Rachel shot her hand up.

"Yes?" The woman answered.

"I nominate myself" Aliyah interrupted and everywhere became quiet for a second before someone hissed. The woman nodded turned to Rachel. "what were you about to say?"

"I wanted to nominate someone"

"Okay who is it?"

"Ifechi"

Ifechi turned to her sharply. She gave her a 'what the heck' look but Rachel replied with a grin instead.

"Alright, we have two contestants for the post, any other nomination?"

Ifechi wanted to protest. "Ma, I'm not sure I wan......"

"I nominate Ifechi as well" Damien cut in and Ifechi gave him a mean look but he kept his focus on the woman who nodded and motioned to someone in the front to take notes.

"Any other nomination?"

Someone else raised her hand, a junior student "I nominate Senior Boma" she said with a cheesy grin at Boma who just shook her head with a smile.

"Okay, last one, anyone?"

No one replied.

"Time to vote. Will the three girls stand please?"

The three of them stood.

"Those in favour of Aliyah"

A few people raised their hand including Aliyah.

"That's 10" the SS1 girl counting replied and jotted down the number. Immediately she heard the number, the fair girl sat down with a hiss.

"Those in favour of Ifechi"

Numerous hands went up including that of P.G, Rachel and Damien. Ifechi closed her eyes while they counted, she prayed silently within her that she wouldn't win.

"32"

Oh no

"Those in favour of Boma"

Ifechi shot her hand up first.

"Wahala" someone muttered and a few of them chuckled before raising their hands.

"37" the girl said after a minute of counting.

Ifechi sighed in relief.

"Boma wins!"

**********

"You still don't want to talk to me?" Damien said stepping beside Ifechi minutes after they were dismissed.

Ifechi groaned and turned the other way but he held her hand.

"Don't touch me!" She blurted, and lowering her voice added. "Please."

"What will I do to make you talk to me again?"

"I'm already talking to you"

"Against your will yeah, I want us to be friends again"

She stopped walking and turned. He gave her a quizzical look.

"Are you aware that people are looking at us?" Ifechi said warily, Damien glanced around to see several people staring at them, some were even shamelessly pointing. He turned to her and shrugged.

"Who cares?"

"I care. I like my reputation as the 'new girl who reads too much'...." she drew air quotes. "...the last thing I want, is for people to think that I'm going after someone's ex boyfriend" she increased her steps.

"Ouch! Is that what you see me as now?"

She scoffed "Aren't you someone's ex?"

"You shouldn't care about people's opinions Ifechi"

"Really? So I should just pretend and act like this isn't awkward? Look, I really don't want any trouble and if your ex doesn't find a way to annoy me, she'll employ the help of her friends"

"What the...are you scared of Aliyah? is that why we can't be friends, because I dated a mean girl and you're afraid she'll attack you because of me." Damien couldn't hide his amusement.

"First of, this isn't funny. Secondly, I'm not scared of Aliyah and third, I don't want to be your friend because you severed that friendship few weeks ago and you can't just waltz back and expect me to trust you again. You have to earn it" she replied with a frown

"Okay, what should I do?" He shrugged.

"To what?"

"To earn it"

"Nothing just....."

They heard a whistle blow. The entire field turned to see their sports master standing at the start of the tracks with some students including the female sport's prefect and Pedro.

"Practice race, senior boys, first ten people here now" he yelled and people started heading towards the track field to watch the race. Damien got an idea.

"How about this..." He started and Ifechi sighed and started walking.

"Wait na..." He pleaded and she hissed but finally stopped walking.

"What is it?" She said folding her arms.

"Let's make a deal, if I win this race will you give me another chance?"

She scoffed. "I don't care about any silly race Damien"

"But if I win, will you?"

"No"

"IFECHI STEPHANIE OKEREKE, WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND AGAIN IF I WIN THIS RACE??" He said in a loud voice and Ifechi wanted the earth to open up and swallow her.

"What the heck?!"

"If you say no, I'll scream again, louder this time"

"Is this a blackmail?" She scowled but he laughed.

"Just say the word"

She sighed. "Whatever, suit yourself"

That was all the motivation he needed to jog towards Master Segun.

A/n
Damien wants Ifechi's friendship back.
But is it just friendship though 😏

Be like low-key, Ifechi dey fear Aliyah o😂😂

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