Rachael was meeting up with her friends on a Saturday morning and they had decided to meet at her house. Their continuous assessment for the academic year was coming closer so they decided to have a group study together, in preparation.

At the moment, she was assisting her mum in preparing some meat pie for her friends and her. Ever since the day her mum had returned back from New York, they had spent a lot of time catching up through chatting about different things, and their bond had become stronger and stronger. They finally understand what they each wanted.

"So when are they coming over again?" Sylvia asked Rachael as she puts in the baking tray that contained the unbaked meat pie dough into the oven.

"We agreed on meeting by eleven this morning," Rachael replied, washing her flour- stained hands on the kitchen sink.

"The snacks should be ready by then," her mum said as she took a look at the wall clock in the kitchen.

"Did I just hear snacks?" Davidson's voice was heard as he strolled into the kitchen.

"Someone is interested in some snacks. Didn't you just finish with eating the yam and pepper soup I prepared?" Sylvia teased her husband, making Rachael to laugh.

"Come on, there is nothing wrong with a boy asking for some snacks," Davidson replied while Sylvia dramatically looked around the kitchen, searching for an imaginary boy.

"I don't see any boy. The only person I see is a full grown man," she sarcastically said.

"Don't worry dad, we can help you with some if you want. It's more than enough for all of us," Rachael intervened.

"That's my daughter. Always standing with her father," her dad said before pulling her to himself and pecking her forehead.

"Dad stop," Rachael protested, trying to escape from her dad's hold.

"Children when they grow up to be teenagers. They always act like this," her dad said, shaking his head in a funny way. "You feel you are all grown up and don't need kisses from your parents any longer. You always enjoyed that when you were a baby," he concluded.

"Well, your baby is now a big girl. Take a good look at her body. Can't you see all the..."

"Stop mum! You're making this even worse," Rachael said, interrupting her mother. She felt embarrassed enough already. Her mum and dad burst into laughter at her reaction.

"I'm leaving the kitchen for the both of you," she raised her hands in the air before leaving her parents to the living room where she plunged into watching the TV.

"You got your daughter embarrassed," Sylvia said when Rachael left the kitchen.

"But you did the same too. I'm not alone in this," Davidson said as he took some steps closer to Sylvia, and got her caged to the wall with his hands.

Placing his face on the nook of her neck, he whispered sweetly, "We have an unfinished business you know," his breathe fanning her neck.

"Yes but this is definitely not the right time or place for that so let me go. I need to check on the meat pie." Sylvia lightly pushed him.

"Let me get a kiss at least," Davidson said before capturing Sylvia's lips in his, making her to give in and kiss back. They were so engrossed in their heated make out session that they hadn't noticed when Rachael walked into the kitchen.

"Mum! You need to check the oven," Rachael said out, making her parents to jolt.

"God! You scared me Rachael, and please don't try what you just saw with Vincent," her dad was the one to speak. "Not so soon at least," he finally added with a wink at her before leaving the kitchen.

Rachael had not told her father she was dating Vincent yet and he was already bringing him up at any opportunity that he could get, she wondered what would happen if she finally broke the news to him. He might probably start planning their wedding she thought and it made her laugh within.

"Come and help me with glazing them with the egg," her mum said, handing her a little brush.

                             ~•~

Rachael was seated in the living room, along with her parents, while talking and laughing about random things, after she was done with baking the meat pie with her mum, when they got a knock.

Rachael knowing it would most likely be Vincent and Rita at the door, immediately stood up to answer it.

"Hey!" she exclaimed when she saw that they were the ones. She quickly went ahead to hug the both of them before ushering them into the house.

"Look who is here!" her dad stood up and said before engulfing Vincent and Rita into a brief hug and after which, Sylvia went forward to hug them too.

Rita and Vincent both exchanged greetings with Rachael's parents who warmly received them.

"How has school been?" Sylvia asked them.

"Fine ma'am," they both replied while Rachael stood by and watched as her parents went on to ask about their families, praying silently in her heart that her dad would not start with the teasing again. Fortunately for her, he didn't as he left with her mum after their short conversation with Vincent and Rita.

"My God! I'm so tired. I don't think I want to study anymore, let me just sit here and watch a movie," Rita murmured before landing herself on the couch.

"You can't be serious," Rachael said to her.

"She has been saying that since I stopped by at her place to get her," Vincent revealed, taking a seat next to Rita. Rachael was the only one standing now.

"Okay, get up the both of you, we need to study!" Rachael tried to cajole them but they didn't move.

"Alright, you know what? Just imagine yourselves in Mr. Saheed's Maths test and having no idea of what to write down. How would that feel like?" Rachael tried to make them stand up as she used her hands to paint an invisible scenario.

Rita faked a thoughtful look before she quickly stood up from her seat. "That shall never be my portion! Let's go and study," she said.

"Good," Rachael said to her and then to Vincent she asked, "What are you still doing seated there?"

"I need some help to get up from here, something like a stimulus," he replied.

"How about some meat pie and pineapple juice?" Rachael asked.

"Uhm... sounds tempting but no," he replied and Rita shook her head at him with a sigh.

"Come on, take my hands," Rachael said and stretched her hands to Vincent who took it in his but drew her close to his body as he stood up, hugging her tightly in the process. Rachael was not expecting that but she definitely enjoyed the feeling it gave her.

"Hello, I'm still here and I'm not invisible," Rita said to them but they both ignored her.

"That would do," Vincent said as he pulled away from Rachael.

"Alright, now that everyone is up, let's go and get our snacks," Rachael said before leading the way to the kitchen.

Vincent helped with carrying the covered plate of meat pie, Rita carried the jar of pineapple juice while Rachael carried some bottled water from the fridge. They carried the refreshment out of the house and towards the backyard. They were using a shaded part of the backyard that was just next to the pool.

Vincent and Rita waited there for Rachael who had gone back to her room to get her Maths textbook, a calculator and a notebook.

"I suddenly feel like diving into the pool," Rita said, when Rachael came back to join them.

"Focus, we came here to study," Vincent snapped his fingers at her face.

"You know what, we could use the pool as a reward, that is after studying," Rachael suggested.

"But I'm not with my swimming trunks," Rita murmured.

"I can lend you mine, I have an extra," Rachael offered which lighted up Rita's face.

"It doesn't sound like a bad idea. I like that," Vincent added.

"Alright then, shall we begin with studying," Rachael spoke.

Vincent brought out his textbook and notebook from the little schoolbag he had brought while Rita brought out hers from her white handbag and dropped it on the round table that was before them.

"So for this term, we have had classes on quadratic equations, word problem, set and bearing or is their any other topic that I'm missing out?" Rachael began.

"And measuration," Vincent added casually but it made Rachael remember her ordeal on the day she had gone over to his mother's shop.

"Oh yeah, that's true," she replied and turned to Rita who had not said anything yet, only to find her scrolling through her phone.

"We agreed on no phones Rita," Rachael said to her before snatching the phone away from her hands.

"I was looking at a beautiful dress just now," Rita cried out and earned a playful shake of the head from Vincent.

"Well, you would have to wait till we are done," Rachael said before slipping the phone into her bag.

"Our goal today is to solve at least sixty questions from each of the topics we had just listed. We would try to answer each question between the time interval of one minute, after which would share our individual answers and move on to corrections if need be," Rachael spoke as she took them through the plan for the study.

"It's that okay?" she asked.

"It's okay with me," Vincent replied.

"We could take out like thirty questions, and answer only thirty, that would be much fun," Rita replied and laughed before seeing the "are you serious," look on the faces of her friends.

"Okay, alright. Sixty questions then," Rita said in surrender.

They went ahead with solving the first question which Vincent finished up in thirty seconds, Rachael in forty seconds while Rita used up a minute and ten seconds.

"I'm done!" Rita finally announced to Rachael and Vincent who have been waiting for her to finish up.

"Let me check the answer," Rachael said and went ahead to look up the answer to the question from the textbook.

"It's 45. I got it!" Rachael happily announced.

"I got 45 too," Vincent said.

"I give up guys. First question and I'm already failing it. I so hate Maths," Rita lamented, placing her hands on her temple in frustration.

"You just have to give it some more attempts, you would definitely get it. Let me put you through," Rachael said to Rita and went ahead to help her with correcting her mistake.

"Thanks, I understand it better now," Rita said to her when she was done.

"You're welcome, now let's go to the next question," Rachael said and they went on and on, attempting to solve all the remaining fifty nine questions while putting each other through when anyone failed a question.

"And that is all! Well done to the both of you and myself, " Rachael said with excitement when they were finally done with all the questions which had taken them about two hours. They were already done with the snacks by the end of the period of answering questions so they took the empty plate and glasses back to the kitchen.

"Come with me to my room so you can change into the swimming trunk," Rachael said to Rita after they had taken care of the dishes.

"Alright, let's go," Rita agreed.

"I would get a short from my dad for you," Rachael said to Vincent before going upstairs with Rita.

They both quickly changed into a swimming suit before leaving her room. On their way downstairs, Rachael went ahead to borrow a short from her dad which he freely lent out.
Vincent changed into it, leaving the trunk area of his body bare since he couldn't afford to get his singlet nor shirt wet.

"Do you go to the gym?" Rachael asked on their way to the pool.

"Not often, but I play a lot of football, hence this beautiful body," Vincent said, making a gesture with his hands around his biceps and abs.

"Why did you ask by the way? You like what you see?" he added.

"Your ego is something else," Rita spoke and Rachael laughed.

"Come on now, there is nothing wrong in giving myself some accolades," Vincent whined.

"Nice body though, keep it up," Rachael finally said something in reply to his previous question.

"Thanks pretty," Vincent said and flashed her a cute smile which made her blush.

Rita was the first one to get into the pool when they got back. Vincent went in next, followed by Rachael.

They have been swimming and having a wonderful time at the pool when Rachael decided to get playful. Noticing that Vincent had his back to her front view and he couldn't see her, she sneaked behind him and slowly splashed a good amount of water on him when she got closer to him.

"You didn't just... I'm coming to get you," Vincent threatened as he turned around to see Rachael laughing at his reaction.

Rachael tried to get out from the pool when she noticed him swimming towards her but she was too late. Since Vincent was a better swimmer, he had caught her by her waist before she had the chance to step out.

"Come here!" he said in victory immediately he caught her, dragging her into the pool.

"I'm sorry, it was a mistake," Rachael obviously lied, still laughing, her body was now slammed against Vincent's.

"Oh, you mean the mistake happened like this?" Vincent splashed some water on her.

"God! Haven't you heard about forgiving and forgetting," Rachael said while wiping off some drops of water on her face.

"I forgive you now," Vincent said with a wink.
Rita was so busy on her phone and was oblivious of what was going on.

"After retaliating?" Rachael asked, feigning an angry face.

"I'm sorry, come here," Vincent said and pulled her to himself, wrapping his hands firmly around her.

"How did I get so lucky?" he asked, staring at her with admiration.

"What are you talking about now?" Rachael asked.

"You. I'm talking about you. I'm so lucky to have met you," Vincent said and it made Rachael's heartbeat increase.

"I'm the lucky one here, you made me see that I have everything I ever needed. I have parents that adore me and I have you and Rita," Rachael replied and placed her head on Vincent's shoulder while his hands drew circles on her back.

"Hey lovebirds! I'm going in to change," Rita announced before walking into the house, leaving Vincent and Rachael who were just about stepping out from the pool.

Rita met face to face with Sylvia the moment she opened the door to the house.

"Rita, I've been wanting to talk to you," Sylvia spoke to her.

"Alright ma," Rita nervously said.

"Thank you. I know you were the one who sent the message," Sylvia said to Rita.

"Oh... You found out. But how?" Rita asked.

"Someone helped me out. Why did you hide your identity though?"

"I didn't want it to look like I was prying," Rita replied.

"I would have been okay with it if you have told me yourself. I'm really happy you did that. It shows that you are a good friend to Rachael and it helped me to see things clearer. Thank you again," Sylvia said before leaving to the kitchen.

"You're welcome ma," Rita said to her before she disappeared into the kitchen.

                             ~•~