⊱𝙸𝙳𝙴𝚁𝙰⊰

~~•~~

Examination. The test of one's knowledge.

More like a test to see how long you can maintain your sanity before losing it completely.

It's official. This school is after my life.

Two weeks. Only two weeks until I am sitting in that hell hall, fighting for my sanity and grades.

I had so many questions during this period.
Why were exams invented in the first place? Who is the unfortunate being who came up with the
genius idea? Why was it considered at all? And why is it still being practiced today?

If this is not about trust issues, I am not sure why someone would devise something as cruel as exams.

I did not understand how we were being taught various things in school and we could not simply
move on to the next class without being tested whether or not we understood what was being taught.

They didn't trust us. If they did, there would be no need to write exams!

Thinking about it only made me more anxious.

I sighed and leaned back against Lora's bright yellow bean bag. We were doing our usual study sessions for the upcoming exams. So far, I have managed to survive two hours of pure torture called reading.

Why do I have to go to school again?

I pushed myself off the bean bag, walked to the mini fridge in Lora's room, took out the last can of bitter lemon-flavored Schweppes, and returned to my seat.

"Idera, this is your third can." Lora got up quickly from the lush carpet to check the fridge.

"You finished my bitter lemon!"

I opened the can, took a long drag from it, and placed it next to the two empty Schweppes cans on the small tray.

"I will buy you another one," I said and received a glare in response.

My offer was only to appease her for the time being, because I knew the fridge would be stocked again soon enough.

This household appears to never run out of snacks and beverages. If you did not get it from her mini fridge, you would almost certainly get it from their main fridge in the kitchen. And these items are purchased by the same parents who repeatedly tell their children to eat healthily.

Eat healthily while surrounded by junk? Absolutely not.

I wish I could pack my things and move in here permanently.

The unlimited snack supply is the number one reason we come here to study, because who the heck studies without snacks?

Definitely not me.

It's always a good idea to have something to munch on, while your books slowly drain the
life out of you. For emotional support, at least.

Power supply, check. Snacks and food, check. Only one thing kept Lora's house from being the ideal place to study.

Three things actually.

Her noisy as fuck brothers.

Boys who cannot go a day without tearing the house down with noise. The house was only quiet when they were not present.

Like today.

Probably the reason I have been able to successfully read eight pages since we started.

That's progress for me.

"I want to drop out," Dami said out of the blue, followed by a chuckle from Zina who was still
busy solving a maths question that the rest had given up on.

I didn't even try to attempt it. Too much stress for my small brain, and I didn't want to lose the
ones I'd struggled to store up there already.

"Well, that was very random." Lora returned to her sitting position. "But Omo me too ohh."

Zina slowly looked up at Dami and Lora, sporting an amused smile.

"You two," She paused, arching her brow as she pointed her pen at both girls. An airy
chuckle escaped her lips. "Want to drop out."

See the maths and physics gurus of the set, talking about dropping out. I should just close my book and go and sleep then. Better yet, give up on education.

"Abeg, rest!" Dami shot at her. "It's easy for you na, that's why you're talking."

"And who said it's easy??" The perplexed petite girl asked, her tone heavy with disbelief.

"Zina, rest. Abeg."

I picked up my book immediately as I didn't want to be dragged into whatever was going on. The energy to deal with Dami's shit wasn't just in me today.

Zina rested as she was told and went back to solving the math question.

Damilare wasn't exactly wrong. It all looked easy for Zina. She scores all A's and maintains her spot at the top of the class without breaking a sweat. That's a superpower, and I wish I had that superpower.

It was things like this that made me feel like the odd one. The outcast. At times, I wondered
how they became friends with me. My four best friends shone with really good grades, while I was struggling to get a C.

How pathetic.

Lora was about to speak, when Oma suddenly let out a long and loud hiss and tossed her phone onto the bed, where it landed with a muted thud against the soft fabric, briefly illuminating its screen upon impact.

Everyone turned to her, a bit shocked by what she did, and she didn't look pleased.

"What is it?" I asked.

She remained quiet as she had been for the past hour while being so engrossed in solving the questions. The rest of us exchanged glances amongst one another, then looked at her until she finally spoke.

"I'll soon get a restraining order on that idiot."

"Who?"

"Gerald nau! The bastard has been blowing up my phone with different numbers since
yesterday!"

Oma was aggravated. This boy was working her up. He was getting on the very last of her nerves and something more than a restraining order would be just perfect for him.

Maybe locking him up in a dungeon. Yeah, and starving him of food and water for weeks.

If it wasn't for the fact that she didn't want any extra drama or problems, her father would
have been aware of the whole incident and have been on Gerald and his sister's case right from the moment it happened.

But she never told him, and somehow managed to keep it from her parents and sister until now.

Of course, Kanye knew. It was he and Umar who found her partially unconscious in one part of Gerald's house that night.

"Maybe you should tell your Dad," Lora suggested.

The rest of us exchanged incredulous looks.

"Lora just shut up, abeg," I interjected, almost surprised to hear my voice.

Was she even thinking? Maybe she should just tell her Dad and risk exposing all of our asses? The four of us, except for Zina, lied to our parents, saying we were heading to Oma's house for a sleepover study session. That was our meeting point since her family was out of town.

Kanye couldn't even object because he too was going to the party. So if anyone uttered a word about that night, we'd be in serious trouble, and possibly separated for life!

I could sense her frustration as it emanated from her. Oma was frustrated and tired of Gerald's continuous disturbance. What he wanted was to apologize, but she had made it clear that she didn't want it or anything to do with him.

And this kids, is why you shouldn't date an asshole who has a devil for a sister.

The door swung open with a force that startled us, and three out of Lora's five brothers were standing right at the entrance.

"Hello, Ladies," Moses, the youngest of the trio, greeted with a wide grin, his eyes twinkling mischievously.

"I thought I said you people shouldn't carry your chaos anywhere near my room," Lora remarked, slightly annoyed.

They ignored her and sauntered into the room.

"How's the studying going? Do you guys need any help?" Nicholas asked as he squeezed himself in between me and his sister.

"No!" We chorused.

"I see," the second boy, who bore a striking resemblance to Nicholas, remarked with a playful hum. "So, Lora, you've been turning your friends against us, bah?"

Lora responded with an eye roll. "Just go away, please."

Grabbing a nearby throw pillow, I playfully tossed it at Moses, who caught it effortlessly.

"And here I thought you were the gentle one," I teased.

Lora scoffed loudly. "No be only gentle."

Moses was just a year older than Lora and in his final senior year like the rest of us. He was
also a classmate and friend of my cousin, Matthew.

"You and Matthew are the same thing. Mad people in disguise."

"Ouch, Idera. I'll be sure to let Matthew know you called him a mad person," Moses teased back, feigning offense.

"You have my blessings." I deadpanned, which left his mouth hanging in the air, utterly stunned.

Frustrated, Lora rose from the carpet and tried to pull Nicholas up. This is what she had to live with every day of her life.

"See, the three of you should just go, please. We're trying to read here." The poor girl urged,

Suddenly, a deep, masculine voice boomed through the house, cutting through the chaos.

"Gerald, Nick, Moses."

Our savior had come in the form of the eldest Douye son, Christopher.

Thank God!

"Leave those girls alone and find something better to do." He commanded sternly.

They didn't waste a second dashing out of the room and shutting the door behind them, leaving us in blissful peace at last.

Not even less than a minute the door opened again, but it was Christopher this time.

"Is everything alright?" he inquired.

Lora nodded, offering a small smile. "Yes, Brother Chris, we're fine now. Thanks."

He returned her smile.

"I'm heading out now, and don't worry about those three. I've warned them to behave."

"Thank you, Chris!" Dami exclaimed with a grin, prompting him to chuckle softly.

"You're welcome, Dami. I'll see you girls later. Read well oh."

"Bye, Chris!" We all chorused, waving as he exited the room.

"I'm hungry." Dami got up from Lora's bed, picked up her hoodie from where she tossed it when we arrived earlier, and put it on.

"Omo me too," Oma said getting up as well.

Lora followed suit. "There's food in the kitchen. Let's go and eat."

Three cans of bitter lemon and two little packs of Pringles had done it for me. At least for now.

"I'll pass," I told them, patting my already protruding belly.

"Me too," Zina said.

The girls left us in the room without a single thought.

"See how they just left."

"Asin. Like we should starve if we want to."

Zina chuckled.

"Your bracelet, I like it," she said, staring at the customized gold bracelet that was wrapped perfectly around my wrist. I smiled at her as my hand began fiddling with it.

"Thanks."

I got a hum from her in response and silence took over for a few seconds before I felt her eyes back on me.

"I've been meaning to ask where you got it?"

"My brother got it for me as a gift," I said to her, and she nodded.

I noticed her looking at the bracelet. Her eyes were intently fixed on it and she didn't take them away for even a second.

"It's really pretty."

Yeah. For you to be looking at it this way, it really must be that pretty.

"It seems quite familiar though," Zina remarked. "It reminds me of a post I saw on Instagram the other day."

I froze for a second, but quickly recovered and forced a casual smile.

"Oh, really?"

Zina leaned in and lowered her voice like she was about to spill a huge secret to me.

"Well, you know that famous influencer, the one that has his shoe line? Jude?"

I nodded as I tried to keep my expression neutral. I knew exactly who Zina was referring to—the same person I had been secretly dating for two years.

"Well, I saw a post of his the other day, and it was a picture of the bracelet just like yours, on his babe's hand." Zina continued, and my heart skipped numerous beats all at once.

"I remember because it was such a distinctive design."

"That's interesting," I replied, desperately trying to keep my voice steady. Inside, I was panicking. God knows I was so close to shitting myself. Zina was extremely close to uncovering what I had successfully hidden from the entire world for two years.

She couldn't know. No one could ever know. If anyone did, it would be a disaster and the end of my life.

"Jude's post was where I saw the bracelet first and then I saw the AD on Instagram. I visited their page and saw the info on the bracelet." Zina explained, her eyes narrowing slightly as she observed my reaction.

"Really? Then it seems like mine might just be an Aba-made replica."  I said with a chuckle that sounded nervous even to my ears as I prayed Zina would just drop the damn thing.

"But your hand isn't."

My stomach twisted into knots as my eyes darted between Zina and the picture of my hand holding Jude's, the bracelet unmistakably around my wrist. I had to act as if she had no clue what she was talking about, all while my heart pounded wildly in my chest.

I couldn't believe I hadn't dropped dead from the stress yet.

"So you think I'm his anonymous girlfriend because of a bracelet?" I asked, trying to sound as casual as possible, though my voice wavered slightly.

Zina let out a chuckle, but it wasn't one of amusement. It was more like she had finally pieced together a puzzle.

"Idera, I know you're Jude's girlfriend."

Shit.

My mind raced, scrambling for a way out, but it was hard to think clearly under her scrutinizing gaze. She seemed to be looking right through me, analyzing every expression, every nervous twitch.

I forced a smile, but I knew it wasn't convincing. "Zina, that's ridiculous. How could you possibly think that?"

"Have you forgotten that my cousin lives in his Dad's estate? And I've seen you around there a few times. Well, not a lot, just on two or three occasions."

She had caught me. I felt cornered, like a deer caught in headlights. But I had chosen to remain adamant. Maybe she'll stop when she realizes she's not getting anything from me.

I leaned back on the bean bag, trying to appear as nonchalant as possible.

"Still doesn't prove anything."

Zina stared at me in pure amusement. She couldn't believe that I kept on denying it even when the answer was clear as day. I had been caught in 4k with my hand inside a pot of stew stealing meat, and I was still denying that I didn't steal anything.

"I saw you enter his house once. What else could you be doing there?"

Okay, the gig is up.

"All those days you'll leave school early or give excuses why you can't hang out, that's where you've been going."

I couldn't keep up the act anymore. The meat was hot and I couldn't keep pretending that it wasn't burning my hand. I quickly left the bean bag, sat on the floor, moved closer to her, and held her hands tightly.

"Please don't tell anyone, I beg of you. My life will be over if anyone else knows about this."

Zina wasn't the kind of person to spill secrets, but it didn't stop me from begging like I was pleading for my life, making all sorts of promises so she would keep her mouth shut about this.

She looked at me with a mix of amusement and shock as I pleaded and promised her heaven and Earth, and then let out a chuckle.

"I'm not going to tell anyone, I promise. And you should take that bracelet off before any of them or anyone at all notices."

The bracelet was off within a second and stuffed into my bag, and I exhaled in relief. Why did I even forget to take the damn thing off last night? If I had, then this conversation—this interrogation—wouldn't have happened.

"So for how long? How did it even happen?"

I let out a sigh. "It's a long story, Zee. We'll chat about it online later. Plus the walls have ears. Anyone could be listening and those girls could come in anytime."

"Sure thing." She smiled, which made me smile for unknown reasons.

For the first time in a while, I felt a weight lift off my shoulders. The pressure of keeping my relationship with Jude a secret from four girls had now been reduced by one person. Now, I just had to make sure I didn't slip up again.

"You've got to be more careful though." She advised. "Especially with something as obvious as that bracelet. There are so many others that can easily figure this thing out just like I did and they might not want to shut their mouths. Some will blackmail you and then you're in big trouble."

Well, Jude had the connections to make that go away, but still, better be safe than sorry.

"I will," I assured her, already planning to stash the bracelet in the bottom of my jewelry box as soon as I got home.

"And Zina, I'm really sorry for not telling you guys. I just couldn't risk it."

She smiled warmly. "It's okay. Sha be giving me gist oh." She poked my thigh which got me chuckling.

"Yes, ma."

"But why don't you want to tell them? Infact, why didn't you want to tell us? At least if you didn't want to tell anyone, you should have told us."

"I don't know. I just felt like no one should know. Like if I was going to be anonymous, let me just be fully anonymous. Plus I was afraid that one of you might slip it out unknowingly."

I remember when I said yes to him, I was so excited and over the moon and itching to tell them all about it. But Jude and I talked about it and decided that if we were going to be private, then we should be completely private. No friends and family. It was a tough decision but I had to do it.

"I didn't know how I was going to handle it if any of you didn't support it," I confessed. "You know how Oma dislikes him. She’s never been shy about her opinions, and you know how she can be."

"And Dami too." Zina chipped in, reminding me of another potential source of disapproval.

"Exactly," I nodded. "I didn't want to deal with all that negativity. I just wanted to date the boy I like in peace."

I wasn't sure I could stand the daily slander of my boyfriend by any of my best friends. Yes, they already talked badly about him, but it's different when they don't know about the relationship.

"I feel you. Jude is a cool guy. At least from what I see on his socials. Even though there are a few things he does that I don't fancy."

"Like what?" I asked, curious about her perspective.

"His tattoos," she said, scrunching her face up in mild disgust. "They're just too much."

Her reaction made me laugh. "It's like he's so obsessed with them. And I keep telling him not to add any more."

Tattoos and Jude were like 5 and 6, inseparable, and talking to him about my efforts has never yielded any result. So I let him be. After all, he looked hot with the tattoos anyway.

"What about your Dad and brothers? Do they know?"

"Only my mum knew. She let me date him."

"She gave her blessings." Zina smiled.

"Yeah, you could say that." I agreed, thinking back to the conversation with my mother where she had given me a gentle nod of approval, saying, "As long as he makes you happy."

Before I could go further down memory lane, Nicholas's extremely loud voice rocked the entire house, swiftly ending that conversation.

"You guysss!! Let's make a tiktok!! Let's do that won da mo challenge."

"Who asked you?" Lora's voice came.

"Lora, you tend to forget your position in this family. I am two brothers older than you, and you are just the freaking last child."

"Just two minutes, Nicholas. Two minutes and you won't allow somebody to hear word again."

"Gerald rest."

Zina and I exchanged amused glances and laughed as we watched the chaos unfolding downstairs before she suggested taking a break and joining them.

"Way ahead of you."

I had already gotten up and was by the door. I was done with studying for today. Infact for the entire week. If I read myself to death, LIC won't cancel the exams. They'll only postpone it for a few days to "pay their last respects" and they'll move on.

So, a baby girl has to rest very well.

As we got downstairs, Gerald's loud voice almost rendered our ears useless as he passed by.

"Oyaaa Gerald you'll be our cameraman!"

Jesus Christ. Did this boy swallow a microphone?

Gerald who was lounged lazily on the couch, looked up from his phone and at his twin.

"Because I now resemble Lora's tripod abi? Or it's me that doesn't want to be in the video na. Abeg go and ask Lora for her tripod." He said, his voice dripping with sarcasm and a hint of annoyance.

His twin hissed in response and turned to their sister.

"You go and bring your this thing," he said, sounding quite impatient.

"Which one is my this thing again?"

"Your tripod!"

"Don't shout at me, oh." she pouted and went upstairs to her room to get the tripod, and once she came down with it, Gerald tried to take it from her.

"Please let me set my thing up myself before you spoil it for me."

Gerald hissed, clearly annoyed, but he could do nothing but wait for Lora to set up her tripod. Once she was done, we were ready to begin.

"I, Gerald Douye will be your humble director." he began as we all sat and listened to his 20-minute directory talk after which we rehearsed for a while, and went into making the video.

It was two hours of chaotic production, but we managed to pull it off, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. The twins and Moses went straight into putting the videos together, adding effects, and making sure everything flowed smoothly. And once they were done, they uploaded it and shared it with the rest of us.

"I think this chaotic fun was just what I needed for the day," Oma said, chuckling.

"Well, someone is feeling better now." Lora teased, with a playful glint in her eyes.

"Don't forget to tag each other, oh," Gerald said to the rest of us who were engrossed in our phones.

I posted the video on my TikTok straight away and in less than five minutes, my phone was buzzing nonstop with notifications. I was quite a mini TikTok celebrity with a total of fifty thousand followers, which is quite impressive on its own, compared to the twins who were quite big on the platform.

They just hit two hundred and fifty followers.

So collaborating with them would not only boost the video's visibility but also increase the engagement on my account. A golden opportunity to get new followers and grow my audience.

#roadto100k

Less than an hour later, we called it a wrap on the study session and dispersed to our various homes. Dad had gone for a one-week conference thing, Ini had gone on a baecation with his babe to pepper us with couple goals, and Iyanu was in his apartment as usual. He popped up a few days to see how I was doing. So I had the entire house to myself.

Comfy, isn't it?

Settling down with a plate of spaghetti and shrimp sauce after freshening up, I decided to check the notifications and reply to the ones I could.

I did that for about twenty minutes while munching on my food until I came across a comment that had me questioning my sanity and vision.

Am I seeing well ni??

Dope stuff!🔥

Another notification came in just as I was about to view the profile and properly process what I was seeing.

KvngKalu started following you.

───────•••───────

Hi besties!👋
Bye besties!❤️

Note: The two Geralds are not the same person. I forgot to clear it up while writing. One is Lora's brother, the other is another person.
Apologies for the mix up, and it'll be edited laturrrrr.😗