Chidiogo just managed to get to the bathroom before finally letting her body crumble to the ground like a pile of trash. She'd been doing a lot of work on her self control of late and it proved to have not been in vain since she made it to the bathroom without spilling any tears.

She buried her face in her crossed arms and remained in the position.

After a while of sitting on the tiled floor, she forced herself up and went straight to the sink. Most of the macaroni had fallen right off her body and all she had to deal with was the reddish orange colour smeared across her face and on her white shirt.

She placed her hands under one of the faucets, causing water to rush out. She scooped a handful, washing her face with it.

She repeated the action a couple more times, the water gushing out when her hand was under the tap and seizing once she scooped it up to her face.

She stared at her reflection afterwards but all she could see was Mmachi's face and she felt a sudden urge to send an object flying through the mirror or better still Mmachi's face.

But she couldn't so she gripped the edge of the marble slab enveloping the sink while tears filled her eyes.

The main door of the bathroom creaked open at that moment and she turned on impulse to find out who it was.

Her surprise on seeing Justin standing at the door prevented her from acting and the tears almost escaped from her eyelids but she managed to regain herself, turning away and blinking away the tears while wiping away the little which trickled down with the back of her palm.

She sniffed as she heard Justin's footsteps approaching her before trying her best to put on a blank face. She spun around to look at him, sure her face lacked any evidence that she'd been crying.

She didn't bother with a smile since trying not to cry was already a hard enough task.

"What are you doing here?" Her voice came out dead, dismissive and she almost felt bothered by it's similarity to the way Mmachi spoke. Almost.

Justin seemed to be taken aback by her tone but he didn't falter. "I came to check on you—"

"You're not supposed to be here." Her face was deadpan as she stared at him.

"I know. I just want to—"

"Leave!" She managed to keep her voice low as she felt the tears trickling back into her eyelids.

"I will but—"

"I said you should leave or I'll scream for help!" she said shutting her eyes. She couldn't tell how long she could hold her tears in.

She backed him, massaging her forehead, ready to go ahead with her threat if he didn't leave. His retreating footsteps calmed her down and reaffirmed the lack of need to do anything drastic.

She rested her head on the wall, letting the tears flow. She promised herself that this would be the last time Mmachi did anything to make her cry.

                 ———††††———

"You can go ahead and have your drink."

Mmachi glanced down at the glass set in front of her. It was filled with a red liquid, droplets of water lining the outside of the glass with vapor seeping out of it.

She picked it up, taking a large gulp.

"I can't believe it's Wednesday already," she said relishing the taste of the drink.

It tasted a little like grapes and more like a wine she'd had before.

"I can't believe you've already gotten in trouble today."

Mmachi rolled her eyes as the dining room incident came to her mind. She looked around the counsellor's office sipping her drink. The place was unnecessarily bright, as usual.

"You had a brawl with your sister?"

"Woah... No." Mmachi shook her head. "How twisted can rumours get?"

"But you spilt her food and drink on her after insisting she couldn't sit at the same table you were sitting on?"

"That did happen—"

"So why did you do it?"

"Because the smell of macaroni makes me nauseous and she knew that pretty well. I mean everyone at our table got spaghetti because they know this and she shows up all of a sudden with a bowl of macaroni? She was just trying to cause trouble like she always does!"

"Maybe it slipped her mind?"

Mmachi rolled her eyes, folding her hands across her chest as she scoffed. The earful Justin gave her still rang in her head. As far as she was concerned, Chidiogo knew pretty well what she was doing.

"You don't always have to see the negative side of everything."

"Well it's not my fault if the person has no good side to them."

"And that's your opinion?"

She glanced at the glass in front of her again unable to come up with an answer. It was almost impossible for her to get anyone to believe that Chidiogo wasn't the angel she painted herself to be.

Her counselor sighed after a while before moving the files occupying the middle of her desk to one side.

"Let's start with this then. Can you tell me what your relationship with your family is like?"

Mmachi furrowed her brows.

"Individually," she said reading Mmachi's expression, "let's start with your mother."

"There's nothing to say." Mmachi shrugged draining her glass of the last drop of liquid. She stared at the glass after that, wishing she had more of the drink.

"Nothing at all?"

"Sorry ma'am but I don't think prying into my personal life is part of your job." Her fist pressed against her cheek, her hand propped up on the table.

"Okay. You can at least tell me what your relationship with your dead sister was like since that is directly related to your case."

Mmachi ran her finger over the rim of the glass cup before remembering how the counselor had frowned at her action. She stopped, placing her hand on the table.

It occurred to her at that moment that she didn't know the counselor's name.

"Sorry ma but... I never caught your name."

The counselor smiled. "You're trying to change the topic?"

"No... No, that wasn't my intention. I... It just came to my mind and I—"

"It's okay. I'll give you an answer once you answer my question."

"Oh..." She tried to remember what she had asked.

"What was your relationship with your sister like?"

"Oh, yeah. Um... Well, we were cool."

"Cool?"

"Yeah," she said nodding.

"How would you describe her?"

Mmachi found herself tapping her fingers against the desk as she spoke, "She was this stuck up bitch who had a problem with everyone..." She pressed her lips together when she realized her choice of words.

"Go ahead." The counselor didn't seem to mind her language much so she continued.

"She didn't like our parents and didn't seem to get along with them, my mom especially. As for my dad, she acted like he didn't exist. She didn't get along with Chidiogo either but we did click well. It felt a bit strange though that she didn't get along with Chidiogo even after they were sent to the same school."

"Jasmine High?"

"Yeah. I would have also been sent there too but the whole having a twin thing, people mistaking us for each other, kind of discouraged my parents. It didn't really help that I once got her into serious trouble for something I did in primary school. Even though it was an honest mistake, they just couldn't seem to get over it."

"Okay, that's a lot. How would you describe your parent's relationship with your dead sis—"

"Katherine," Mmachi said through clenched teeth.

"Right. How would you describe your parent's relationship with Katherine?"

"I don't get. I just mentioned that."

"You talked about Katherine's relationship with your parents, I'm asking for the reverse. Like roles switched, how did your parents treat her?"

"Oh." Her eyes landed on a snow globe on a shelf behind the counselor and remained on it as she spoke. "She was like their favorite. They turned a blind eye to every single thing she did. She was right, even when she wasn't."

The counselor hummed before facing something on her laptop screen. "Was there ever any bad blood between you two?"

"Well, she pissed me off at times and she could be so annoying... We did get into a few major fights but that was it."

The counselor stared at her like she wasn't making any sense but then changed her expression.

"You've really been co-operative today, at least more co-operative than you were last week. Keep it up and stay out trouble and you might just stop having to see my face."

"Can't wait," Mmachi whispered with a tight smile.

The counselor heard it but pretended not to.

"You can leave now."

Mmachi stood to leave.

"One more thing, since you were wondering, my name is Silvia. Have a nice day."

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