Chidiogo felt her legs dragging to a stop, frozen to a spot, unable to resume it's motion.

Mmachi and Paschal continued walking, oblivious to her sudden stop. She stared ahead of them, the filing room in plain sight.

A lump formed in her throat and she forced herself to swallow before she called out to Mmachi.

Paschal stopped first, Mmachi turning after he had. The both of them stared at her, waiting for her to speak.

She glanced at the filing room once more before speaking. "Do we really need to do this?"

Mmachi stared at her for a moment before exhaling. She ran her palm down her face, muttering inaudible words. After a few seconds, she turned to Chidiogo, a deep frown marring her features.

"Diogo, I need you to be serious right now because this isn't the time for jokes."

"I know but—"

"Because I'm this close to loosing my cool," Mmachi said, not letting Chidiogo finish her sentence.

"And we're this close"—she emphasized by pinching the air—"to getting to our destination. Now is not the time to back out!"

Chidiogo remained silent for a moment. Her eyes drifted to the filing room once before it returned to Mmachi's face. She shook her head, refusing to listen to Mmachi.

"You don't get it. We can get expelled for this. Isn't there another way?"

Mmachi ran her palm through her hair, tousling it. She let go of the hair almost immediately and messaged her forehead with her pointer and middle finger.

Chidiogo watched her pace about for about a minute before Paschal spoke up, reminding them of his presence.

"Chidiogo is right. This is our future we're talking about."

Mmachi stopped her pacing and turned to Paschal in less than a nanosecond.

"To hell with the future!"

Paschal scrunched his brows at her words while Chidiogo stood, rethinking the whole situation. She should have never agreed to help Mmachi.

"What do you mean by that? Does our future really mean nothing to you? Just because you..." He stopped himself from speaking any further and looked away.

"No, say what you wanted to," Mmachi said, moving closer to him.

His eyes were still fixed behind Mmachi while Mmachi's eyes almost burned holes through him.

Chidiogo sensed the budding tension and stepped between the both of them.

"Mma—"

The sound of heels clicking against the floor sent the rest of the words flying away and Chidiogo's lips hung open for a moment as she watched the door to the filing room clicking shut.

Her eyes were quick to find the source of the sound. She watched as a fair skinned woman, dressed in a light pink suit, headed in the opposite direction.

She turned to find Mmachi and Paschal staring at the woman too. They turned back after a while and they all exchanged a glance. It was their only chance.

As if their minds had been placed in a sync, they all headed towards the filing room. Their footsteps were almost inaudible as the noises from surrounding classrooms lay heavy on the atmosphere.

They brushed by a couple loitering students, Mmachi almost pushing one down, before they got to the room.

Chidiogo was the first to reach. She placed her hand on the doorknob for a few seconds, hearing her heartbeat echoing in her head, before she gave it a turn.

The door creaked open and she watched it, unable to get herself to move. In a matter of seconds, Mmachi and Paschal got there and were inside the room before she could even unclench her feet from the floor.

"Diogo!"

Chidiogo glanced up. Mmachi and Paschal were both staring at her.

"Come in here," Mmachi said, stepping out and pulling her in.

The door slammed shut with Chidiogo still paralyzed.

"Finally." Mmachi sighed, proceeding to sit on a rotating chair in the middle of room.

She plopped down on it once she got there. The force with which she dropped on the chair caused her to spin around once before she focused her attention on Chidiogo who was still unmoving.

"Diogo!"

Chidiogo blinked, looking around the room before her eyes landed on Mmachi again. "Hm?"

"Quit behaving like a moron and let's get to work. Anyone could come in here at anytime and remember, we're doing this for Amara."

The last statement rung in Chidiogo's head and that seemed to be the only thing she needed to get her moving.

"What exactly are we looking for?" she asked, heading to one of the oversized wooden shelves by the left side of the room.

Apart from the desk and rotating chair in the center of the room, the rest of the room was filled with shelves and metal lockers which stood as high as the ceiling.

Chidiogo scanned the shelf for the section with the the letter 'K'. The dim lighting in the room made it hard for her, in spite of her contacts. As she fought through layers of cobwebs, Mmachi's reply filled the air.

"Kaima's files. Anyone you can find would really do us good. Mainly any file that would have any information about her previous school maybe? Whether she was expelled or not. If she has any sort of juvie records or... I think you get the gist."

Chidiogo gave a nod, she was sure Mmachi wouldn't see, before looking through the shelves.

"Diogo, can you take the shelves by this side instead. I think Paschal can take care of that one."

She turned around to find Mmachi gesturing towards her left side. She glanced over there to find rows of metal lockers—labeled and unlabeled—lining the corners of the room.

Her eyes moved back to Mmachi who was searching through the drawers in the singular desk in the center of the room.

"How do I get them open?" she asked, throwing another glance at the shelves.

In response, Mmachi lifted a bunch of keys from the drawers.

"Catch!"

Before Chidiogo could object, several keys were already flying towards her direction causing her to turn her face away while shielding it with her hands.

When the clinking of the keys against the ground stopped, she turned back to Mmachi, her face creased and lips turned down.

"What the hell was that!?"

"I'm so sorry. We really don't have much time."

Mmachi's head was already buried behind the desk and all she could hear was her voice.

Chidiogo hissed, bending to pick the keys. She got to work afterwards, sinking each key into every available keyhole.

Just when she thought her efforts would go in vain, she came across a blue plastic file with the name Kamsiyochukwu Violet Agu printed on it.

"Guys! I found something!" Chidiogo said, flipping through the file.

"Bring it here!" A faint voice came as a response.

She shut the file, positioning it under her arm before journeying back to the center of the room. She found Mmachi flipping through some files on the desk while Paschal was nowhere in sight.

"Here it is," she said, coming to a halt in front of the desk.

Mmachi glanced up, muttering something before taking the file from her. She swipped through the pages while Chidiogo tried peering into the files on the table.

"Thank you so much," Mmachi said, closing the file.

Chidiogo looked up on hearing her voice, abandoning every attempt to know what was in the file Mmachi had been going through.

"It's okay," she said, surprised to see Mmachi pouting at her.

It almost looked like she would hug her if she wasn't caged inside the desk. The thought made Chidiogo shudder and she took an involuntary step backwards.

Just then, a baritone voice filled the room, accompanied by approaching footsteps.

"I found something too."

Chidiogo turned around and watched as Paschal headed towards them. He had three files in hand: orange, pink and green.

He emptied his hands when he got to the table.

"These two files contain her academic records from her previous school—Springfield, if I'm not mistaken," he said, pointing between the green and orange files, "seems she really was a star student. Won a lot of competitions too. One of them also shows that she has won quite a number since she joined this school."

"Which is one reason the school might or might not want to have her expelled," Mmachi said, stroking her chin.

A smile broke out on her face after that and she stared at Paschal. "You are quite smart, I must admit. Thank you."

She stressed the 'u' in thank you pushing out her lower lip in a pout that made her look cute. Paschal chuckled, saying it wasn't a big deal.

Mmachi started going through the files and just when Chidiogo had gotten used to the sound of paper slicing through the air, Paschal's voice filled the room again.

"I also found a certain someone's files."

Chidiogo turned and found him staring at her. She looked away when she got uncomfortable with his gaze, keeping her eyes on the monitor which sat in the middle of the desk.

"Who's that?" Mmachi asked, looking up from her files.

"Your twin. She really is a brainiac."

Chidiogo could still feel Paschal's eyes on her. She glanced down at the table, and picked up the nearest file, feigning interest as she flipped through it.

"Tell me something I don't know," Mmachi said with a chuckle.

"Honestly I was surprised. How can someone get a perfect score in every single test? Like, I still can't believe it. Then she's won over fifteen competitions? So winning competitions will just be like drinking water to her?"

"That's just the tip of it. You would be shocked to find out exactly how smart she can be."

Chidiogo looked up from her file this time. Both Mmachi and Paschal had their eyes fixed on her.

"Really?" Paschal asked, his eyes not leaving hers, "I'd like to be shocked."

Chidiogo spoke before Mmachi could reply. "If we're done, let's get going now. We can have this discussion elsewhere."

"We need one more thing," Mmachi said, arranging the files on the table.

Chidiogo raised a brow. "Which is?"

"We haven't gotten the files containing her personal information yet. Only the ones of her past and present academic performances. We also haven't gone through the juvie records to see if her name is there."

Chidiogo sighed. "Do you really think the school goes around giving admission to criminals? There's barely anyone with a juvie record."

Mmachi's lips were pressed tight against each other as she sorted the files on the table. When she was done, she returned her attention to Chidiogo.

"Which is the more reason we should check. We can get it done quickly and you might be surprised, only my name will be there."

Mmachi's words made Chidiogo feel bad for the last statement she made.

"I'm sor—"

"The files we need aren't available in hardcopy, which leaves only one option." Mmachi pointed at the monitor screen, completely disregarding the fact that Chidiogo had been speaking.

"I doubt the files would be available, just like that," Paschal said, peering into the screen while Mmachi turned on the computer.

"I know, which is why I brought her along. She should be able to get us into the system. Am I right, Diogo?"

Chidiogo stared at Mmachi before letting out a chuckle. "As per hacker, abi?"

"Don't fall my hand na," Mmachi said, her eyes not leaving the screen.

"I can't—"

The sound of the door squeaking interrupted Chidiogo before she could finish speaking. A voice followed which made her heart drop.

"What is going on here?"

A/N: Before I start yarning about stuff, let me give the meaning of some foreign phrases.

'Don't fall my hand' practically means 'Don't disappoint me' or something like that. 'Na' and 'sef' are used to emphasize words but the sentence can pretty much read the same without them which is why I've never bothered with doing this.

'Abi' pretty much means 'right?' So something like, "You're going there, abi?" Should be: "You're going there, right?"

And that's just about it. Hope you had fun reading this chapter. I really wanted to let them get away with breaking into the records but then I changed my mind.

What can I say? I love seeing my characters in trouble😂.

Drop your thoughts on the chapter and hit that star button, let's see if there's a way Chidiogo will get out of this one😔.

Until next time❤️.