"What did you just do?"

Chikaima's voice was dangerously low. Her jaw ticked as she moved her wide eyes between the damaged MP on the floor and Mmachi, who still stood shaking.

"Don't just stand there mopping. Give me an answer! Why did you break my MP!?" Chikaima shouted, the sudden rise in her tone startling Chidiogo.

Mmachi still remained quiet for a while, hyperventilating. She peeled her eyes off the floor before they landed on Chikaima whose glare was enough to make anyone shudder.

Mmachi blinked, moving her eyes between the crashed MP on the floor and Chikaima. She looked confused for a moment before she let out a sigh.

"I'm so sorry, Kaima. I didn't mean to. I'll get you a new one. I can even pay for it now if you wa-"

"I can get myself a new one," Chikaima said, interrupting her. "That isn't the problem. The problem is that you just walked in here and destroyed my MP without a valid reason! Why do you always do things like this!? Whenever I think that you would . . . "

The rest of Chikaima's words came out in a mumble as she pulled chunks of her white weave on between her fingers and repeatedly tugged at them.

"Sorry," Mmachi muttered.

Chikaima shook her head. Her hand, which hung close to her hair, fisted into a ball.

"You need a doctor," Chikaima finally said.

Mmachi's eyes narrowed into slits. She glared at Chikaima for a while but ended up saying nothing before exiting the room.

Chikaima sighed, bending down to tidy up the mess Mmachi made.

"Your sister really needs medical help," she mumbled as she gathered parts of the spoilt MP.

Chidiogo wanted to apologize for Mmachi's behavior but the sound of someone's footsteps stopped her. She heard Kamsi's voice before she saw her.

"Hey!" Kamsi said, causing Chidiogo's spine to go rigid.

Chidiogo's lips remained clamped while Chikaima looked up from what she was doing, offering Kamsi a small smile.

"How have you been doing?" Chikaima asked, going back to her work.

"Oh, I've been fine," Kamsi said, joining Chidiogo on Chikaima's bed.

Her eyes remained on Chikaima and she pretended not to notice Chidiogo.

"I decided to check on my bestie since she forgot about my existence."

Her eyes flitted from Chikaima to Chidiogo for a split second. The action caused Chidiogo's heart to lurch forward in her chest.

Kamsi turned back to Chikaima before asking, "So bestie, how have you been?"

Chikaima sighed, shaking her head. She gave a reply which Chidiogo didn't hear and they went on to start a conversation. Chidiogo felt uncomfortable with Kamsi's proximity.

She scooted a bit but not too much so it wouldn't be obvious that she was trying to avoid Kamsi. For weird reasons, she kept forgetting that Chikaima and Kamsi were best friends.

It was still odd to her that someone as nice as Chikaima would be best friends with a devil like Kamsi. They were polar opposites and it didn't just make sense to her.

"Diogo," Kamsi called, giving her a painful nudge with her elbow, "you're just sitting here quietly, making it feel as if we left you out. How have you been na?"

Chidiogo's shock at being acknowledged by Kamsi had barely dispersed when she spoke again.

"What are you thinking about sef? Is it your kiss with Justin or is it your date with Paschal that's distracting you?" she asked, wiggling her brows.

Chidiogo nearly choked on air. On reflex, her eyes moved to Chikaima's direction but she seemed too engrossed in what she was doing to have heard what Kamsi said. Kamsi laughed on noticing her expression.

"You thought I didn't know?"

Amusement laced Kamsi's voice, the broad smile on her face never leaving. Chidiogo tried, to no avail, to pick up her fallen jaw.

How did Kamsi know about her kissing Justin? Chidiogo wondered, still unable to form words. Had she been monitoring her?

That was the only logical explanation. The thought sent chills running down her spine and goosebumps sprouting in it's wake.

"Have you heard what happened to Amarachi?" Kamsi said suddenly, turning away from Chidiogo to face Chikaima.

"No . . . " Chikaima paused, looking up from what she was doing. Her brows scampered together, squeezing the skin between them. "Come to think of it, I haven't seen her in a while. What happened to her?"

"I heard she's dead."

Kamsi's words were enough to jolt Chidiogo out of her shocked state.

"WHAT!?" Chidiogo and Chikaima shouted at the same time.

Kamsi's gaze swept between the both of them.

"You guys didn't hear?"

She looked just as shocked as they were that they hadn't heard the news.

"Not funny," Chikaima said, glaring at Kamsi.

"Stop spreading false rumours please," Chidiogo added, refusing to believe a word that came out from Kamsi's mouth.

"You think I'm lying?"

Kamsi's voice was almost a whisper, a bit cracked and perhaps the lights were playing with Chidiogo's eyes but for a moment Chidiogo thought her eyes were shiny.

Kamsi hadn't given her many reasons to trust her in the past. She wouldn't start trusting her all of a sudden. For all she knew, this was just a new trick to mess with her head.

"We're not saying that you're lying," Chikaima said, her tone calmer, "It's just not nice to go about spreading false rumours. You should know this better than anyone. You remember when Mmachi returned from juvie?

"You know how bad the rumours were and how people tried to make her life miserable because of them. If she hadn't been as tough as she was, she would have definitely cracked. If anyone else was in her shoes, they would have broken down.

"It's not nice to go about saying stuff about people when you don't know whether it's true or not. Think about the person and how it would affect them if they heard such rumors."

Kamsi kept quiet for a moment.

"I didn't mean any harm though. I just thought I would inform you guys since you're my friends. It's not like I would go around spreading something I'm not sure of."

Kamsi's voice was quieter and she didn't maintain eye contact with Chikaima for long. Chikaima let out a sigh.

"I know," she said, standing up and abandoning her task, "let's just forget about that. Did you try calling Amara?"

Kamsi shook her head.

"You know we don't get along. She probably backlisted my contact. But people have been trying to reach out to her. And still no one's been successful."

"Do you have her number?" Chidiogo asked, out of the blue.

Kamsi's eyes landed on her but she didn't make any attempt to reply.

"Don't worry, I'll try calling her," Chikaima replied instead.

Chidiogo nodded, starting to feel uncomfortable with Kamsi's presence again.

"I'll be right back," Chidiogo said, standing up.

"Where are you going to?" Chikaima asked.

"I . . . I need to get my clothes from the laundromat."

Chikaima nodded and she was about to leave when she heard Kamsi's voice.

"Wouldn't it be closed by now?"

She cussed under her breath and stopped herself from glaring at Kamsi.

"No harm in checking," she said and exited the room before anyone could ask anymore questions.

Once she stepped outside, she found Amelia seated on a stool in front of the large balcony. She headed towards her and leaned on the balcony's cold railings on getting there.

"Are you still mad at Kaima?"

Amelia looked up at her, as if just noticing her presence, before returning her gaze to the empty space in front of her.

"Why? You're here to solicit for her?"

Chidiogo shook her head in response.

"I'm here because I wanted to catch some fresh air and since you happened to be here, I thought you might want to talk about it," Chidiogo said, swatting at a housefly which buzzed around her ear.

"You wanted to catch fresh air or you're avoiding Kamsi?" Amelia asked, chancing Chidiogo a look before turning her stool to face her.

"How did you know?" Chidiogo blurted out.

"I observe a lot of things," Amelia said, shrugging, "and I noticed that something's been off between the both of you lately. You guys had a fight?"

Chidiogo avoided Amelia's scrutinizing gaze, pondering on whether to expose Kamsi's true nature to her.

"It's a long story . . . First tell me whether you're still mad at Kaima."

Amelia exhaled loudly.

"I am. I know she probably didn't mean any harm but she can be so annoying sometimes. I don't know if you've noticed but she's sort of a perfectionist."

Chidiogo thought about it for a while. She hadn't really noticed it. But then her mind went back to her singing practice with Chikaima earlier.

She had wanted her to sound exactly how the singer sounded. It didn't sound like she was joking but Chidiogo didn't think she really meant it that way.

"It was much worse before you joined the school," Amelia continued, "I've been roommates with her and Mmachi for a while now. Since our JS 3. At first I really couldn't tolerate her because she had a problem with every single thing.

"And you know, I wasn't used to all this. I'm still not used to it. I know you all aren't either but still . . . Growing up, I always had people to clean my room and put it in order for me. It was also like that when I first came to this school. Up until students started complaining about their stuff getting stolen, intrusion of privacy and what not.

"Then ninety percent of the students voted that we should take care of our rooms ourselves. I practically learnt how to sweep and mop in this school. And since I became a bit used to it, I made sure to always keep my stuff tidy. You know it's true. You know how I get about people coming into the room with dirty shoes or the floor not being neat."

Chidiogo nodded. Amelia was always fretting about keeping the floor neat. Sometimes she swept the room three times in a day just because she didn't want to feel even a speck of sand whenever she walked around. And it didn't help that she preferred walking around barefoot.

If anything, Chidiogo would have thought she was the perfectionist. But since her stuff weren't always in order, Chidiogo had waved the thought aside.

"So why would she call me a pig!?"

Amelia threw up her hands in exasperation.

"Just calm down, okay?" Chidiogo said, "When you're calm, maybe talk to her about it."

Amelia let out a sigh before nodding.

"I'm going to take a shower. I feel filthy," Amelia said, crinkling her nose as she scanned herself.

Chidiogo let out a chuckle causing Amelia to look up from her beige cardigan.

"You need a shower too and you should also probably change out of your uniform before you fall asleep in it. Remember what happened the first time you did?"

Chidiogo frowned at the memory while Amelia chuckled, pushing her stool aside and walking back to their room.

"You look like you had a bad day," a new voice came once Amelia was out of sight.

Chidiogo turned and found Sky seated on the stool Amelia had been formerly occupying.

"Nah, Amelia just reminded me of something. Do you need anything?"

"No, I was just passing by and I saw you so I decided to sit and chat. I have nothing else to do," Sky said.

"Oh."

Chidiogo didn't know what else to say. If Sky was looking for a way to get rid of her boredom then she chose the wrong person. Chidiogo wasn't particularly antisocial but unlike Chikaima and Amelia, she couldn't just start a conversation out of nowhere. Not an interesting one at least.

Especially not now she knew that Sky was trying to get rid of her boredom.

"I saw Mmachi on my way here though," Sky said, saving Chidiogo the stress of thinking of a way to start up a conversation, "She looked pretty pissed. She didn't even notice when I greeted her."

Chidiogo almost scoffed. She was pretty sure Mmachi knew Sky greeted her. She just chose not to acknowledge her as she usually did.

"Did anyone provoke her?" Sky asked, looking genuinely concerned.

"No one provoked her. She's always in a bad mood. You just need to get used to it," Chidiogo said, waving the issue aside.

"You guys really don't get along," Sky stated.

"It's not my fault," Chidiogo said, hoping Sky would drop the issue.

Sky's almond eyes remained glued to her face.

"Do you really think she was the one responsible for your attack that night?"

Chidiogo almost groaned. She couldn't understand why everyone was convinced that Mmachi was innocent.

"I don't think she was responsible for it, I know she was the one who did it."

The sound of a cock crowing and the humming from different air conditioners around the hostel filled the air for a moment. Apart from the occasional sound of footsteps, the hostel was as quiet as it would be when it was empty.

Chidiogo started playing with her fingers when the silence stretched out for too long. No pair of eyes had made her feel as uncomfortable as the almond ones set on her face.

"So you're convinced?" Sky asked after a while.

Chidiogo nodded. Sky shook her head, breathing out a chuckle.

"Let me tell you something you probably haven't figured out. If you keep your mind fixed on one person and convince yourself that they're the culprit, what happens when it turns out they aren't?"

Lines appeared on Chidiogo's forehead as she tried, without success, to comprehend Sky's words.

"Let me explain," Sky said, "if you're convinced that Mmachi is the culprit and she turns out to not be the one, it means that your life is in more danger than you can even imagine.

"Let's assume that you're avoiding Mmachi now. You're cautious around her so there're less chances of her actually killing you if she turns out to be guilty. But on the flip side, imagine if it isn't actually her. Imagine it's someone you never suspected. Someone you trust with your life."

Sky's eyes were almost hypnotizing and with each of sentence she uttered, the real meaning of her words hit Chidiogo, chilling her to her bones.

"And if that were the case, you really have underestimated just how much danger you might truly be in."