Mad oo! I updated? Na mistake? 😂😂E shock you abi? Lmaoooo!!!!

I forgot to thank you guys for 15k reads, chop kiss biko!!!

Oh, and please hang on after the chapter for an important announcement!!!

~DABI~

I finally saw my neighbour's face.

And boy, I fought against a panic attack, but to no avail.

Oh, Lord. I pray you my soul to keep.

Why HIM!? HIM OF ALL PEOPLE!?

Figures I should have known he was the one.

I had caught glimpses of his hair. That somewhat odd colour it possessed,  that dirty blonde colour of the tips of his hair. One that wasn't normal for a regular Nigerian boy. I should have figured it was him all along.

And now, just tell me how. HOW am I supposed to live in peace when one of the most popular guys in school, literally lives next door and is going to consistently witness everything that goes on in this house?! How?!

I just knew he was going to use this against me, I could only imagine how extreme he would go. As Mum had said for a fact, his father was in some sort of connection with mine, so the last thing on my mind was trusting this neighbour classmate.

"You good, Dabz?"

Chika's voice snapped me back into the land of the living.

And honestly, for a split second, I found it hard deciphering where exactly I was...

Until I did..

Soma's bedroom. Or as she loved to call it - Somadina's magical kingdom.

I had been too deep in my thoughts to even remember the fact that I was physically here, right in the midst of a discussion on 'Metals and their compounds' the sisters' sprung up, all in the name of finishing up a Chemistry assignment that was due Tuesday morning, the following week.

"You look lost." Chika who laid on her tummy, right next to me on Soma's SpongeBob Duvet, whipped her head to me, dropping her pen in the middle of her Chemistry notebook. "Any problem?"

Soma and the twins completed the circle we formed, the twins laying the same way Chika did, and Soma, who like me, sat with legs folded against one another like a child, looked up next to me from her over-exaggerated, massive calculator, blinking those big eyes of hers at me, and pausing even bigger lips in more curiosity.

The twins followed up next, raising their heads up at the exact same time, casually fixing their fat ball point pens behind their ears, and narrowing their pretty eyes, watching me, silently.

I wasn't even sure how to answer at this point.

So much spotlight...

"Nothing, I'm just really tired, I need to rest," I answered.

Chika looked unconvinced.

"Aww, we understand Lulu. It really is exhausting," Soma was quick to answer me immediately.

I laughed nervously, low-key thanking the stars I was able to easily avoid talking to them about the real issue at hand. My new neighbour.

The twins didn't even look impressed by my response, but they said nothing, just laid there, looking at me with the most undisturbed stare in the world, and I thanked God they didn't push it.

Something made me feel they knew I was lying... But they said nothing.... So, okay.

"Are you sure, Dabz?" Chika asked me once more, nearly trimmed and pedicured nails in view as she touched me. Deep brown eyes brimming with even deeper concern.... I only wondered why Chika cared so much about my well-being.

I didn't know what to say.

"I have something to help you feel better!" Soma distracted us all as she literally jumped up from her sitting spot.

We all watched the girl as she hopped towards the Lemonade dispenser at the right end room, and picked up the shot cups from the glass round table...

And no, not the reading table by the left side of the multiple vanity mirrors that took a quarter of the room. Not the other one by the  playground carousel that spinner around with stuffed animals on it, enjoying their ride on it..... but the other glass table that looked liked it was made of some kind of melted diamonds and liquid gold, the one that had the dozens on teddy bears and dolls, taking up literally all the high seats that surrounded the prestigious table.

It was hard to believe especially with the kind of lavish life style the twins flaunted even to the public, but in all honesty, Soma's parents had the most money out of all of us. Including the twins.

And Soma's room? Her 'magical kingdom' as she called it - with all due respect- was probably larger than all our rooms combined. And boy, she made the entire space her own kingdom indeed.

As much as I preferred the warmness and serenity of Chika's room, Soma's room gave me off a more aesthetic vibe... Like you weren't in a room, but in an actual world away from ours.  Imagine being in a place where themes, colours, designs, calligraphy, and all forms of art are brought to life, dwelling all around you, and setting you on a euphoric high.

And wow, such Art Soma had blessed this room with. All her drawings and paintings of people, nature, deep themes, and literally every form of art she had ever created was displayed, decorating itself in various corners of the room and the beauty was indescribable.

Her glass reading desk was decorated with the most beautiful notepads I have ever seen, the most fancy pencils to probably exist, and a large stunning carved image of a woman's portrait, sitting proudly in the middle.

That woman....

In an almost creepy way, most of the other pictures of the women in the room....  looked like her.

Wow.

It was beautiful anyway. She was beautiful.

The entire room was a mini-heaven. Not to forget the pretty spinning carousel with all those teddy bears and stuffed animals, the Disney world themed recreations, gold tiled ground that was littered with more stuffed animals, orange lighted Vanity mirrors, and the pretty sunset lighting that gave me a feel peaceful underworld feeling.

Soma's room was magical. I couldn't deny the creativity she had.

And since her loud sisters were out with her parents, we had all the peace and serenity of this place all to ourselves.

"Remember it was dispensing lemonade last week?" Soma stood by the dispenser, grinning at us with the most anticipating eyes, like she was about to give us a massive, mind-blowing revelation.

"Ew, but yes, we remember," Ebere answered unpleasantly.

"Like it was yesterday," Ebube gagged.

"That damn throat drying liquid," Ebere sounded even more irritated.

"Seconded," Ebube said, "And the smell, double ew."

"Ironic how Lemonade disgusts you both so much and you're supposed to be athletic," Chika laughed to herself as she passed her comment to the twins.

"Just because Lemonade helps with hydration and athletic performance doesn't mean we are obligated to like that nonsense, biko," Ebere was quick to get on the defence.

"Seconded," Ebube came in. "Let's all be guided, please."

" Lemonade is trash." Ebere declared.

"Overrated piece of shit." Ebube concluded.

And Chika threw her head back to laugh.

I don't agree with that?

However, the twins were keen on describing it to Chika, just how bad lemonade was. They went on at it, long enough for ne to note that Soma was becoming dramatically impatient.

How do I tell the twins that Soma wants them to stop talking so she can continue...?

"LISTEN TO ME, SISTERS!" Soma jolted me, as she suddenly screamed, rather shrieked at the top of her voice, successfully pulling us away from the distraction, a petty, childish form of annoyance oozing off her, as she folded tight fists at her sides, pouted in annoyance, and stamped her feet on the ground on her order.

"Jeez, Soso, aggressive much?" Ebere was rather amused.

"Loud much?" Ebube played along.

"Blowing-my-brains-out much?" Ebere continued.

"Oh, calm your big boobs, Soso!" Ebube followed right up.

The way Soma rolled her eyes, I was shocked it didn't get stuck at the back of her head.

"You guys should leave Soma to talk na, what is it!" Chika was already laughing at the scene.

"But she's just soooo fun to mess with!" Ebere protested.

"Seconded!" Her sister agreed. "And she looks soooo adorable when she's pouting like that!"

"Soso, come here! Let's pull your cheeks!" Ebere started to reach out to her, and she slapped her hand away from her face immediately, successfully getting the twin on the floor, laughing her ass off and writhing in the pain from Soma's slap.

"Ow! Soma, you're hand is painful na, what the hell!" Ebere seemed to be laughing and crying at the same time. And boy, she really had endurance because even Soma's playful hits were painful as fuck.

The twins found Soma's reaction rather amusing and funny, of course they were the last people who would ever take Soma seriously.

"As I was saying!" Soma stamped her feet again, adorable frown on her face as she ordered attention.

Ebere and Ebube nearly exploded in laughter, but managed to slap their hands over their mouths, biting on their fingers, in an attempt to hold it in.

Chika looked like she was having a hard time controlling her own laughter and the situation at hand. "The Onuohas', stop this thing immediately!"

I couldn't help, but smile.... These girls were really something.

"Soma, sorry abeg, no vex!" Chika pleaded with the girl, trying her best to not escalate the matter by laughing herself. 

And again with that aggressive eye-roll that made me scared that Soma may actually medically damage her eyes if she continued doing that.

"Ahh, Soma, why are you eyeing me naw, I'm on your side!" Chika mock lamented.

Soma didn't even talk to the sisters again, she just went straight to fetch from the dispenser and ended up silencing the entire room instantly.

Lemonade didn't come out of the dispenser....

It was Ice cream.

Confusion was everywhere.

"Ahh, what happened to the lemonade na?"  

It was Chika who spoke up for all of us.

Soma refused to answer anyone. She just walked with her shot cup, filled with ice cream, heading towards me, not saying a word to anyone.

"Here you go, Lulu," She smiled at me, blinked long lashes at me, handed it to me, and I took it from her, muttered my appreciation.

I held the cold cup in my hands, looked at the pink creamy substance in the cup, and watched Soma puncture a tiny spoon into it. "Enjoy your ice cream, Lulu." She grudgingly scanned through Chika and the twins as she took her seat quietly, crossed her legs against each other, looked back to me, and added, "Alone."

"Noooooooo! Soma don't do that to us!!!!!" Ebere screamed in mock defeat as together, she, her twin, and Chika jumped Soma to force her into a hug that she wasn't interested in.

"Soma, I was on your side!" Chika was trying to convince her.

"We love you, Soso!" The twins were also yelling to.

The sisters were all over Soma and she stayed still, feigning mock disinterest.

"First of all, first of all..." 

They gave Soma silence to finally speak, and she faced the twins one-on-one, or one-on-two, the most calm expression on her face. 

"LEMONADE IS NOT TRASH!"

I actually jumped, not expecting Soma to scream so loud into the twins' faces, and the sisters were a laughing mess. 

I smiled when Soma actually let the twins pull her in for a hug.

"So, you see Lulu, sit back and enjoy your ice cream. It'll make you feel better," Soma assured me. 

I nodded, the smile she retorted was warming.

"And after we're done with the assignment, you can rest all you want." Soma easily switched into that foreign accent she easily mastered. That one that made her sound completely black American.  "You know how uptight Mr. Shola can be. We can't afford to mess with his assignment," 

"Stoneface no get chills oo." Chika's heavy ghetto was suddenly a major contrast to Soma's previous accent, as she sat up from the bed and rested her back against the wall in all her feminine swag. "First week of School, and he's already threatening us with deadline." She shook her head. "Wahala for who no wicked sha."

That was how we spent an entire hour and a half, doing researches with my laptop and cracking our heads over such an extreme assignment this Mr. Shola, or in other words, Stoneface, gave us.

I wouldn't lie, I kind of liked this. Hanging out with the sisters, doing homework, having ice cream, and just being away from home.. and school. Just us, the sisters. It felt good just being around them.

"FINALLY!" Soma screamed victoriously the moment we completed the last sentence of our assignment, and the other sisters' were just as triumphant as well, screaming and cheering like we just won a lottery, and Chika was quick to plug in her speakers to blast the entire room with music.

These girls always reminded me that they weren't close to 'regular' or 'normal'. I wouldn't say that I wasn't grateful for them anyway.

Soma was quick to rush and go ahead and share ice cream to everyone else, making sure to give ne an extra cup as well. 

"Remind me again why there's ice cream in the dispenser, and not lemonade?" Chika asked Soma, as we all gathered together on her large, king sized bed.

"Well, I had some work done on the dispenser since Daddy and Mummy were wasting time to buy one that dispenses ice-cream," Soma easily answered.

"Well, ride on, Engineer!" Ebere hyped Soma on.

"Oh, stop it, you flatter me!" Soma gushed back.

"Normal people have finished in this country." Chika commented as she greedily dragged the pillow that the twins' rested their head on, all to herself, and without warning. Wow, she was one to talk. Oh, Chi. Of course, the twins gave it to Chika.

Soma got super excited and went ahead to show us a new Masterpiece she had created, and she jumped up from the bed immediately, heading towards the table by the Vanity Mirror.

"Princess Amara!" She announced the name, as she ran towards us with her drawing pad.

"Princess who?" Ebube blinked, and I was relieved to see that I wasn't the only one who was confused as hell.

 "Amara!" Soma smiled proudly, as she showed us a page of her drawing book, beaming with anticipation for our comments and I was awe-struck when I saw it - a detailed, perfectly drawn, perfectly shaded picture of the most beautiful young girl I had ever seen.

"Woah," Even Ebere seemed to be intimidated.

"She's beautiful," Chika whispered, stunned.

It was merely just a drawing, but it seemed so full of life. It was so detailed, so real. Her eyes, the perfect curves and edges of her face, her lips, her hair, I could see every single strand, every curl, in that full mane of afro hair as though it were a real person's hair, as though I could reach out and touch it... Feel it. 

And Jesus, her eyes... The girl Soma drew.. Her eyes were the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Just a drawing. It was just a drawing, but I could drown myself in that sea of stars that were in her eyes. It was just a drawing, but I could see hope and peace in them. I could feel hope and peace in them.

"I have a dream," Soma looked at us, eyes filled with hope. "One day, Princess Amara will be a big talk of royalty in Disney Channel."

"I cannot wait for that day to come," Ebere said honestly. "God, Soma, you're so full of talent, it makes me want to cry."

"Thank you," Soma blushed.

"She's beautiful, Soma. " I had to tell her too. "Your talent is beautiful too."

Soma actually paused, shocked for a moment, like she wasn't expecting me to speak on it.

"And we're not even capping," Chika swore. "We got you, Soma!"

She blushed so hard.

"I'm still working on adding colour to it, I ordered an electronic drawing pad from Zumia,"She told us. "And after I'm done, I'm going to work on bringing it to life myself."

"Let me guess, Noble is helping?" Ebere said.

"How did you know?!" Soma exclaimed.

"How wouldn't I know?" Ebere retorted, and both girls were about to tease and blush, respectfully.

"As much as I love you, Soma, can you not chase me away by drooling over your yankee boyfriend?" Chika pleaded profusely.

Soma made to playfully punch her in all her excitement, but missed woefully.

"Now what the hell was that?" Chika exclaimed. "Please, never get into a fight if you're going to punch like that, you'll get your ass beat."

"I don't get into fights, Chi. That's dirty," Soma feigned prim and proper as she dusted imaginary dust off her shirt.

Chika saluted, sarcasm rolling out of her tongue with her response. "Throw me shade, babe, I hear you!" 

"Chika Stephanie Chioma, please do us a favour and stay away from all form of physical violence until that boo-boo eye has completely healed," Ebere sassed Chika.

Chika groaned. "Can someone PLEASE tell the twins that I am fine! I'm great!"

She was fine, I guess. Her eye didn't seem so bad as it was the previous week. She never told us anything about it anyways, but on the bright side, it actually had tamed down so dramatically that I actually forgot there was a problem.

But then, how could the twins forget? When things like this were always a major concern for them..

"Do you know how many diseases you are in risk of just from a minor injury?" Ebere raised a brow at Chika.

"You've told me a million times and I don't care," Chika yawned. I didn't even think she was joking. She visibly looked like she couldn't care less.

"You can't be in bad health and be athletic, Chi," Ebube said to her.

"We love you and all, but if para-adventure you contact any contactable disease whatsoever, stay away from me and Ebube, we have a pending relay match next week and we do not intend to mess things up." Ebere said.

"No, it's not possible to get a contactable disease from that," Soma said, making references to Chika's healing bruise as she got up from the bed.

"I'm more concerned about the fact that Ebere just insinuated I can't watch them run track just because I'm sick," Chika was appalled.

Soma was soon coming back to us with a first aid box in her hands.

"Oya, oya!" She shouted as she headed towards Chika to deal with her bruise.

"Since when did you have a first aid box?" Ebere asked the girl as she opened the box, revealing the full set of items.

"Since yesterday when I helped to clean and bandage my big sister's broken foot." Soma responded easily, casually dabbing some spirit into the cotton ball as she spoke.

We all did a double take.

"You bandaged a broken foot?" Chika blinked at Soma.

The taller girl nodded, affirmative. "Yup!" Shrugged non-chalantly. "No big deal. Looking at the first aid box, it's pretty easy to use all the items!"

Ebere scoffed. "Show-off."

And it was all laughed off without further questions asked.

It was quiet for a moment as Soma gently dabbed on Chika's face, and Chika winced softly occasionally.

"Dabeluchi."

I heard my name and nearly had a stroke.

I swallowed, looked to Chika who was the one who called my name.

"Yeah?" I answered.

Soma was still dabbing at her wounds.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Chika asked me.