Hey, guys, for those asking for Acha's POV, we're getting there alright? No need to rush. We just need to table some issues out in Dabi's POV because so much is going on in Acha's side with the whole Sean fiasco and all, so be patient, las las, we will finish work on this book 😌♥️

No, where were we...... 🍷🍷🍷🍷

~DABI~

Miranda knew I wanted to know, and so she gladly told me,

"Let me tell you the real truth about those Onuoha Twins."

I stood and looked at her, a dead and uninterested look in my eyes, as a thousand things ran through my mind, a whole bunch of thoughts, and all of them were urging me to consider what Miranda Archibong had to say. What she had to tell me about the Onuoha Twins.

"Do I go on?" She asked me, as though she was uncertain if my silence and blank stare was a cue to go ahead.

I said nothing and hoped she has common sense. Not particularly giving an answer, I just walked back into the class and sat on a seat, and quietly still, I folded my arm and looked at Miranda. Completely and absolutely mute.

"I want to believe you want me to go ahead...?" She seemed hesitant. Unsure.

I slowly and carefully stared the confused girl down from head to toe and increasingly getting impatient, I started to count my seconds with her, before I walked out of the classroom on her, and for good.

Miranda sighed, and plopped herself down onto the seat next to me, and scooted in close by, and I waited still, her time running out by the second.

"May I say, you're a bit creepy," She laughed as she whispered to me. 

I didn't laugh with her. We weren't friends. And that wasn't a compliment.

"But, it's actually kinda cool," Miranda kept blabbing, "You sort of give me Robyn Brooks kind of vibes. You know? Cool girl, hipster swag, rugged type fashion-"

"Get to the fucking point." I deadpanned.

Miranda backed up, startled by the way I had shut her down.

"Jeez," She shook her head, mock shuddered, "Okay, fine."

I waited for her, again.

"I'm sorry," She said. Sighed in exasperation, "I'm just a bit nervous. I don't know, I'm not feeling exactly welcomed.... It's not like I ever feel I am anyway..." 

I couldn't tell why, but there was a pang in my chest when Miranda said that. And to make that ache worse for me, she had smiled at me as she said that, a quick smile that I could tell right off, was a sad one. Like she was trying to use her smile to mask her embarrassment and pain.

A simple action that tore me to pieces within.

"So, you know, talking a bunch of random nonsense is a coping mechanism for me," She said to me, smiled again, that same smile, "Just to get me to warm up and tell you everything without feeling scared that you'd rip my head off in mid sentence."

There was a way she talked.

It made me want to be nicer.

"I won't rip your head off," I told her for a start. Made sure to force a smile upon my face to look nicer too.

That little gesture of kindness made her eyes light up immediately and there was a spark in them. And even though I was happy I made her feel that way, I also felt a bit heart broken watching how excited just a little nice gesture from me made her feel. 

It was almost like she wasn't used to people being nice to her.

"So...?" I probed her, "What about Ebere and Ebube? I am all ears."

Miranda looked at her, seemed to calm herself down with a deep, cool breath that she took in and out.

And then, she started to talk.

"Remember when the Onuoha Twins came as new students in Jss3?" 

She started with a question, and I nodded, affirmative.

"What do you really remember from Jss3?" Miranda asked again..

"Well..." I didn't waste time to recall the most traumatic one for me, "I stabbed Jelanie Jarah to her near death with a Mathset compass."

Miranda was taken off-guard. She looked like she was a mix of horror and shock.

"Oh, come on, don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about," I rolled my eyes, "Your class girls still hate me for that thing till date."

"No, I do know," Miranda blinked a couple of times in order to shake off the shock off her, "I just wasn't expecting your assault on Jelanie to be the answer I was getting first off."

"Sorry." Was all I said. But that was the first thing I could remember, because the trauma that the consequences caused for me was out of this world.

"Let me rephrase..." Miranda decided, "What memory of the twins do you have from Jss3?"

"Well..." I thought about that, "They were really popular the first few weeks they came; I can't be sure if it was just 'cause of their excellent track records or how they carried themselves around, but they were sure to make a statement with virtually everything they did...."

"And how did you become friends with them?" She asked a third.

"It wasn't easy." I admitted.

"Was it." Miranda quipped me a relatable smile.

"They were actually the last to let me in," I told Miranda, "They refused to accept me as their friend, and wouldn't call me one. They made it clear to me that I wasn't their friend and just because Chika had decided to let me in, it doesn't mean that they would."

"Oh." Miranda listened.

"And every time in School, when we were in a group, they basically only talked to Chika and Soma and cut me out of everything. They wouldn't even walk by my side, even in a group, and I would just hide myself by Chika or Soma's side. It caused a lot of problems and they fought a lot with Chika, but they were firm in their decision to not accept me for so long....."

"So, why didn't you drop out of the group? Why did you stay, despite everything? Tell me all your reasons." Miranda said to me.

I knew my answers, but this conversation was starting to make me uncomfortable.

"What are all these questions, for God's sake?" I had to ask her.

"I know what I'm doing, Didi-"

"You're the one that's supposed to be giving me information, not the other way around," I reminded her.

"I know what I'm doing," She said to me, promised me, "And I am getting somewhere with all these, you'll see."

"Well, I find these questions a bit too personal." I firmly stated.

"You don't have to answer anything that you don't want to," She assured me, "Really."

That made me feel better, and I wasn't sure why, because in the first place, she was not forcing me to say anything. She was just asking questions, and I had the power to decide if I wanted to give an answer or not.

"Okay," I sighed, "I didn't stop being friends with them because I needed them. Chika saved me from classmates who were ready to tear me limb to limb because of what I did to Jelanie, and my life was a miserable mess of bullying and emotional abuse, and after Chika took me in, I was under her shield. I was afraid to step out of it, because I was scared of what everyone would do to me..... That's why I stayed."

Miranda was quiet.

For a long while.

"And..." I forced myself to say the other part of this, "Ebere told me that she and Ebube would only be true friends with me after I properly fit in. After I proved to them, beyond reasonable doubts, that I was relevant enough to deserve their friendship. They pledged on that, right before me, sealed it with an oath and everything.-

"So..." I swallowed hard as I recalled all these, "I figured, if I just upped my game and climbed up the social ladder, they'd probably accept me soon enough, and I wouldn't have to feel like I am walking on egg shells around them. I figured that if I had all the support of all them - Chika, Soma, and the twins - everyone would stay out of my way.... So, I wanted to stay and try harder to get them too, on my side."

"Well, Didi, it doesn't really seem to me like you ever really fit in-" Miranda started.

Ouch.

"So, all of a sudden, the Twins just accepted you out of the blue and nothing sounds suspicious to you?" 

That hit hard....

In a different, twisted perspective that threatened a massive headache.

"What guarantee do you have that the Twins ever really accepted you as a friend, Didi?" Miranda posed the question to me.

"Look, that was a long time ago," I stood, firm still, in my defence. "Jss3 was literally two or three years ago, Miranda. Why are we even talking about something that happened that long ago?"

It was a long time ago. 

And The Twins had long accepted me, despite my imperfections. Right?

Right?

"The twins told me the same thing too, Didi," Miranda revealed her truth to me.

I swallowed. Hard. And stayed silent for a moment.

"When?" I asked her.

"It was in Jss3," She said to me, "Not long after they had come to CH and got instant popularity. That was before they were even friends with Chika and Soma - when it was just the two of them."

I think I recalled that period.

Chika and Soma were always friends. right up from Jss1, when we all came to Secondary School. They were one of the first friends to be established and acknowledged in the set. They weren't the Igbo Sisters then, they were just Chika and Soma. In Jss3, the twins came as new students, and in the middle of second term, they became friends with Chika and Soma, and when the set had seen how close the four girls had become and how, coincidentally, they all happened to be Igbo girls, they started to call them 'The Igbo Sisters', and that name started to revolve around them so much, until the entire School knew their clique as that.

At that time, I didn't know personally neither Chika nor Soma nor the twins, and I was about certain that none of the girls knew of my existence. It wasn't until the end of the third term that I had done what I did to Jelanie that cause an uproar of the entire set against me, that Chika Chioma, a girl whom I had never known from anywhere, decided to stand up for me, so much to the extent that she had called me into the group, to make sure that I was shielded.

"And if you can remember....." Miranda continued, "Social segregation was so terrible that Junior School time, and being worthy was a much bigger deal than it even is now."

How could I forget?

Things were worse then. Compared to how it is now. Now, we had a lot of Chika Chiomas' and Aaron and Caspers' that were sensitive enough to know how and how not to treat human beings, as well as how to use their popularity to help others. But then, people were horrible and without filter. There was a clear as day distinction between the worthy and unworthy and there was no in between; You were either popular or you were not, and anyone who was disadvantaged to be in the latter category, like me at the time, had to live their life a miserable, bullying mess. 

They would make fun of everything single thing we did, make fun of what we looked like, constantly remind us of our place, play the meanest and most humiliating pranks at us and laugh to their heart's content about it, and the worst part of it all was that we were always forced to stay together, amongst ourselves, and not dare mingle with them.

Now, things were a lot more different. Yes, they was still that ranking system of popularity, but at least, the segregation and bullying had drastically reduced. If you weren't worthy, it was more likely that no one would give a fuck about you enough to bully you everyday. It was like you were just invisible, and in a way, I believe that would be a lot better than having to face bullying every single day.... But of course, some people like Winnie Ezra and her girls haven't changed since Junior School.

"Didi..."

I blinked. Came back to Earth and Miranda.

"Were you listening to me?" She asked.

If she was saying anything these past few seconds I zoned out, then definitely, I couldn't have been listening.

She easily figured, and without scolding or anything, she just started to repeat herself again.

"I was saying that, if you could remember, there was this End of the Year Party that Casper was hosting that first term of Jss3; I don't know if you went for it.."

"I didn't." I clarified.

"Okay, so.." She went on, "A day to the party, this anonymous list was released on the Class GC and it sparked a lot of attention. Originally, I thought it was a compiled list of people who were invited  to Casper's party, but I was confused because my cousin's parties are usually open for everyone... Well, unless he was organizing a list for someone else's party, perhaps like a birthday party or something, then he would get the list of invitees directly from the celebrant. But then, still, he would never paste the names, he's just send private messages and add all invitees to a different group chat.... So, I was really confused, you know.."

"Yeah.." I muttered, urging her to go on.

"Then, when I saw what the list was all about, and how everyone was so cracked up, I got the hint of what was really going on," Miranda said to me. There was a downcast look in her eyes, and her voice had lowered as she seemed to be bringing herself up to say the next part.

"Someone had compiled a list of people who should not come to Casper's party, and reasons why they shouldn't come."

"Oh." I remembered easily, what she was talking about.

I wasn't on that list. Maybe I was too irrelevant to even be remembered, but I wasn't on that list. But, I recalled that Miranda was the first person on that list.

"They said really mean things about me..." Miranda told me, breathed out a forced, brief laugh amidst eyes that I thought were about to tear up, but never really did.

"It wasn't the twins, was it?" I asked quietly.

"No.." She shook her head softly, refused to make eye contact with me for a while, before she forced out a little giggle,  shrugged something off her shoulders, and faced me, eye to eye, with a normal smile on her face, feigning casualness, "Of course, they didn't do it."

I breathed a silent sigh of relief.

"I cried a lot that day, Didi," Miranda revealed to me, and I couldn't help but marvel at how easily this girl shrugged off pain that I felt was about to lead to some ugly crying, and started to act so normal and playful with me, as though she wasn't telling a sad story.

Miranda Archibong was.... unusual.

"And then, that was when the twins found me." She dove into it.

I listened.

"They found me crying, and I could tell they felt bad for me. I remember thinking, these girls aren't such bad people afterwards...." She told me. 

And listened.

She went ahead, "Then, they promised to make things better for me and make me popular, so I could be happy. And I was more than happy to oblige, because I wanted it too. I wanted to be happy, and they agreed to help me.." 

Sounds like the Twins. 

"So, when they heard I liked this boy in our set, they offered to help me get him, because it would be a boost to my reputation," She told me. "That was when all the madness started; They tried to get me close to Krisdana, his cousin, and made me do all sorts of nonsense that kept raising rumours upon rumours in my name..."

Still sounded like the twins.

"And while all those were happening, Ebere told me that they aren't doing this for me because I was their friend. She made it clear to me that she and her sister were not my friends. And they were just doing this to help me. She had also said that when I had buffered up my reputation, then, maybe they would consider being my friend, but as of that time, I shouldn't be hanging around them in public...."

Wow.

"I agreed, because it was a fair deal," Miranda said, "I wanted to be popular, and they were helping me. They didn't owe me their friendship, did they? They were doing me a favour after all."

"I guess," I muttered, "So, then, what did they do?"

"Made a fool out of me," Miranda told me, and amidst her sunshine and butterfly demeanour, I could hint the undisguised and sudden bitterness of her tone, "I should have known all along. All those time, they made me do the stupidest and most embarrassing things - shaping my school uniforms, putting on more make up, forcing me into the Sports Team, making me start up baseless and meaningless conversations with him - I should have known that from the start that all the things they were putting me up for was for their own, selfish and twisted personal gain."

I felt so uncomfortable having someone talk about the twins like this, but my heart was beating so much with anxiety, and needless to say, I wanted to hear the end of this.

"Their final game was making me write him a love letter-" She told me.

"A love letter," I repeated her words.

"-And read it to him, in front of the whole class." Miranda continued.

I lost my breath for a second.

"Did you do it?" I asked her.

"I didn't want to," She confessed, "But, they sounded very convincing. They somehow managed to make me believe that it wasn't such a terrible idea as I had felt it was going to be....."

"Maybe, they didn't deliberately want to harm you," I jumped to their defence, "Maybe they really believed that it wasn't such a bad idea."

"Oh, they knew what they were doing," Miranda scoffed bitterly, "Because after I had embarrassed myself in front of Ivandor Fejaun and the whole class, they joined everyone else to laugh at me. And that was when I started to understand what their true intentions were from the beginning."

I was quiet.

I was so quiet.

And there it was again, the unmasked pain in Miranda's voice as she told her story.

"I couldn't handle it," Her voice was low again, hard, yet wavering and shaking with something in between rage and hurt, "And I confronted the both of them, there and then, in front of everyone...." 

There was something so raw and hateful in her voice that I couldn't pin it down. She really hated the Onuoha Twins. She loathed them.

"I screamed at them, I screamed so loud at the top of my voice, shouting and asking why.... Why they would do such a thing to me-" 

Miranda...

She...

She didn't sound like the wannabe Miranda I knew. She sounded darker. Hate filled. Malice driven. Angry. So, damn angry. I could feel how angry she was, just by the way she winced at her own words as though they were bitter.

"-But I wasn't heard, Didi," She whispered, her tone coming down and crumbling with defeat, "I wasn't heard, and the Twins couldn't stop laughing, and laughing, and laughing at me."

"That's awful." Was all I could say.

It was a hard pill to swallow. I didn't understand why the twins would do something like that. I mean, yes, they could be mean and all, but they'd never hurt anyone for no reason.

"Right in front of everyone, they denied ever having any sort of connection with me, and made it clear to everyone that we weren't friends and they had no idea why I was screaming at them," Miranda told me, "And of course, they were popular and loved by many, so whatever they said had more effect than whatever bull crap I had to say."

I..

Didn't know what to say..

"The whole set trolled me for weeks, and since that time, till now, I guess that tarnished reputation I got from it, still