The Other Side.

Afiwa sighs, Faven has been going on and on about how their unit needs to sell the most chin-chin because she needed a new badge and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, Afiwa doubts that the girl even cared about the hospital kids they were raising the money for. "Do you think she's going to finish anytime soon?" Kiki, her friend, whispers in her ear, Faven's speech about the badge she was going to win was starting to get irritating. Afiwa snorts, "that's unlikely," Kiki groans, "gods, can this girl actually shut up and actually let us go and sell this chin-chin," she whispers, Afiwa chuckles. And to prove their point, Faven goes on for another five minutes before pausing to take a breather. "Does anyone have any questions?" she asks hands on her hips, her second in command, Fumilayo is beside her in a similar pose. The four girls under her command shook their heads, "Good, each group has twenty boxes to sell, I don't want to see you here if you haven't sold all your packs, so you better start thinking about how you're going to sell them," she hisses. The girls nod and gather their boxes. The air is cool and crisp, as Afiwa and Kiki cycled down Awolowo street. They stop at the first house, Kiki rings the bell and greets the old lady who answers the door with a sweet smile. Afiwa stands behind her letting the girl work her magic, "good afternoon ma, my friend and I are girl scouts, we're sorry to disturb you this afternoon but will you be willing to buy a box of brownies? It costs N10 each box goes towards children on life support in our local hospital," the old woman seems hesitant but Kiki flashes her puppy-dog eyes that no one could say no to and the woman is no exception. Afiwa gives her a thumbs up from behind. …………………. Nathifa shifts her weight from one leg to another as her best friend, Nyakio tries to convince a mean-looking business man to buy the pack of chin-chin, she's been feeling a weird chilling sensation at the back of her neck ever since the man answered the door. "Sir, you can buy it for N6 please just donate to the children in the hospital," she begs. The man relents and digs out his wallet, the man hands Nyakio the money, and Nathifa steps up to hand him his chin-chin, the weird feeling intensifies to the hair on the back of her neck standing on end as if sensing danger. She swears those few seconds before she stretches out her hand to give him the chin-chin his eyes turn black. But she shrugs it off, the man snatches his chin-chin and lunges forward grabbing her shoulders in a vice-like grip. Nathifia squeals as his fingers dig painfully into her shoulder blades, Nyakio grabs the man's wrist trying to pry him off, but his grip was firm, Nyakio kept struggling the adrenaline in her veins was the only thing keeping her going, Nathifa on the other hand was trying hard not to piss herself, her face is pale, tears are streaming down her face, her heart thumps wildly in her ribcage and her lungs are constricting limiting her air supply, she looks like she's about to have a panic attack, her breaths were coming out in short pants and gasps. "Let go of her!" Nyakio finally screams hoping her yell would alert the neighbors instead the man releases Nathifa's left shoulder and uses the back of his free hand to back-hand Nyakio she yelps as she stumbles backwards, Nathifa's eyes widen, she wants to call out for her friend but the words die out in her throat. The man returns his attention to her, he leans in, so she can see his nose-hairs and smell the alcohol in his breath, "daughter of Atai, we are coming," he whispers, Nathifa's body stiffens as the man's face contorts in an ugly sneer, how did this man know her mother? "We have come, we have come, we have come, we have-" the man chants, Nyakio attacks from behind slashing his back with her switch-blade, she lets out a muffled scream the blood drenching the man's shirt is black, the man let's go of a whimpering Nathifa and whirls around to face Nyakio, who clenches her switch-blade with shaky hands. The man stares at her for a full minute and then pushes past her roughly to enter his house, slamming the door behind him. "Are you okay?" Nyakio asks in concern, Nathifa forces a smile, "I'm fine, what about you?" she replies referring to the purple bruise forming on Nyakio's jaw, Nyakio chuckles humorlessly, "I've been worse," to be honest she's still shaken up, "now let's go sell the rest of these damn chin-chin packs." …………….. Faven is happy, twenty packs of chin-chin sold and she had gotten a text from her team members on her Nokia, they were able to sell all their packs as well, that badge would be as good as hers. Faven and Fumi stop at the local smoothie shop for a celebratory drink for a job well done. Faven sips her drink letting the cold Pepsi cool down her body, on the seat opposite her Fumi is counting the money they made, not only did they sell all their boxes but a few customers gave them tips, Faven smiles to herself there's no way Glory could have beaten her this time. The doors to the shop swing open and a familiar laugh jerks Faven out of her euphoria. Glory, the girl thinks to herself nearly crushing her can of Pepsi. Fumi raises a brow, "Glory's here," she informs the other girl, Fumi rolled her eyes, why the two girls were mortal enemies was beyond her, to be honest it was kind of childish they way they were always at each other's throats. Said girl stood in front of the two girls, a dazzling smile on her face, her teammates standing behind her like loyal soldiers, "well, well, well, who do we have here?" Faven purses her lips not even pretending to be unbothered by Glory's presence, "if you're here to talk bull-sh*t like usual please leave, I can already feel myself losing the brain cells just speaking to you." Glory's smile wavers. "I just came to tell you that the badge, the badge for best unit leader, yeah well Mrs Iyang already gave it to me." Faven heart drops, her eyes widen,her lips twist in a sneer and she grips her Pepsi can tighter as if it were Glory's neck, she looks terrifying, "there's no way Mrs Iyang gave you the badge, you'll have to have sold all your chin-chin," Glory's smile widens, "she didn't say that, she said the first highest sum of money she gets, we got N1500" the girl boasts, "so even if you get more than us you still won't get anything," Fumi sends her friend a warning look begging her wordlessly not to rise to the bait. To Faven it seems like her whole world is caving in, she had been waiting all week to receive the badge, all she wanted was that one badge, that one badge would have changed everything, she would have more badges than Opal did at her age, and maybe then…. "It's too bad really, guess this proves I'm better than you." Faven screams like a wounded animal causing everyone to turn and stare at her, she hurls her mangled Pepsi can at Glory's head, the remaining contents of the can spills on Glory's forehead, the sharp edges of the aluminum can stretches her forehead. Fumi sighs, it's no use Faven is long gone. The seething girl glares down at her trembling 'enemy' "Don't you ever say you're better than me, no one is better than me!" she hisses venomously and storms out of the shop. Fumi sends Glory an apologetic look and races after her friend. "What was that?" Fumi asks, Faven is still scowling as the two girls cycle down the street, "it was nothing I just got mad," Fumi purses her lips, "it didn't look like nothing, it looked like-" Faven stops abruptly, "it looked like what?" she hisses, Fumi raises her hand in a surrender gesture, "you looked scared, lost and then of course anger," Faven sighs, "it's nothing, okay? Don't worry about it." And Fumi doesn't bring it up again.