She had had to take the responsibility of putting the two little children to sleep after they had gotten back. This had to have been he worse Christmas for them and it began to break a piece of her heart. She planned awesome activities and now, with the appearance of everything they seemed to be failures.

She sighed as she remembered how Chetachi had cried all the way and only calmed down after she was given a biscuit and for now. One thing was important, her mother must not not find out because then both her parents and the rest of you the older adults would end everything. They were still up in their rooms still angry at Ebose for the Peppery juice her uncle had to take.

Yet, Ebose knew one way or another Chetachis mother would know about her daughter and if the woman knew, her Mother would and she was truly scared for the next things that would happen. This was nothing her money, which was almost finished, would be able to solve. Her head throbbed mildly as she began to think Events planning was her thing but management, management was not for her especially when Asike was around. She got angry at the remembrance of his presence, what she had tried to pull was a prank gone totally wrong.

She did not know what to be angry exactly. Was it at the fact that he flirted the time away with the girl who happened to be the Soldiers granddaughter? or that he had escaped the whole prank plan? The first felt totally weird and wrong to her but she felt the anger dwell stronger towards that.

"Nope, the prank failed that's why I am angry," she reassured herself as she stepped out if the childrens room to go meet the rest of the individuals who were based in the sitting area of the house. They, despite the fact that she was in trouble, had began to entertain themselves with biscuits, juice and dancing competitions to while away the time.

Christmas was definitely boring.

She checked her phone for the time, it was perfect for the next activity that she had planned. She would stay clear of any sort of revenge prank she planned to play on Asike until boxing day, then she would box him and not in a preset wrapping kind of way.

"Its 4pm guys," She entered into the sitting room with a small smile laced on her face. She would skip the rest of the activities to the one where no harm can come to anyone at all. Then Asike would be powerless over her and would not be able to cause any trouble.

"Yeah, I'm hoping today ends quicker than this," Omoruyi said from where he sat with his eyes closed and the statement made her feel sad and bad and mad. She made sure to ignore. She had spent, weeks preparing for today, she would not let it all end with bad memories, not at all.

"It is write-a-secret-message time," she tried as much as possible to sound cheery and the rest just looked at her and grumbled about how all her boring activities had been messed up from the beginning of the day.

"Come on," she walked up to the makeshift library at the end of the room and took out the pieces of card board she had kept just for this special occasion and shared six each to one person. "You are to write a message on each card, one card is for one person and hide it wherever you wish. We'd have to find the cards."

She handed out pens also as she finished the explanation of the activity. They grumbled but took them from her.

"Do not write who it is from but write who it is to." The boys had mischievous smiles on their faces as they began to write on their papers without awaiting more instructions from her.

"I'm not done, can you people wait?" It was hopeless, they had gone further in writing their secret messages. Soon everyone walked about the house, hiding their 'Christmas message card'.

"No peeking o," she announced as she walked to the first hideout for her a card. They chuckled and yelled at one another as they hid the various cards in various location in the sitting room area and around. They made sure they went nowhere near the stairs, they still feared the angry parents, all of them.

"Ready?" The seven of them assembled in the sitting room and awaited the next instruction. They nodded with smiles on their faces,

"Set?"

"Which one are you doing? Is it race?" Olasupos voice vibrated as he spoke with a frown in between his brows.

"Go."

Everyone who was participated, which was basically the younger Adults, began to roam around the room as they searched for a card that would possibly be theirs.

"Don't open the one that does not have your name o, Asike I am talking to you," She looked towards the boy who wore a grin in response to her announcement. They struggled to find the ones with their names on it.

"Another Efosa again?" Eghosa whined as she dropped the card she had found and continued to roam.

"Bring it for me na," Efosa called from the dinning area where she began to search for cards.

"I'm busy." The other twin responded and no one could tell whether or not she was pissed.

Still, they all continued their card seeks, Nnenna chuckled as she read from a card she had found, Supo smelled his armpit and frowned after he read one card, Omoruyi faced the wall so no one could see his reaction exactly.

Eboseremen got a card that had her name written on it, she opened it and read the two words written shabbily in the worst handwriting that had to ever exist;

'Grow Tall.'

There was only one person that could have written that, she searched around for him and found him with a frown on his face looking into a card. Maybe someone had insulted him.

"Omoruyi, really, grow tall? Secret message? what you always say?" He gave her a smirk as a response and she continued her search to find the other cards with her name on it. She found two more which were from her sisters as written in it were:

'You're beautiful, but not like me' and 'Keep on being smart', respectively.

The turning around the chairs and walking about began to make her feel a bit dizzy but she persevered never the less. There were just three more cards to get before her search ended and then it happened. The least troublesome of activity brought about trouble.

If she were like Shikamaru in Naruto and she were Japanese she would have said 'Mendoskai'.

"How dare you tell a girl she needs to work on her waist?" Efosa's voice was loud enough, she was sure her parents would come downstairs.

"What dude? what do you mean?" Olasupo frowned, his voice still normal as he tried to understand what he was accused of. They were a few distance from each other and he closed the space to know what she talked about.

"Don't play dumb with me you this man-hoe. Why would you write to me that my waist is too wide, work on it, what the actual f does that mean?"

"Back off Efosa, did you just call me a man-hoe?"

"No, you heard me wrong," Ebose knew the next statement that would proceed out of her sisters mouth and she knew how much Olasupo hated those words, she knew the trouble that would be created from the next set of words her sister would say and she wished she could stop what may happen next rather than look confused at the arguing scenario of her sister and cousin.

"I called you an Ashawo, idiot," Supos face became hard and his mood shifted from playful to anger mode. He was a flirt, a big flirt but no one ever dared called him that word because he had anger issues. He had always said 'You laugh or ignore names that people give you because you are them or you want to be that and you take immediate actions against names you don't want' and he took ugly actions every time he decided to take them. He had had to go to a lot of anger management classes but to him, they were just a multiplier to his anger.

The next thing that happened was a slap from Supo's direction headed towards Efosa's direction. He never thought the statement 'you don't hit a woman' was reasonable. And everyone feared what would become of him if he got married.

"If your friend ever told you nonsense and you believed her then you are stupid. Now, because we are cousins does not mean we are age mates. Make sure you take your time unless I will literally beat you whether you are a girl or woman," Ebose rushed forward to try to stop her sister who jumped in quick to return the freely given slap to Supos face. Things had escalated quicker than expected.

"You are mad, who do you think you are talking to, you think i am your sister, better respect yourself. So this was the way you treated Amaka? Beat her up when there was a quarrel?"

"Are you crazy?" Omoruyi struggled to hold back his brother before he injured the girl but he was not having it.

"You are the crazy one, you are crazy and stupid and I wonder how I am cousin to you, why did I ever give her your number?"

Amaka had been Supos first girlfriend who Efosa had introduced to him. They were younger and so because the tradition of Nigeria forbade young children to date, they kept it a secret from their parents. The girl had been able to calm Supos anger when ever he entered the dangerous mood but she had died a tragic death two years down their relationship. He had gone from sad to devastated and then to a flirt. He never bothered to control his anger or rage.

Ebose saw the rage in his eyes and she felt terrible. She knew Olasupo would not have written that statement, neither would his brother have. The girls too would not have been able to write something as silly as that, she didn't also.

It was only one person who would have been able to do such a cruel thing. She turned to see him with a slightly amused expression on his face, he winked at her and looked back at the situation staying afar off like he wasn't the one who made everything happen this way.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" It was the voice of her father with an angry look etched on his face. If he were the one to hear the whole case then she was in a bigger trouble than she had been in previously. Christmas was about to be her death day. Maybe by next year they would have to lock her up because she and Christmas were no longer compatible but the real person to lock up was Asike.

Supo released himself from his brothers grip as the rest of the Adults came down the steps. In his eyes, pain were more evident than anger and Ebose wished she had not brought about the stupid idea of the card activity. Now he had had to remember his dead girlfriend whom, she was sure he had been trying to forget. His true reason for being a flirt was because he could not cope with commitment, he feared that if he was, they could easily go just like Amaka.

While the rest were trying to explain to her angry father about the situation she marched up to Asike who seemed not to regret what he had done and dragged him out of the house, her own anger began to brew. He had gone too far with the pranks, he had gone too far with everything he had pulled off throughout the day.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

°°°

Seven, phew, posted and I'm glad.

So, now, how do you see Asike?

Let me know;
Comment, Share, Vote.

A Chapter unfailingly tomorrow which happens to be my birthday.

Lots of Love
Emmanuella.