As Itohan walked passed her, in her body, she nudged her shoulder and Ivie too stunned to react, fell on her bottom. What just happened? One minute she was Ivie in her body and now she's Ivie in Itohan's body.
"How did you do it?" She asked disbelieved as she stood up.
"Ever heard of dark magic? I guess not. But I have a little trick under my sleeves, not that you'd understand anyway."
"You have magic?" All these while Ivie had thought she was an alien for having the ability to see when another person had the power to switch souls.
"Have a nice time, Ivie because I'm definitely going to do same. Or should I call you Itohan now?"
"Wait!" Ivie made to reach out to her, but something unbelievable happened.
She couldn't move.
Her legs were moving, she was running infact but she stayed I one position.
Itohan gave her a sly smile and walked out of the room. When she met her friends outside, her expression quickly changed and she looked pissed.
"Bitch," she cursed, turning to look at the door she just came out from.
"Ivie, what happened?" Gaga asked.
"Talking to her was a bad idea, she just got me more upset," Itohan replied. "You know how Iv—Itohan is, always defending herself."
Gaga fisted her hand. "I should give her a word for it."
Itohan stopped her. "Let's just go, she doesn't want to see us anyway, let's not waste any more time."
"It couldn't have been that bad," Aisosa said, putting on her defensive suit.
"Trust me, you don't know about that. The Dean supposedly gave her a two weeks suspension and she's upset she's the only one taking the fall when we were in it together, said she wants out of the group." From where she stood, she noticed a small figure monitoring them, but it felt more like her.
"But she couldn't have changed overnight, we've been together since freshman year," JohnMary said, glancing over at the door. "Maybe she just needs time."
"She can take forever if she wants, but this is not going to blow off without an apology," Itohan said, getting more into the act. Why was it hard to convince them to leave? She thought they all hated her. "Let's go?" She tried again.
They appeared reluctant, Aisosa kept looking at the door, hoping somehow that Itohan would burst it open and offer them an explanation.
Itohan saw it and it melted her heart. She used a softer tone when she said. "We have class this morning. Johnny is right, maybe she needs time, she will come around." She squinted her eyes as she looked from her friend to the person in hiding. It was Odion. "Is there a reason this thing keeps monitoring me?" She nodded towards her.
"You said she was the one to tell Father Chibuike about us," Gaga replied.
She nodded. "Of course. You all should go on then, let me finish my business with her."
With enough pressure, she finally got them to leave without seeing Ivie. She feared Ivie would run her mouth about the soul switch, not like anybody would believe her though, but she didn't want to take any chances.
Then she walked towards the dwarf and she positioned herself as though ready to meet her.
"Quite the troublesome one, you are," Itohan said.
"You're the one who causes trouble, I only do what I have to do as a good student and tell on you."
Itohan smiled. "Today is going to be the last day you cross my path." The smile left her eyes and slowly her face changed to the half burnt remain of a freshly smoked barbecued fish, skin melting, hollowing into the bowl of her cheek.
Then it changed to something that came from a horror house on the evening of Halloween, her eyes turned red, her pupils dancing in it rapidly.
Odion took a step back, besieged with fear and she opened her mouth to scream but no words came out. Tears gathered in her eyes as she watched horns potrude from Ivie's forehead and as her teeth grew to pass he lower jaw.
She was shaking her head and moving back, trying to shout.
"If you're smart then this should be lesson enough," Itohan said, returning back to Ivie face, when she saw that she was shaken up. "But I'll say it again in case you are as deaf as you are shut, stay out of my way."
When she walked away, she could hear the feets of Odion, running.
Back in the room, Ivie was still running in the same position, and after a while, she became out of breath and she slumped to her bottom.
What was Itohan to wield such a power? Dark magic? She's never heard anything like that. If such powers was in the school, nobody was safe. How would she know if the person she was talking to was the same person inside?
"I need to report this, I should tell the Dean," she said aloud and touched a hand to her throat at her voice, it wasn't hers, it was Itohan's.
But would Father IK believe her? She had thought of telling him about her gift for a long time but the last thing she wanted was to be termed insane. He might even think she was being defiant in accepting her punishment and hence made up the story, she couldn't risk getting into more trouble than she already was.
But she couldn't also risk keeping it to herself, she needed to tell somebody. Somebody who might believe her, or at least pretend to believe her, somebody who wouldn't label her mad, maybe because they themselves have a streak of madness in them, somebody like Father Chibuike.
He would make a funny quip about it, but she could tell him things Itohan would never know, it would make him believe.
But how would she leave when she was stuck in a position? She rose to her feet and tried to move, but every step she took forward brought her back to the same position. She tried a couple of times, but failed.
"There has to be something," she said and then touched her throat again, that she had Itohan's voice annoyed her.
But she had Itohan's voice. An idea struck, couldn't she use it to avert the curse or whatever she was placed under?
She cleared her throat and started to think about whatever nonsense she could say about removing herself from the curse. But before she could say anything, she felt a pull and she was out of the spell.
Having no time to think about what had happened, she left the classroom, hurrying into the corridor and as she saw students going into their classes, bumping into one another, she wondered if they noticed anything different. Of course they wouldn't, just because she was now in Itohan's body doesn't mean there's a see through.
She was walking to the teacher's wing when she heard the call, "Itohan?"
She heard it but shrugged it off, her focus on getting to Father Chibuike.
"Itohan?!" The voice called again, nearing her.
Shouldn't this person go look for Itohan instead of shouting in the hallway, except she was—she turned.
"I've been calling you," the student said after stopping in front of her.
"You called just twice." It was hard for her to normalize it all when she couldn't even understand it herself.
"Once is enough even for the deaf."
Ivie took a threatening step forward.
But the student didn't seem fazed. "What are you going to do? I heard you did something bad and you're not just going to be suspended, you're also out of the Big Bang, so what are you going to do?"
Plus she was in Itohan's body!
The student glared at her. "The Dean wants you to come with me."
"I was going to Father Chibuike's office." She pointed towards the door.
"Not my business, the Dean wants you to come with me and he wants it now."
Ivie clenched her teeth. "If not for the situation I'm in now, I'd have made you pay."
"Yeah, whatever. Follow me."
Ivie looked at the door to Father Chibuike's office, it was just few steps away. Maybe she could ditch this student and run there, but it was the Dean's call. She would come back later, she, Itohan rather, was already suspended and for as long as she would be in this body, she didn't want to pile up her punishment.
She followed the student, but they didn't go to the Dean's office like she thought.
"You said the Dean—" she started, only to be rudely interrupted.
"The Dean said you should come with me," the student cut her short and off.
In silence and confusion, Ivie followed her out of the main building, away from the main building and towards the school gate where a mini bus was open and maybe, waiting. They stopped in front of it, and then the student turned to leave.
"Wait, what?" She looked confused, glancing between the student and the bus.
"I've ran my errand, have a nice day."
Ivie made to go after him but the bus driver stood in her way. "Get in."
"In where?"
"The bus, Miss."
"Why?"
"You are on suspension," he replied impatiently.
Ivie's eyes nearly budged out of her socket when the realization hit, the suspension started now? Still she didn't stop trying. "Are you crazy, don't I need to pack my stuff?"
"Everything is already inside."
Despite that the air was chilly, beads of sweat formed on Ivie's forehead, she had to talk to Father Chibuike, if she leave he'd never know, and who knows what Itohan planned on doing?. "I have to say goodbye to my friends."
"That's what you went to do earlier, have you forgotten? You asked for ten minutes and the time's elapsed. See, young lady, I have other affairs to tend to, I can't do this all day, get into the car."
"You don't understand, I'm not Itohan, she did something to me, she switched our bodies, I don't know how, but I'm Ivie."
The driver looked at her like she had five protruding horns from her forehead. That reaction had been her greatest fear since forever, but she didn't mind today. "It's true! I'm Ivie, Itohan took my body, I need to talk to Father Chibuike, please."
The driver shook his head. "Students and their never ending tactics. If you think that is going to work on me, you might as well call me a fool." The look on his face was stern, unyielding.
"But I need to talk to Father Chibuike," her soft voice broke, threatening to spill into a sob as hot tears gathered at the corner of her eyes. Itohan had planned everything, she's caught in her well laid trap, she hardly saw a way she could escape it.
"Your suspension started ten minutes ago, I won't repeat myself," the driver firmed.
The driver was huge and tall, there's no way she would ever outsmart or maneuver her way back into the school which was now yards away from where they stood, and she had never been a runner, so left with no option, Ivie got into the car.
For one thing, she told herself she was glad Father Chibuike collected the suicide note from her the night before.