Mirrored Hearts

25

Mom opened the door the moment I stepped beside her. "Welcome Sarah, and please come on in." Mom greeted and beckoned the visitors in.

"Thank you Lydia," the woman said as she stepped into the house and she also beckoned for her daughter to come in.

"Good afternoon ma'am." I greeted, flashing her my best of smiles.

She smiled back and said, "good afternoon my dear." Then turning to mom she said, "she looks just like you."

Mom smiled, "thank you."

"And this is my daughter," Mrs Sarah started to say and mom and I turned to the girl standing besides her. The girl happened to be studying our living room and didn't pay much attention to what was being said, but the moment her mother started introducing her, she turned to face us and at that moment, it felt I was given a cold bath.

"Wait a moment," the girl said, "you?" She was sneering at me.

The smile had vanished from my lips and the excitement I had, was gone too and I asked, "what are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that."

"You should be asking me that? This is my house!"

"What is going on here?" Mom and Mrs Sarah asked. I glanced from one mom to the other and they were puzzled and again I studied Mrs Sarah. So, this was Edith's mother and I was only spotting the resemblance then. She was just an adult version of Edith, just like you'd say about myself and mom.

"Mom, this is-" I was about to tell Mom that this was the girl who I fought and got a suspension for, but Edith caught me off.

"Mom," Edith started, "this is my friend from school, Lela. We are in the same class."

"Really?" Edith's mother smiled. "What a coincidence, but you never mentioned her before Edith."

"Really? Probably because she's new." Then, turning to me, Edith said, "wow Lela, this is such a huge surprise. I never thought that you're the girl my mom has always been talking about," and to mom, Edith said,"neither did I know that you, aunty was Lela's mom. What a small world, right?"

"Yes dear. It is certainly a small world." Mom smiled. This was quite strange, the Edith I knew could never act nice. I expected that she would be the first to tell our moms that we had both fought and that I got a suspension and Edith, well, Edith got the scarf she had on. "Well, why are we just standing here, please, we prepared lunch."

"Oh Lydia, you shouldn't have bothered yourself."

Mom laughed, "I already did, so let's go eat." Mom lead the way to the dinning room and we all took our places as Eka-ette served us all a plate of Jollof rice and Chicken. We also had salad as well.

"So, Lela...you must know about Edith's fight and why she's wearing this scarf?" I almost choked on my food when Mrs Sarah asked. I picked up my glass of water and gulped down the whole content.

"What fight?" Mom asked with concern.

"I had this fight once," Edith started saying, "and the girl I was fighting, pulled my hair out."

"Oh my God. What a wicked child." Mom said.

"I know, right? I would have taken the case up, but the school pleaded." Edith's mother told Mom and I refilled my glass of water and gulped down the whole content again. If only they knew that the 'wicked child' was actually me.

"And now I have to wear this scarf always, even to school." Edith said meekly, like some innocent child. She was a typical example of 'a wolf in sheep's clothing.' When our eyes met she was flashing a wicked grin at me and I shook my head in disgust and glared at her.