06 CYNTHIA'S CHOICE

The school ceremonial hall was huge. Big enough to accommodate more than a thousand students. Standing on the spacious podium next to my classmates, I searched the crowd for a few faces, first was Sebastian. I spotted him sitting with his friends and when our eyes met, he waved at me gleefully and gave me a thumbs up. I smiled in return.

Second, Henry. It wasn't difficult to find him seated in the front row amongst his fellow soon-to-be ex-prefects. He gave me a slight nod with a reassuring look and I did the same with gratitude.

Last but not least, Cynthia. It was tricky to find her petite figure but when I did, she looked happy at the moment. When she saw me, she looked away just as fast obviously avoiding my judgemental gaze.

I still wasn't sure if I'd convinced her or at least made her consider reconsidering terminating the baby.

Cynthia was the same age as I was; fifteen. I'd felt her fear. I'd never been pregnant before but putting myself in her shoes, it was petrifying to even imagine having a baby at the age of fifteen.

Along with trying to convince her not to abort the baby, I'd also tried to find out the soon-to-be father of her unborn child. The only thing she'd told me was that I didn't know the guy. Little did she know that what she'd indirectly told me was that I actually knew the guy. I just didn't know who in particular but it was definitely someone I knew, someone in our school probably.

"You can't tell anyone..." Patricia who was standing next to me said. "...That she's pregnant." She was looking at the crowd while talking but I could hear her clearly.

"Of course you know," I wasn't surprised Patricia knew about her sister's pregnancy. They were as thick as thieves. Exempting the one year gap, Patricia and Cynthia were practically twins.

"You can't tell anyone" she repeated ignoring my remark while laying emphasis on the last word.

"You know, this would be the perfect juicy gossip to ruin your sister's reputation but I'll be the better person and not seek vengeance for everything you've done to me." I said and joined in on the round of applause rendered after the principal's long and unnecessary speech. Patricia finally gave me a quick glance and looked away almost immediately. I couldn't read her expression. It had a mixture anger, guilt, hatred, disgust and worry in it. Typical Patricia.

"And now, for the announcement of the new student council and their various positions," my heart beat accelerated all of a sudden.

What if I don't win?

I'd decided that if I didn't win, I'd try not to be sad or angry but at that moment, I knew I would be devastated if I lost.

Tunde stood a few feet away from me, three other students standing in between us. He looked as calm as ever. If he was nervous, then he wasn't showing it.

I'd recalled how Tunde had desperately begged me not to run for SP and it reminded of how bad he wanted this and how he'd feel when he eventually doesn't win.

The audience clapped after each prefect is announced. There were over twenty functionaries at our school and the senior prefect was- as expected - announced last.

"And the social prefect is... " Mr. Francis paused staring at the paper in his hand, "...Aisha Suleiman!". Aisha stepped forward, a few inches from the straight line formed by my classmates and I, and waved with a smile as every other person was expected to do after the announcement of their post. I joined in clapping for my best friend, my applaud being the loudest.

Mr. Francis continued with his announcement and in time, I discovered Peter was made disciplinarian. Personally, I wouldn't have someone who body shames someone else near the student council but I guess, to everyone else, he was the picture perfect student for the job.

"And we have the assistant disciplinarian as Patricia Akachi" Patricia hesitated, probably letting reality dawn on her that she wasn't the SP or DSP. She stepped forward, bowed and put on a plastic smile. I tried to avoid her stares afterwards at the same time holding myself from bursting into laughter and shouting, "I told you so".

"And the DSP is..." all indication of amusement disappeared leaving my face pale. My heart beat was so loud I was sure I wouldn't hear my name if they'd called it. I began sweating and breathing loudly. Tunde and I were the only ones left and one of us would end up senior prefect with the order being the deputy. "I want Tunde and Rachael to step forward" said Mr. Francis and we both did as instructed.

"This was a very difficult decision," Mr. Francis smiled at us both, "they're both amazing and promising students and they deserve this position. They both do"

I turned to look at Tunde and when our eyes met, he looked away. I remembered the first time we'd met. We were at each other's necks, spurring insults at each other. Little did we know we'd ever be in a position like this.

"Usually, I don't reveal the election results but I'm making an exception this one time for a reason," the elections were conducted the previous week and I had a few students telling me I had their votes, "Rachael had five hundred and twelve votes while Tunde had five hundred and... twenty votes"

My heart felt like it'd fallen into my stomach. I'd lost.

"And after much contemplation and debate," Mr. Francis continued, "we have the DSP as..." my heart beat increased by ten. I was literally shaking, "Tunde Rotimi"

I must've heard wrong, I thought but then Mr. Francis exclaimed, "and we have our first female senior prefect as Rachael Edozie!"

The crowd roared and some chanted my name. I couldn't believe my eyes or ears. It was all happening too quick and before I could process everything, I was being pulled into a hug by Mr. Francis after a tight handshake.

While the band boys played their drums as loud as they could, teachers and some students came up to the podium to give us, the new prefects, a handshake or a brief hug.

I walked over to Tunde for a handshake wondering if he would be angry or not but I was surprised when he'd pulled me into a hug. "Well done." he said before releasing me.

I was going to say something to him when Aisha popped up and squealed, "SP!" giving me a bone crushing hug afterwards.

The swearing in and handing over followed immediately. The current prefects lined up in contrast to our own line according to our various positions. I was directly facing Henry and we smiled at each other.

Each prefect was suppose to remove their prefect badge (which had their position written on it) and attach it to the new prefect's breast pocket.

When Henry had attached his badge to my breast pocket, I gave him a quick hug. He placed his hand on my shoulder and said, "You'll make an excellent leader."

I smiled at his compliment and I looked at his hand on my shoulder and I was shocked with what I saw.

It was the red bracelet. It was closer this time and I could tell it was made of rubber. I couldn't believe my eyes but I tried not to think much of it not until I narrowed my eyes close enough to see "The Brothers" written in black and tiny letters. That made me cringe.

Henry took away his hand and stepped back. I shunned the thought in my mind under the impression it would become real if I kept thinking about it.

I went home convinced that nothing could stop me from being happy. Not even aunt Thelma's cruelty or Patricia's glares could turn my mood upside down.

Sebastian and I settled down on my bed, doing homework. The house had been awfully quiet with aunt Thelma and Uncle Harry out.

"Who are the brothers?" I asked Sebastian breaking the silence. He looked up at me with a confused look.

"What's that? I haven't heard of it" he shrugged, as always.

"But it's written on your friend's bracelet"

"I think so," he said trying to remember, "maybe it's a church"

"Don't be ridiculous Sebastian, it sounds like a-"

"A cult?" he interrupted, "a cult. You think my friends are cultist" he stated it as a matter of fact.

"I don't know but it would be safer to stay away from them" I said my mind.

"They don't even wear it often and it could mean something else" Sebastian retorted "Not everything is about cultism,"

"Suite yourself," I mumbled deciding to give up. I was trying to put the pieces together and if The Brothers were truly a cult, then no one was safe.

After dinner, I'd watched Cynthia put a pill in her mouth and swallowed afterwards with water. We were the only ones in the kitchen. I was washing the dishes and she wasn't there to help.

"What's that?" I asked in order to quench my thirst of curiosity.

"Misoprostol" she said like I was supposed to know what it was.

"What is it for?"

"I'm not having this baby" she whispered quite aware someone could be within earshot. Like I'd suspected, Cynthia didn't take my advice and it was already too late to stop her. The damage had been done. "I heard its safe but if it doesn't work, I'm seeing a doctor who will..." she didn't complete her sentence. She didn't need to.

"I hope you won't regret this Cynthia" I said with all sincerity. She gave me a weak smile before exiting the kitchen without saying anything else.

That night, I couldn't sleep. I had a lot on my mind coupled with mixed emotions. I couldn't help but wonder if Jay's heart surgery was successful or not. How was dad faring in prison? I hadn't visited him since we moved in with aunt Thelma.

I couldn't help but wonder if Amanda could possibly still be alive or not. It'd almost been a year since she went missing and no one had heard from. Some say she was used for ritual, others say she was pregnant and ran away from home, she's probably dead-some say.

Eventually I'd fallen asleep. But I was woken up by the loud scream coming from outside. At first, I thought I was having a nightmare.

It sounded like Patricia. I ran out to the hall and found Patricia standing at the entrance to the bathroom whaling. I rushed to her side to see what had happened and I immediately regretted doing so afterwards.

There, at the middle of the bathroom floor laid Cynthia's body in a pool of blood.