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This chapter is written in support of the wattpad ProjectSuicidal campaign.
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07 CYNTHIA'S LEGACY

Aunt Thelma and Patricia didn't stop crying on the was to the hospital. There were blood tracings from Cynthia's room leading to the bathroom.

I didn't blink throughout the entire process. I couldn't believe my eyes. Everything felt like a bad dream and when the doctor had confirmed she was dead, I expected to wake up.

I couldn't even comfort aunt Thelma who was rolling on the tiled floor or Patricia who had ran out of the hospital building screaming in agony. Uncle Harry just stood there, shaking.

Somehow, I couldn't help but blame myself. I shouldn't have listened to Patricia. I should've told aunt Thelma Cynthia was pregnant. I should've tried harder to prevent Cynthia from taking that pill. The pill had caused the bleeding. According to the doctor, she had been bleeding all night.

In as much as I despised that family, I couldn't help but feel sorry for them.

Can someone hold Uncle Harry? I'd never seen a man tremble the way he was. I thought he was going to have a seizure. Who would drive us home?

Where was Patricia? Had she finally lost it? I wanted to go after her. The way she'd ran out made it look like she'd get hit by a car anytime soon.

Should I pick aunt Thelma from the floor? She kept wailing and sobbing, some nurses had already gathered to comfort her.

Eventually, Uncle Harry had managed to ask me to go home. I took a cab home and they stayed back for obvious reasons.

I didn't need to say anything to Sebastian, my expression had said it all.

"We should clean the blood," Sebastian suggested as we sat in silence, "It's better they come back and not see it, again"

"Yeah. Aunt Thelma would probably start rolling in it" I wasn't joking, no one would joke in that situation.

Cleaning Cynthia's blood wasn't the best Saturday chore and it didn't feel right either. The white bathroom titles had turned crimson. Thinking of the pain she must've gone through, I found myself finally crying.

Two weeks after Cynthia's death and burial and no one ate anything except Sebastian and I. The house was as quiet as a grave yard with Cynthia gone. Only Uncle Harry left the house occasionally.

Both people I knew and those I'd never seen before came to give their condolences. That was the only reason aunt Thelma reluctantly left her room from time to time. Patricia had locked her bedroom door and hadn't left.

Things weren't good at school either, people had found out Cynthia and Patricia were my cousins. Everyone had something to say about the way Cynthia died. Although most of them didn't know the real story, they had their speculations and theories.

"I'm sorry for your loss SP" the Agric teacher said to me with a sympathetic voice.

It was particularly intriguing how people referred to me as SP instead of Rachael. At least I'd constantly be reminded of my duty and obligation to the school.
"So, what about Patricia?" Aisha asked after Tunde, she and I had settled down at a table during lunch break. We'd bought some snacks already.

"She has refused to leave her room," I replied "but most nights I hear her door open and close. I guess she eventually gets hungry"

"She must be devastated" said Tunde.

"She is" I agreed

"But who got her pregnant?" Aisha asked. I'd told Tunde and Aisha the story of how Cynthia met her death.

"I don't know" I said. In as much as I would like to know who got Cynthia pregnant, it was the last thing on my mind.

"I bet it would be in her diary," said Aisha, "if she had one"

I didn't say anything after that. Going through a dead girl's diary wasn't something I wanted to do again.

We were eating in silence when I saw one of Sebastian's friends walking by. He was wearing that bracelet which wasn't allowed in school.

"Hey, you," I called out to him, "come here"

He reluctantly walked up to our table and murmured an inaudible greeting but I didn't care.

"Give me the bangle" I stretched out my hand, waiting for him to obediently do as told but of course, he was proving to be stubborn. "What are you waiting for?"

"I can't give it to you" he said sternly and I withdrew hand in perplex. I was now standing and we were starting to cause a scene. It's not everyday you see a junior student disobeying the Senior Prefect.

"Boy," Tunde interjected, "is either you're high or you don't know your senior. Give her the bracelet, now!"

"That thing you're wearing is not allowed in school. I'm confiscating it." the boy looked at me with disgust and didn't move a muscle.

Tunde forcefully took his arm and attempted to pull the bracelet out but the boy was fast enough to yank his arm away from Tunde's grip. Tunde gave him a slap on the cheek and the boy didn't move.

I was trying to stop Tunde from lashing out on the little boy when someone suddenly punched Tunde. Tunde stumbled and staggered and eventually found his way to the floor. For a moment, I wanted to ask who had hit Tunde but when I realized it was the junior student, I knew there was nothing little about him.

Other students had managed to take the boy to the principal's office while Aisha and I helped Tunde to the sick bay.

Only a little bruise was evident on Tunde's right cheek but it was enough to get that boy expelled. After Tunde was treated by the nurse, we were asked to go to the principal's office.

"Why should you fight a senior student Enoch?" the principal asked the boy after Tunde and I had narrated what happened. Henry was also present which was odd because the situation had nothing to do with him.

"He slapped me first" Enoch said in his defense.

"You disobeyed the SP and DSP" Mr. Francis said to him.

"But sir, they shouldn't have hit him. No senior student has the right to hit a junior student so it wasn't completely his fault he retaliated" Henry said in defense of Enoch and I still couldn't tell why.

"And since when did you become a lawyer?" Tunde asked, clearly annoyed with Henry's poke nosiness.

"Since you couldn't do your job as DSP" Henry spat back with utter disgust. The two boys stared daggers at each other from across the room. If only looks could kill.

"Just keep quiet the both of you" Mr. Francis said before Tunde could have a comeback. "Now, Henry is right. You shouldn't have slapped him. Any student that proves to be stubborn, should be reported,"

"But-"

"I'm not done," Mr. Francis shushed Tunde, "you can't go around beating people's children. If they do something wrong and refuse to serve the punishment you give them, report to me and they will be suspended. Enoch will not be suspended but he will be doing some manual labour for a week"

"A student was killed in this school as a result of a beating from some senior students and I don't want it repeating itself. So please, no hitting" said Mr. Francis "you can go"

"Sir, what about the bracelets? Are they banned?" I asked

Mr. Francis took a look at Henry who seemed to be giving him a warning glare. He let out a sigh and said, "I don't see a reason why they should be banned"

Tunde was the first to storm out of the office and I followed.

Nothing was making sense anymore. Why did it look like Mr. Francis was taking orders from Henry and why did Henry defend Enoch?

I had only one possible explanation but I didn't want it to be true.

Tunde and I explained to the English teacher why we were late and she wasn't angry with us, thankfully.

"As I was telling the class," the English teacher said, "your project this term would be on debate"

"I'll be pairing you in twos and I would give two pairs a particular topic to debate on in our next class. One pair would be for the motion and the other pair would be against the motion" she then began pairing students randomly and giving them topics to debate on.

"Tunde and Rachael versus Peter and China" the English teacher announced, "and your topic is, Teenage relationships should not be encouraged. Tunde and Rachael will propose the motion and Peter and China will oppose it. That's all for today, see you in our next class"

Although I would've never admitted it, I couldn't have asked for a better partner. I was so thankful Peter wasn't my partner. He was so arrogant and full of himself. I wondered how he'd work with China. China was the girl who offered me her seat the day Tunde and I were trash talking each order. As far as I knew, she was a nice girl and her name was actually Chinaza.

I'd agreed to go to Tunde's house later that day for our project. I wanted to take the opportunity of aunt Thelma's breakdown and leave the house for once in my lifetime because she wouldn't even notice I was gone and if she did, there was little chance of her having my head. Aunt Thelma would never let me out of her sight when she finally recovers. So, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me.

When I got to the address Tunde had given me, I knocked on the gate and a woman opened the door. I guess the woman was his mother since she looked just like Tunde and she seemed to be in her late forties.

"Good evening ma" I greeted. She was putting on a cooperate wear and I assumed she must've just returned from work.

"Good evening," she replied "how can I help you?" she sounded strict and looked strict too.

"Tunde. I'm looking for Tunde. We were supposed to do a project together" I tried to sound bold.

She hesitated before saying "come in". I kept wondering if the woman had ever smiled in her life. She was definitely a strict woman.

I followed her inside and she asked me to sit. The house was big but simple and welcoming. The living room had mainly traditional furniture with different framed pictures hanging on the wall.

Tunde ran down the stairs as soon as his mom called out his name. He looked surprised to see me as though he wasn't the one who had invited me.

"Your friend said you have a project to do together?" Mrs. Rotimi enquired

"Yes ma," Tunde confirmed and my first thought was, who refers to their mom with "ma"?. And then I remembered the Yorubas had and showed a lot of respect especially to their elders.

"Whats her name?" she asked looking at Tunde.

"Rachael," Tunde said incoherently "Rachael Edozie"

"Rachael Edozie. As in the Senior Prefect?" I nodded my head in affirmation while Tunde looked away. He wasn't looking happy.

"You are not ashamed of yourself Tunde. Look at you," she motioned towards Tunde "you're good for nothing. You call yourself a man and yet you let a girl be the senior prefect and you're her assistant. Shameless idiot" I was flabbergasted.

"Get out of my sight jare" Mrs. Rotimi said and Tunde didn't waste time in turning to leave but not without asking me to follow him.

I followed him upstairs and into his room. It wasn't huge but it was decent and tidy. He walked over to a desk where he keeps his books and began searching for something.

"No wonder you wanted to become SP so badly" I said before sitting at the edge of his bed.

"I thought it would somehow please my parents" he had his back facing me but I could tell he was trying hard not to cry. "All my life all I ever wanted was to please my parents, to make them somehow love me but all to no avail"

"To be fair, you did win the election"

"Yeah, but I didn't get the appointment" he finally turned to me. "Let's just forget about this and start the project, I'm sure you can't stay long"

He was right. Going out without aunt Thelma's permission was one thing, staying out too late would be asking for a visit from Lucifer himself.

It took us nearly two hours to finish putting our debate points together. In as much as we were supporting the motion that teenage relationships shouldn't be encouraged, it felt so wrong to me. It was just as if teenagers weren't meant to have feelings.

"...and with these points of mine, I hope I've convinced you that teenage relationships shouldn't be encouraged" I read aloud from my draft. Tunde was staring at me like I was a cupcake.

It was just like one of those scenes in movies where the boy and the girl stare at each other without saying anything and before I knew what was happening, Tunde's face was two inches away from mine.

"What are you doing?" I stood up and gathered my books.

"Sorry... I..."

"I'll see you tomorrow" I left his room and ran downstairs. Luckily, Mrs. Rotimi was nowhere to be seen so I quickly made my way out of the compound. I felt like my heart was going to jump out of my chest. I couldn't believe I was so close to having my first kiss.

When I eventually got home, I tiptoed into the living room like a thief trying not to make any sound but I was bursted when a phone on the dinning table began ringing loudly.

Luckily, no one came to answer it and I let out a sigh of relief. I walked over to the dinning table and realized it was Patricia's iPhone. I took it and made my way to her room to give it to her.
When I'd knocked severally and she didn't open up, I made my way inside and realized she wasn't there. I decided to go out to her balcony and there she was, standing on the balcony railings, ready to jump.

"Patricia, what are you doing? Come down from there" I said, all in one breath

"Its my fault Rachael," she paused, her face red and damp with tears. I ignored the pounding in my chest and wondered how she was so confident standing there. Standing at the verge of death. It felt like even the slightest atom of air would be enough to push her off. "I pushed my sister to her death. I told her to abort the baby. I gave her those pills. She's been calling me to join her. I'll be with my sister" she smiled.

"Please, I'm begging you, come down," I tried not to show how scared I was. My voice shaky and my outstretched hand trembling.
"She's calling me Rachael, I need to join her..." she let herself fall and I was the one screaming. Patricia killed herself.

SUICIDE IS NEVER IS AN OPTION!

NB: This book in no way supports suicidal thoughts or actions.