This chapter is dedicated to user31153897 For being the first to comment in the last chapter.
Above us a picture of the love garden.
Enjoy
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The Maths teacher had written a problem on the board, before walking over to the principal's office. We all stared at the problems written on the white board, as we tried so hard to come up with a solution.
Irene was scratching the back of her head on problem number two, while Omonigho, was already on her fourth problem. I on the other hand haven't even started yet. It was like the maths problem on the board, was written in Thai language.
The door to the classroom came ajar. Thinking it was going to be the Maths teacher, a girl whose brunette weave on was styled in a ponytail, walked in.
The student in question found her way to my direction, and leaned closer to me.
"Hey T," With the help of Irene and Omonigho, I had realised that people calling me T, were cool people. Which meant, I could feel less threatened around them. It doesn't mean people calling me Tatiana were bad, but I'd to be careful.
I looked at her, as she went on. "We were wondering if you could schedule practice today?"
We? What's a we?
"The competition is coming up in three weeks, T. We need this practice." The girl pleaded. Omonigho, who was directly in front of the girl, tried to tune her out and concentrate on the maths problem.
"What practice?!" Stupid Femi yelled at the back. I knew he wasn't convinced. And it would take a lot more to get him off my track.
"Swimming practice," The girl innocently replied. "We've got a competition coming in three weeks time."
Swimming? I hated the water. Everyone knew that!
I turned my head sharply to look at Femi. He was staring back at me with a smug smile on his face.
He knew I couldn't swim.
"Don't worry," I tried to feign confidence, as I stared back at the girl. "I'll be at practice today."
I thought I was screwed before? Well I didn't see anything coming. Right now, I was totally screwed. The girl beamed at my decision, then turned to leave my class. My eyes travelled back to meet Jeremiah, and there you have it. He wasn't even paying me nor my predicament any slight attention. He was busy solving the problems with Dami.
Could this day get any worst?!
My phone buzzed in my skirt pocket and I reached for it, to see a message notification.
Unknown
Be careful, or you'll drown in your own pool of blood. Just the way you deserve.
-12:30
I spoke too soon.
~°~°~°~°~
I ran to what I now assumed was a love garden. Took me long enough to find it. Turns out, I had already been here before. It was beyond beautiful like the first time I was here. Trees filled the scenery. The grasses were fresh and green. And the wooden like chairs looked fancy. This was indeed heaven for students.
"You're late," Jeremiah spoke out in a formal tone. I nodded stiffly and watched as his eyes skimmed through the pages of the textbook he was currently reading.
"Sorry," I mumbled. "This place was hard to locate. Funny story," I chuckled, trying to hide my lame excuse. "Turns out I was literally at this very place when I made a call across to my best friend___"
"I'm sorry," Jeremiah cut me off. Why was he apologizing?
"Excuse me?" I asked, feeling a bit confuse.
"You should not forget to use the infinite form of the verb 'be' with the pronoun 'I' if you wish to make a proper and fully correct sentence." He then snapped his textbook shut, before looking at me. "To break it down to your level. Apologize using the right word."
"Oh right," To say I wasn't confuse, was an understatement. I was completely lost. "I'm sorry."
Jeremiah said nothing and glanced at his wrist watch for a bit second. "Five minutes, sixty-three seconds late. Are you aware of that fact?"
"Um, no__"
"Wrong," Jeremiah stopped me. "That was a trick question. If you were attentive and actually listened to what I was saying, then you would have noticed that sixty-three doesn't exist. You were in fact, six minutes and three seconds late."
Wow!
"Listen__" Jeremiah stopped himself. "What am I supposed to call you?"
"Uyai," I offered.
"Listen Uyai. If you actually want to pull off pretending to be Tatiana, you've got to be smart. That's her trade mark at this school." Jeremiah brought his index finger and used it to tap the side of his head, twice. "Be smart."
"I'm trying," I sighed and sat beside him on the fresh grass. "Who would have thought a dumb ass like me, would have a genius as a sister. That's why I need your help."
Jeremiah placed his textbook aside, which turned out to be a commercial textbook. "Have you actually seen Tatiana? Have you met her in person?"
I nodded at his question. "First meeting was at a party. After that, she started giving me gifts."
"So it's clear you're aware you guys must be related." Jeremiah said, plucking out some of the grass with his fingers.
I nodded again. "At first, I thought she was my clone."
Jeremiah's brows knitted, as he stared at me. "Why'd you think that?"
"Orphan Black," I exclaimed proudly, like it was a reasonably thing to say. I sighed and stared into space. "Such a great movie."
"Moving on," Jeremiah brushed me off. It felt like he was trying to sweep away my stupidity. "Where you aware of her tragic accident?"
"Aware?" I scoffed at his question. "I was there. I literally stood on that bridge with her."
"And then what happened?" Jeremiah knew nothing about the story on the bridge. No one did except Judith. The common knowledge he knew was I wasn't T and that everyone believe that T's twin, committed sucide.
"I fell into the river instead." I lowered my head, feeling a bit embarrassed.
"Typical clumsy you." I knew he'd make fun of me. "Lift your head up," He demanded, but in a cool tender voice. "This isn't the time for a sober party."
I sighed and did as he said. "But I remembered something."
"Which is?" Jeremiah pressed on.
I stopped to remember. "Before I blacked out, before my lungs felt like it was about to explode, before the waters swallowed me at a whole," I stopped to gaze at Jeremiah. I noticed he stared at me with interest. No intention of rushing me. He wanted me to take my time.
"I swore I saw T, jump into the river after me." I pressed my lips, then went on. "But after that, I couldn't remember anything. I just woke up and saw myself in a hospital room and Tatiana, wasn't there with me."
Jeremiah leaned against the tree, as he breathed out. "That doesn't make any sense." He muttered, mostly to himself.
"What doesn't make sense?" I whispered, reasons unknown to me.
Jeremiah looked at me all of a sudden, taking me off guard. "Do you think Tatiana's dead?"
"I um...... Think so?" To bad, it came out as a question. "I mean, she wasn't at the hospital."
"Doesn't make any sense," Jeremiah repeated one last time.
"Look," Jeremiah held my hands unconsciously, as he tried to explain his logics to me. I was meant to concentrate on his words, but his hands kept on distracting me.
"Tatiana is the captain of the female swim team for a reason, which only proves she's a great swimmer." Jeremiah said slowly, still holding my hands in his. "There's no way the best female swimmer of our set, could drown in a river."
"What are you saying, Jeremiah?" I asked with creased brows.
"I'm saying," Jeremiah sat upright. "Someone must have rescued you. Someone, must have dragged you to shore so your body could be seen by others."
I remained still to digest all of Jeremiah's words. "That means, Tatiana must have rescued me!"
"Now you're catching up, pretty." Jeremiah complemented, as he let go of my hands.
"Does that mean Tatiana, must be alive?" I tried to hide the excitement of him calling me pretty.
"I'm not saying that. She might have had a leg cramp, which might have became a barrier to her or something. And that alone could make her drown." Jeremiah do have a way of bursting people's hope bubbles.
"But that's only a ten percent chance. The other ninety are with the fact of her surviving." I smiled a bit. He was trying to restore back my hope.
"Hey," I said, as something occurred to me. "How did you know I wasn't T?"
Jeremiah leaned back against the tree, then opened his mouth to speak. "At the party," He stated cooly.
"I had met up with Tatiana late that night, to discuss about the upcoming swimming competition. And the next thing after my discussions with her, I found myself bumping into you." I stayed quiet, as I watched him speak.
"I actually thought you were Tatiana at first. But when I glanced back a bit, I saw Tatiana, looking down at her phone." Jeremiah explained smoothly. "And at the hospital. I also noticed the way you conversed with Dami. Tatiana isn't nice to that extent. Plus, you've got deeper voice."
"Can't believe no one's noticing that fact," He muttered to himself.
I stared at him in admiration. "Can you be any less hotter?"
"What?" Jeremiah stared at me. I coughed awkwardly, as I tried not to go off subject.
"Oh right," I dug my hands into my pocket and found the note. "Remember the day you showed me to the female's restroom?" Jeremiah nodded. "Well, I found this note."
"What's in it?" Jeremiah asked, referring to the note in my possession.
"A threat," I opened the rumbled paper and showed it to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah muttered some words, as he read through the lines. "Yeah, definitely a threat."
"I got home that day to do some diggings of my own." I informed him. "Turned out Happiness and Tatiana, were close. I guess even best friends. And I think, Tatiana was having feelings for someone she wasn't supposed to have feelings for."
"Did she mention that someone's name?" Jeremiah gestured I give him the threat note, which I did. He turned the note to the back, where it was completely blank.
"No," I shook my head sideways. "But then, she mentioned in her diary, of dating someone named Kingsley, an undergraduate. He was in his three hundred level last year.
"Technically a four hundred level student now." Jeremiah muttered, he reached for his textbook and retrieved the biro inside.
I nodded at him. "She wrote about Happiness warning her about Kingsley. But after that, I saw..."
"You saw what?" I had hesitated. And Jeremiah wanted me to speak. "Come on Uyai," He moved closer to me. Way too close. "You saw what?"
I shook my head, trying to stay calm. "I deserve to die." I shuddered, as the thought of it brought cold chill into my body. "She wrote that in bold writings."
"Who's Happiness? Where is she?" I asked frantically.
"Six feet under," Jeremiah shrugged like it was no big deal. "Tatiana had three close friends as at early last year. Though no one really knows the back story, but Happiness was found dead in her room, throat slit open. What's creepy was, she wrote a later with her very own blood. And by the way, it was directed to Tatiana."
"Really?" I scrunched my nose as I tried to imagine the sight of that. "What was in that note?"
"I'll - Never - Forgive - You, Tatiana." Jeremiah said, word for word.
"Wow," I muttered and slumped my shoulders in defeat.
"People had the thought that Tatiana must have caused her death. But there was nothing concrete to prove her guilty. We all concluded it must be some weird person trying to dirt Tatiana's name."
"You used past tense." I pointed out that fact.
"I'm aware," Jeremiah replied dryly. "That's because everyone had decided to look past that incident. Though some people aren't over Happiness' death. Your stalker is a prime example."
I shook my head a bit. All this was too much for my fragile being. "D-Didn't they informed the police?"
Jeremiah laughed a bit at that question, as I tried to treasure my first reaction from his unfazed character. "The police didn't find anything, no surprise there."
Jeremiah used his pen to tap the threat note, before speaking. "You've not gotten any other threats, right?"
I stopped and recalled the message I had in class today. "As a matter of fact, I do." I reached for my backpack and retrieved my phone in it. I unlocked it and clicked on the message app. Once I had found the message, I showed it to Jeremiah.
"Do you suspect anyone?" Jeremiah asked next, after reading the text.
"Yes I do," I said without hesitation. "Jubilee."
Jeremiah knitted his brows. "Why?"
"Cause," I lifted both shoulders in a 'why not' gesture. "He gives me the creeps. Like a serial killer kind of creep."
Jeremiah nodded and said nothing. He wrote the word suspects at the back of the threat note which was blank. And below it, he wrote the name Jubilee.
"And Rosemary," I wriggled my pointy finger at him. "Yup, that girl is surely on the list."
"My co-sport prefect?" Jeremiah asked as if I'd lost it.
"She's even supposed to be the number one candidate sef." I added, as I saw he wanted to defend her. "She told me I was meant to be paying for my sins, on my very first day at this school. That's threat worthy."
Jeremiah said nothing, as he wrote down Rosemary's name, right below Jubilee's.
"Next, Femi." I pointed and signalled him to write Femi's name, but he didn't.
"Femi doesn't even know who Tatiana is. Why do you think he'd be the one threatening you?" Jeremiah sure did have a valid point. But Femi?! No. That boy could do anything.
"Just add his name," I tapped the note. "He's full of mischief."
Jeremiah shook his head slightly, and wrote it down. "That's all?"
I nodded with a satisfying smile. "That's all. I have to start_____" I paused, as I watched Jeremiah put down one last name.
Kingsley.
"If my memory serves me right, you did mentioned a four hundred level undergraduate, named Kingsley." I nodded slowly. "Tatiana was obviously dating him and Happiness warned her against the idea." I nodded my head again, as he spoke. Jeremiah dropped his pen and looked straight at me.
"Then I guess he's our number one suspect."
Eddy : Uyai have her list of suspects, which Jeremiah find bizarre by the way. Which of these are you guys suspecting?
Jubilee ➡
Rosemary ➡
Femi ➡
Kingsley ➡
Comment yours and let's see which has the highest vote.
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Next update : Sunday
Words : 2542
Till next time,
Much love,
X
-Eddy