The Girl Everyone Forgot
1281 Words
There were some stories you heard once and forgot before you got home.
Then there were stories that somehow followed you.
The story of the feud was one of those.
I had heard it before I even understood what it was.
At school, people talked about it like it was some ancient legend.Two years wasn't that actually long.But teenagers now had the habit of turning what happened yesterday to history.
Depending on who told the stories.The feud had started on different things.
Some people said it began because two classes had an argument during an inter- house competition.
Others said it was because of a boy.
A few people said it had something to do with Ashley brother.
And there were people who simply said,
" Don't ask too many questions. "
which, of course, even made me want to ask more questions.
I looked at the school gate.
Most of the students had already gone home.A few teachers were still walking around the compound, and the security guard was sitting near the entrance watching everyone leave.
For some reason the quiet made me think about the old story.
Maybe because the school always looked innocent when it was quiet.
like nothing terrible had ever happened here.
Two years earlier.
Amara was seventeen.
If you met her then, you probably wouldn't have guessed that one day her name would be whispered around school like something people were afraid to touch.
She was loud.
Not rude.
Just loud.
She laughed with her whole body, when something was fine.She didn't care who was looking.When she was angry everyone knew. When she was excited she could talk for like ten minutes without taking a breath.
Her best friend,Sade,used to joke that her voice could wake an entire neighborhood.
Amara would roll her eyes.
" At least people would know I'm alive."
Sade would laugh.
" You're impossible."
" But yet you are still my friend."
" Unfortunately. "
" Exactly."
Amara loved arguing.
She once spent an entire lunch break arguing with a teacher about a history question.
" You're wrong." She said.
The teacher raised an eyebrow.
" You're telling me I'm wrong? "
" Yes, sir. "
The entire class went silent.
Sade whispered, " Amara please."
Amara didn't even look at her.
" I checked the textbook."
The teacher stared at her.
" After class."
Amara smiled.
" Okay."
When the bell rang, she turned to Sade.
" See? He knows I'm right."
" You're going to get expelled one day."
" At least I'll be correct."
That was Amara.
She wanted to study Law after secondary school.
She used to say it wasn't because she wanted to argue.
Sade never believed her.
" You literally argue for entertainment."
" Law isn't just arguing."
" Then why law."
Amara became serious whenever she answered that question.
" Because people deserve someone to speak when they're too scared to. "
Sade would usually roll her eyes.
But she knew Amara meant it.
Amara wanted to make a difference.
She wanted to travel.
She wanted to go to the university.
She wanted to have a little apartment someday where she would decorate everything herself.
She wanted a dog.
She wanted to learn how to drive.
She wanted to stop being afraid of failing.
She wanted to be somebody her younger cousins could look up to.
She had plans.
So many plans.
That was important.
Because later,when people talked about her, they talked almost all exclusively of what happened to her.
They forgot what she had wanted to become.
Before she became a story she was a person.
And she was in love.
Or at least, she thought she was.
Gerald was her boyfriend.
They were the kind of couple everyone knew about.
Not because they were perfect.
They weren't.
They argued over silly things.
Daniel sometimes took too long to reply to messages.
Amara would swear she wasn't angry.
Daniel would say, " You're angry."
She would say, " I'm not. "
" You haven't looked at me for twenty minutes."
" I'm concentrating."
" On what? "
" Not talking to you."
He would laugh.
She would try not to smile.
Then she would eventually give in.
They were teenagers trying to figure out what love meant.
Gerald loved her.
At least, that was what everyone believed.
And Amara loved him.
That was never really in question.
Gerald's closest friend was Ethan.
The two boys had been friends for years.
They played together.
studied together.
Got into trouble together.
Ethan was the person Gerald trusted the most.
Amara knew him because of Gerald she didn't consider him a closed friend.
But she trusted him because Gerald trusted him.
That distinction would matter much later.
Much more than anyone could have imagined.
The Friday everything changed started normally.
The school had been noisy all day because students were preparing for the weekend.
There were rumours about an upcoming events.
Teachers were giving last minute assignments.
Someone had stolen a teacher's marker.
Someone was claiming they had seen a ghost in one of the empty classroom.
It was a normal school nonsense.
Amara spent most of the afternoon with Sade.
They were sitting outside their classroom when Gerald approached.
" You're ignoring me."
Amara didn't look up from her notebook.
" Am I ? "
" Yes. "
" interesting."
" I've called you three times. "
" And I've ignored you three times."
Gerald shook his head
" Why? "
" Because you're ignoring me."
" I haven't even done anything."
" Exactly."
Sade burst into laughing.
Gerald looked at her.
" Don't encourage her."
" I'm not."
" you're laughing."
" I laugh at everything."
Amara finally looked up.
" You see? she understands me. "
Gerald smiled.
" Can I talk to you."
" About? "
" You."
She raised an eyebrow.
" That's suspicious."
" just come."
She stood.
" Fine."
Sade watched them walk away.
"You two are embarrassing." she shouted.
Amara turned around.
" You're jealous."
" Of what? "
" My happiness."
Sade laughed.
" Go away! "
Amara laughed too.
It was such an ordinary moment.
That was what made rembering it painful.
Because nobody knew it would become one of the last time they saw her laughing like that.
That evening a small gathering was held at the home of one of the students.
It wasn't an official school event.
There were students there
Music.
Food.
Laughter.
The Kind of gathering teenagers consider harmless.
Amara went with Sade.
Gerald was there.
Ethan was there too.
For a while, everything was normal.
Amara took pictures with Sade.
She complained about the music.
She told food from Sade's plate.
She complained.
She laughed.
Later, she told Sade she was going to
find Gerald.
Sade nodded.
" Don't disappear."
" I won't. "
" I'm serious."
" I know."
That was the last normal conversation
Sade had with her that night.
What happened afterwards became the subject of allegation that would divide the entire school.
Amara later told people that Ethan had assaulted her.
Ethan denied it.
There were no cameras that could have simply settled the matter.
No perfect recording.
No single piece of evidence that made people stop arguing.
There were statements.
There were accounts.
There were inconsistencies.
There were things people remembered differently.
And because there wasn't an immediate, simple answer, people began creating their own versions.
Amara told Sade.
Sade believed her.
She didn't ask Amara why she had gone upstairs.
She didn't ask why she hadn't screamed.
Sade held her hands.
" We'll figure it out."
And for a moment Amara believed her.
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