"You're going to make me do bad things to you, sweetheart." | Frank Rider is the new teacher. His favourite word is 'detention'. He's iniquitous, rude and vicious. To get on his bad side would be suicide. Unfortunately for Cleo, she's already dived...
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CHAPTER XLV
News spread of Yuma's death. Within the first hour of the school day, students faked grief to get out of their classes, were sent to the nurse who soon had an office full of malicious and mischievous teenagers. Gossipers told of how Yuma had been sacrificed by her twin to their lord and saviour, the devil himself. I overheard many speculations over her death: she was a victim of her violent twin's jealousy, she'd actually killed herself (although this was fast disproven by the police chief who sent out a statement telling of a suspect already in custody), and the most favoured theory: there was a killer on the loose, a student, a classmate. Shifty eyes were drawn to trusted friends, lame students with no social life donned magnifying glasses and notepads, eager to solve the mystery and find some relevance in their lives. Teachers attempted to control the masses but by lunchtime panic and hysteria had spread like the flu and her murder/suicide was all anyone could talk about. The braver students, dared on by their snickering friends, bounced up to Oran, prodding and poking her with incessant and relentless questions on her twin's death. Winnie and I watched as Oran barked out a curse word, slamming her locker shut to laughter and barging her way through a crowd. She caught my eye, twisted her expression into loathing and continued on her march down the crowded corridor that parted like the red sea for her. She was a glory item; a freak at a circus; an attraction (the only time anyone would take interest in her). Mirthful students eyed her like she was a prize, a meat, a new target for bullies, and I enjoyed every taunt and ridicule, and only further encouraged it with entertainments of Oran being the brute, the slasher, the bastard killer.
It was great.
Winnie sympathised as she searched her locker for her folder of her assignments, "I can't imagine what the poor thing is going through, how terrible for her to lose her twin. They were so close. She must be heartbroken."
"Weirdly close, don't you think so? Always attached at the hip, same clothes, same hairstyle. Freaks of nature. They creeped me out."
Winnie threw me a surprised, inquisitive look, raising an eyebrow. "Wow, that's so unlike you, Cleo. You sound pissed off."
"Maybe I am," I raised my water bottle to my mouth, took a large mouthful, swallowed and said, "you don't think they acted weird? Whatever they had going on wasn't sisterly. It was... foul and indecent. Their entire existence is detestable, nauseating. Their mother was raped by their father. She bore twins she couldn't take care of so she ran off and was later discovered dead in a rundown motel. Their father is a drunken bastard with heavy fists. They live in a swamp of their own filth. It's not right."
Winnie closed her locker, slung her backpack over her shoulder and said with a grimace. "I don't believe in what you're implying, they've had a bad upbringing. Their mother left. Their dad is abusive so they turned to each other. Nothing romantic or sexual or sleazy between them. They were each other's coping methods. They're bullied and beaten at school. They have nowhere safe to go except in each other's company. It's a sad story. They haven't been shown kindness to by anyone. They're treated like they're not worthy of any compassion. And now one of them is dead. And if anyone needs further proof of humanity's downfall, just take a look at how Oran is treated with everyone knowing about Yuma's death. We're a deplorable species." Winnie pulled out her earphones and began untangling the mess of wires and said to me, tone hard, gaze cast away. "I'm going to go to the library. I need to print out my assignments again."
