CHAPTER 5: THE SECRECT REVEAL

The air felt very hot and heavy inside the classroom, I could barely keep my eyes open during the double period of accounting. The teacher's voice sounded like it was coming from far away and I was having a headache. I tried to swallow but my mouth was too dry and my stomach was hurting so bad.

I had not been able to eat a single bite of porridge for three day and tiredness was finally catching up with my body.

"Psst, look at the stalker," a loud whisper came from the row next to me and it was Marcus. "She probably ran out of cheap love to write!"

The girl around them laughed softly. I grabbed the edge of the desk and I tried to keep myself together but then, the teacher walked past my desk and the smell of her strong perfume makes me dizzy. I stood up fast , wanting to ask to go to the bathroom and I fainted.

The last thing I heard was the loud noise of chairs moving and a lot of panicked screams. When I opened my eyes I was Iying on the floor and the bright light above were blinding. A crowd of students stood in circle around me, staring at me and the accounting teacher was kneeling by my side, hitting my face gently with her hand.

"Chloe! Chloe, can you hear me? "Stay still, don't try to get up, someone go get the reciptionist right now"! The teacher said. 

I moved my head to another side, my face pressing against the dusty floor and I saw Julian. He was standing near the door and his hands were on his pocket. He just stood there watching me in the crowd and he didn't look worried and he did not even looked scared, he just watched me lie there on the floor like he never knew me.

When he noticed that I was looking at him, he slowly turned his head away and crossed his arm and leaned against the wall. He didn't care if I lived or died, all he care about was to protect his scholarship. 

A moment later, two staff men help me to get up and carried me to the sickbay near the reception office. I lay there and I was shivering so badly even though the room was warm. The school secretary sat at the desk near the door, holding her phone.

"Hello, is this Chloe's mother?"

"This is Oakridge high school calling, your daughter Chloe has fainted in class, you have to come and fetch her right now.. she is not well enough to take a taxi home."

 My mother was at work by that time and for her to leave in the middle of the working hours meant that she would have to face Julian's mother. She would lose her transport money for the day and risk getting shouted at for leaving her job. A moment later, my mother arrived and she was still wearing her domestic worker uniform and she was breathing heavily and her face was covered in sweat.

"Chloe my child!" She cried out rushing to the side of the bed.

She began to check my temperature and she looked into my eyes. "What happened? they told me you just fell into the floor." 

"I am okay mama, I just got too dizzy," I whispered.

"She need to go to the doctor, this is not normal exam stress.... take her to the local clinic down the road, we cannot keep her here like this," the secretary interrupted.

My mother didn't answer, she just nodded and help me sit, wrapping her on my wrist arms to help me stand up. The walk to the clinic was a total nightmare but she didn't ask any question. When we reached the clinic, the waiting room was full, we sat on a plastic bench for three hours. 

"Chloe Mokoena!" The nurse shouted from the doorway.

My mother stood up, helping me to stand up too.

"Sit down," the nurse said. "What is the problem?"

"She fainted at school today," my mother explained. "She has not been eating for weeks now, every morning she is always sick in the bathroom and I thought is was just stress for grade 12."

The nurse stopped writing and she slowly raised her head, looking at my pale face and then she looked at my hands.

"How old are you Chloe?" The nurse asked.

"Seventeen," I whispered.

"Alright, go behind the cloth and take off your clothes from the waist down and climb into the bed, I need to check you... mama, please wait right here," the nurse said reaching for a gloves.

I walked behind the cloth, my legs shaking so badly and I could barely undo the buttons of my tunic and lay down on the bed, there was no longer hiding. After a few minutes the nurse pulled her gloves off.

"Mama," the nurse said. "Your daughter is not sick because of school stress.... she is pregnant and I can feel the baby's heartbeat and she is twelve weeks along."

My mother did not cry or scream, she slowly stood up from the chair and her eyes were full of anger and heartbreak.

"Twelve weeks?" she whispered. "Twelve weeks, Chloe?" "You have been carrying this inside you for three months while I was suffering for you so that you can be able to buy your uniform?"

"Mama, please I'm sorry," I said grabbing her hand.

"Don't touch me!" "I warned you, didn't I? I knelt before you and I begged you to look at my life.... I told you what men do to girls like you and yet you went ahead and threw your future into the mud for a boy!"

"Mama, please calm down... this is the clinic," the nurse said.

"No, you don't understand... this girl was my only hope and I let myself to be treated like a dog at work every single day , just so she could have a certificate, look at her... she is just like the rest."

Every single word she spoke hit deeper than any knife, she was not just mad but also broken. Her pride, years of hard work and her her dreams for my future had smashed in front of her face.

"Who is the boy?' "Tell me his name right now... who did this to you." 

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