The Secrets We Hold

Chapter 1

"It seems like Talia's in... a slump, of sorts." Headmaster Ravensworth told Talia's parents. Talia rolled her eyes. The hell kind of name is Ravensworth anyways?

"A slump." Talia's mother said. "What do you mean?" her voice entering Talia's left ear.

"Have her grades slipped?" Her father's voice enters her right ear. Headmaster Ravensworth sighs.

"Luckily, Miss Martin brought this to my attention before it got out of hand, in the past three weeks, Talia hasn't been handing in any of her homework, which is usually done to the highest standards, falling asleep in class, and not eating properly. She also slipped on her Further Maths exam, a little bit, but enough to cause concern. It's concerning not only her teachers, but myself." Talia rolled her eyes. Ravensworth didn't care about her slump. She cared about the appearance of the Academy, and if a scholarship student looked burnt out, that was definitely bad.

"Headmaster Ravensworth," her mother began, after giving Talia a sympathetic look. "We, as a family have had a rough month, it would be wonderful if the school could be considerate of the toll this is taking on our 16 year old daughter." It was such a demanding tone of her barrister mother that even Ravensworth paused. 

"Of course," Ravensworth said. "We are considerate of your personal life, we at Aurora Academy only want the best for Talia, for her to excel in her academics, as she did before she joined us as a scholarship student."

"And yet," her father began. "You've done nothing to quell the racism my daughter has faced from day one of sixth form. Need I remind you of this school's record?" If I was Ravensworth, I'd be pissing myself, Talia thought, not envious of the woman who was up against her business oriented father and law enforcing mother. 

"Mr. Rahman, I assure you all years of the academy are being taught to unlearn any unconscious bias-"

"Unconscious bias? What a joke. Okay," her father interjected. "We will be taking her home now. Come on Talia." Talia did as her Baba said and stood up, careful to not look enthusiastic about missing school, her mother followed after and Ravensworth gave a polite dismissal, her voice tight from her failure to address Talia's issues. 

Talia wasn't too sure what was going on with her either. Rue thinks its a trauma response and perfectly normal, but Talia just felt...stuck, in the same moment, slumped against the wall in her house. She wanted to move on, but how could you? Its not every day your sister gets committed to an asylum because she thinks she's a vampire. 

"Baba?" Talia said, looking at her father, a tall man with a big Pakistani nose and tanned skin, his mouth hiding behind his bushy moustache. "I need to get some stuff from my locker." He nodded and said that her mum and him would wait in the car. Talia trekked the halls towards her locker, hearing the whispers wondering whether she was insane too, if her sister Mina really had bottles of animal blood in her mini fridge, if Talia had burned herself the same way Mina did. She brushed it off, hoping Mina's reputation wouldn't follow their family around forever and reached her locker. 

"Talia!" she heard Rue's voice. She looked to her left and saw her curly haired friend running towards her. "You're leaving?" Talia nodded, looking at Rue, a tall, also Pakistani girl with beautiful long brown curls, Rue's face was something of wonder, Talia had always wondered why her friend hadn't bothered to pursue modelling, but instead kept the question to herself, knowing Rue's ambitions were deeper than being on the cover of magazines.