The Addicted Girl

                                                                                      Prologue

This story is about a small girl named Sunakshi Ramaswami, from a small town called Barshi, Maharashtra. Sunakshi comes from a middle class Brahmin family, the proud daughter of Mr.  Ramaswami T.K. who serves as a manager in one of the renowned banks, and Mrs.Sumathi Ramaswami who is a housewife. Sunakshi was one of the brightest students of her school, loved by her friends and adored by teachers.  She was engaged in all activities and was the best out going student of her batch. Her teachers were also expecting a rank from her for the 12^th board exams.

                                                                                                1.

Sunakshi was rubbing her eyes. She was unable to sleep, thinking about the day that she has to face. It was not a normal day, because her board exam results were about to be announced one of the worst nightmares of every student. It was 6 am in the morning and she woke up from her bed, and went to her mom who was waiting for her with a cup of coffee. Her mom knew how tensed she was that morning so she thought a coffee might cheer her up. She was pacing up and down her house. The newspaper headlined “CBSE RESULTS TODAY” made her more tensed. On the previous day, her AIEEE results (All India Engineering Entrance Examination) was announced and she had made a pretty good score. Clock struck 8 am. And Sunakshi knew that it was time for her results. She went to her room and switched on her personal computer. She got into the site where a text box that was labelled “Roll no”, she entered her roll no as per on her hall ticket and clicked on the submit button. The screen displayed her marks. Her face lit up when she saw it. She took a paper and jotted it down.   Her calculation showed that she had scored 95% which lit her face up even more. She ran towards her mother with the piece of paper in her hand. Her mother gave her a kiss on her forehead told her “I am really proud of u, my dear”. The day went pretty good for her.  There were many phone calls and guests frequently visiting her house to congratulate her.

Sunakshi became the heroine of her small town as she ranked top in the city. Everybody was proud of her. Her parents, even more proud because she was able to make it into one of the most prestigious colleges for civil engineering. The college was famous as many of the famous architects were made by that college.  Even thought she was happy that her dreams were coming true, it also made her sad that she had to be away from her parents for a while.

On the morning of the joining date of Sunakshi’s college, her parents came to drop her off. Sunakshi was very happy that her parents came. She dropped her luggage off at the hostel and went to the college which was at a short distance. Her father accompanied to help her with her luggage. Sunakshi entered her class room. The doorways were guarded by the teachers as they were protecting the students from their seniors who were very eager to see their juniors. Sunakshi’s parents went back after making themselves assured of their daughter’s safety. Sunakshi was very happy with her new college and on the first day itself she was able to make a friend. Sreelakshmi, who sat beside her, was the first person she met. They introduced themselves and much to Sunakshi’s surprise, Sreelakshmi was in the same room as Sunakshi. It made her very happy.

The day went by, Sunakshi and Sreelakshmi went to their rooms in the hostel. They were really happy, thinking that they were sharing the same room. When they entered the room with their luggage they noticed two other girls unpacking their bags. When the girls saw Sunakshi and Sreelakshmi they stopped their packing and introduced themselves to Sunakshi and Sreelakshmi. Their names were Neethu and Ananya. Sunakshi had noticed them during the lunch break. They had also taken up civil engineering.

Neethu, Ananya, Sreelakshmi and Sunakshi became best friends. As Sunakshi was the brightest  

among them, she used to help her friends in doing their home work and in their studies. Everybody loved Sunakshi even though her lovable character which made many jealous of her. Teachers loved her, and for Neethu, Ananya and Sreelakshmi she was their cuddly friend. One year had passed and as usual Sunakshi was topper in class.

One morning Sunakshi was alone in her hostel room as her friends had gone to visit their respective home. She noticed a pin protruding from Neethu’s bed. She went to the bed and pulled the needle so that her friend Neethu won’t get hurt when she jumps into the bed. To her surprise, the needle ended with a syringe, which made her hands and legs shake.

                                                                                        2.

Sunakshi called her best friends when she spotted the syringe in Neethu’s bed .Sreelakshmi and Ananya was surprise to hear it. Next day Sreelakshmi and Ananya came early in the morning to their room to meet Sunakshi. Sunakshi was able to find empty drug bottles near her bed. Sreelakshmi and Ananya were shocked to hear that their dearest friend was a drug addict. They waited for Neethu.

                When Neethu entered the room with a big smile on her face, she saw her syringe and drug bottles on their study table, her smile didn’t stay long on her face and regret took over her face. Sunakshi was asking her several questions “How did you get it?”, “How long have you been using it?,   “How did these things enter  the hostel ?” .Many questions were placed in front of her. Neethu was sad that her friends had found out her big secret.  Tears rolled down from her eyes as she told them that her friend used to supply these drugs and it had been going on for a pretty long time. It was at a party where her friends had persuaded her to try the stuff and later on she got addicted to it. She tried to stop it but it was too late. When Sunakshi and others heard about it, they were sorry for her. Sunakshi patted her on the shoulder and said to her “Your secret is safe with us”. Neethu’s smile came back to her face. Sreelakshmi didn’t agree to what Sunakshi said, but Neethu’s smile had eased her too.

                                                                               

                                                                                3.

It was Sunakshi’s birthday the coming weekend and her friends planned to have a surprise birthday party.  Sreelakshmi was the event manager and she took care of all the decorations and invitations. Ananya and Neethu took care of the cake. On the day of the party, Sreelakshmi had asked their mess staff and warden for their permission to conduct it. When Neethu and Ananya arrived with cake, the mess was decorated and ready for the party. The cake was placed in the centre of the hall so that everybody could see it when the birthday girl cut the cake. Neethu and her friends had skipped their afternoon session for this party without the knowledge of Sunakshi. Guests started to arrive and they were waiting for Sunakshi. Sunakshi had some PowerPoint presentation to be submitted so she was getting late.

                When Sunakshi entered the mess hall everybody in the room shouted “SURPRISE” to a shocked Sunakshi. Sunakshi’s friend brought her to the cake and gave her a knife so that Sunakshi could cut the cake after blowing out the candles. Candles were blown and cake got divided among their friends. Sunakshi was running towards the wash place because her face was full of cake.           

                Everybody was back in their rooms and Sunakshi and her friends were sitting on their respective beds recollecting the party. Neethu asked a question to their friends which made them think. Neethu was asking them to take some drugs so that the night can be one to remember. Everybody gave her a “No”, but Neethu’s gloomy face made them say “Yes”. Neethu was happy to hear it. She took a box from her bag where the syringe and drugs were placed. The girls got little startled when they saw the syringe. Neethu filled the syringe with the drug and asked “Who is the first to try it?”. Everybody pointed the birthday girl. Birthday girl was pretty startled in seeing the syringe. Neethu tied a tube like thread on her hand and inserted the needle. There was a small pain but the pain did not stay long. Sreelakshmi and Ananya were so eager to try it when they saw Sunakshi’s face.

                                Next day when everybody woke up they were happy that they had tried the drug and the feeling made the girls want to have more.

                                                                                                4.

Girls had been skipping their classes frequently and calls of their parents were not answered, which made the parents a little tensed about them

Sunakshi was alone in her room when she woke up. She felt like having some more of the drug. When she looked for her friends, the room was empty. On Neethu’s bed, there laid a drug bottle. Sunakshi took the drug and pierced the syringe needle and sucked the entire drug into the bottle. She took the syringe and pierced into her right elbow. She felt the same feeling and went back to her bed. When Neethu and the gang arrived after their breakfast, to Neethu’s surprise, Sunakshi was still sleeping. Neethu got a bit tensed when she noticed the empty bottle lying on the floor. Neethu’s heart beat started to rise. Neethu caught hold of Sunakshi’s hand and checked her pulse. Neethu turned to her friends with tears on her eyes.

Neethu, Sreelakshmi and Ananya were packing their bags and cleaning their room simultaneously. They vacated their room in 5 minutes and were out of the hostel.

                                                                                                5.

When warden came to know about the dead body in his hostel, he rushed to the phone and dialled ‘100’ and called Sunakshi’s parents. Police arrived on the scene and they understood that it was due to over usage of drugs. Warden informed the police that her friends were missing from the hostel. When her parents arrived, her mother was crying when she saw Sunakshi’s body. Her once proud father was crying because Sunakshi was no more. One of policemen told her father that the body should be taken for post-mortem.

                Their parents were not able to bear the loss of their daughter. DRUGS had made Sunakshi’s body cold. She could have become one of the best citizens of our country if it wasn’t for DRUGS

                                                                                “SAY NO TO DRUGS”