A/N: I wanna thank the few stragglers who got around to reading and reviewing my story lol. It really does mean a lot to me, and I appreciate it, and even that little bit keeps me inspired to keep writing.

~Naza


At New Horizons Junior High School near The District of Administration, it wasn't at all clear if the boy was trying to end his life that day on the overpass.

One report linked Rodrigo to New Horizons, saying he lives "just around the corner" from the school, but did not publish his name. Yet, on the social media websites and accounts across Corneria City, his name was spreading like a wildfire. Rodrigo's classmates posted folded hand emojis besides messages encouraging each other to #keephiminprayer.

The school was the kind that parents move to be near: low poverty rates, high test scores, and a challenging curriculum. For the 986 seventh graders in Rodrigo's class, that meant learning about sexual education, calculating algebraic equations, and reading The Great Catsby.

The curriculum also included extensive discussions about mental health. What once might have been relegated to a lesson or two has flourished into a rigorous preventive plan: students are taught the signs, symptoms and stigmas of things like depression. They are screened for mental health issues, and parents have access to training on how to watch for those signs in their children. They can text a twenty-four hour crisis line that will immediately identify them as Corneria City School District students.

Preventative efforts like these are appearing in schools all over, fueled by social media pressures, grueling academic expectations, and a suicide rate for kids that have been rising for minors ten and above for years.

In the Corneria City suburbs, there has been one or more highly-publicized student suicides nearly every year for the past decade. Basketball players. Valedictorians. Soldier Scouts. At Crestmere Senior High School, located a few miles from New Horizons Junior High, ten students have intentionally died by their own hand in the past seven years.

In response to all this, the Corneria City School District opened up a same-day walk-in mental health clinic for minors. It began training librarians, EMTs, and religious group leaders on warning signs and what to do about them. The school system created and annual mental health awareness conference, touting sessions on "mindfulness" and "self-care" and "fostering resilience."

However, when faced with a real, highly publicized mental health crisis with deadly consequences, the community was unwilling to make a move.

The school system had sent its middle and junior high schools a letter they could share with parents, but they were not required to do so, a spokesman said:

"...The safety and security of our pupils are always our main concern,"

the letter said,

"and in light of local news events, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge our students and thank them for the many ways they are actively caring for each other. Looking out for one another's safety is in everyone's best interest. In any emergency situation, students experience a variety of reactions at different times, some needing very little support, others requiring much more. It is important to know that resources and support are available…"

The spokesman would not disclose whether Dr. Pamela Bowden, the principal of New Horizons Junior High, where Rodrigo attended school, had sent the letter out. And Dr. Bowden had declined to comment to media outlets as per how the school reacted. Beyond the letter, there were no Corneria City School District official, including the superintendent and school board members, had made any public comment on what took place.

According to the president of the New Horizons Parent-Teacher association, they had good reason for their decision: Rodrigo had not purposefully leapt from the overpass, she said.

Elizabeth Bradwood said that Bowden had informed her of the boy's fall, and it was not a suicide attempt.

"The family and the young man, they both said it was an accident," Bradwood said. "And the school also shares that opinion.

Media accounts purporting that Rodrigo had tried to end his life, and she said that those accounts had been devastating to him and his family.

What happened, she said, was that Rodrigo was riding his bike across the overpass when he dropped his phone. He reached down to retrieve it and flipped over the guardrail.

I'm not at all angry, but I don't believe that for a second.

This version of the narrative was not accepted by the Corneria City PD or District Attorney Violetta Frost, Corneria City's lead prosecutor. She also said that there would be no charges pressed against the boy, as no actual crime had occurred. But she felt obligated to find out why the boy was at the overpass.

Frost said:

"We wanted to make sure that someone was not assaulting or bullying him, and if anyone downstream was somehow at fault, we wanted to find out on the behalf of the victim in the case."

Rodrigo's family would not allow him to be interviewed. The prosecutor suspected his relatives were just trying to protect him. She couldn't compel them to answer any questions or seek mental health treatment for the boy, but investigators did obtain warrants for his cellphone and laptop.

They could not find anything.

A few months after the overpass incident, he returned to school. He was on crutches, but no one, none of his classmates, brought up his injuries or how he'd gotten them. It was like nothing ever happened.