*Translations are at the bottom of the chapter
It's 06:45 am when I get to school, I walk up the empty gateway all the way to my empty classroom with nothing but the echoing sound of my footsteps to keep me company. As I go up the stairs my body feels like I'm holding up a truck on my shoulders, even with consuming the banana and yogurt it has done nothing for my energy levels. My book back weighs heavily on my back.
In the classroom I lay on my desk to have a little snooze before school starts, as I close my eyes and start to sink into a peaceful and light slumber, I hear the sound of voices and laughter and I almost scream. I forgot today was Monday and this means the soccer team had had an early morning soccer practice. I quickly sit up and get my school books out to read over them to make it look like I'm busy with work
The whole group of boys, 6, enter the classroom loudly. I page through my English poetry book even though we've yet to go through poetry this term. They ignore me and talk among themselves as they enter and all move to the back of the classroom. This is the worst time of the day because even though they all seem to be minding their own business I feel like they're all there at the back judging me. I sit tensed on my desk staring at my poetry book too scared to move as to not catch their attention.
"Mfethu uEsethu is eeeeeaassyy" says a voice that sounds as dead as I feel, "How many times am I going to tell you, ungajoli naye ngoba nizoqala ukujola umuzwe sesithi angeke akwazi ukukubona ngolwesibili ngoba ubhukhwe yeny' intsizwa" *.1 they all laugh loudly and obnoxiously and I crinkle my nose in disgust knowing it was daVinci who said that, I'd notice his tired ass voice anywhere. He seems to be constantly stuck in the state between waking up and falling asleep. Always dragging his feet on the corridors looking down on everyone with those lazy eyes of his.
If you can imagine the most rude and unnecessary person ever then daVinci is the one that should come first, daVinci's rude to everyone, teachers, upperclassmen, lowerclassmen, his older brother, his younger brothers everyone except for his coach and his mother. He's rude to everyone including me, he seems to regard everyone as roaches and I don't vibe with that kind of attitude and I've made it obvious and now he hates me for it.
I page through the book not wanting to stay stagnant on a single page.
"Look Dusty, what I think you should do is talk to her and tell her you want to get serious, confront her on-." Says a much gentler voice, a voice like feathers and rock, strong but soft. My eyes roll back at its timbre and revel in its deep ness, I sigh with a smile as the only gentleman in the room voices his opinion, Damn somebody throw me in jail
"Yeah maybe she'll slip you in on Wednesdays after uRichard" nails, nails on a chalkboard slowly scratching the hard surface and producing a sound almost as vile as the person it's coming from. I roll my eyes and page through my book again coming up to the poem by Shakespeare and I sigh feeling for the poor old corpse that's gonna be harassed for nth time in this century alone. I decide to actually read through the poem and as expected I understand nothing, it was a sonnet, 14 lines, rhyming capulet and everything, sonnets were my favorite poems not because they speak to me or anything but because they're easier to identify and always guarantee you those two extra marks in almost every poetry test
"We haven't started the poetry section yet, have we?" That rock and feather voice says behind me, I look up to find him standing over me, in all his glory and I can't stop my eyes from getting wider
"Uh- um n-no I'm just going through it for myself" I stutter and hope he doesn't notice, yeah right
"Oh so you like poetry" he says as he starts sitting down next to me and I start to feel hot. And very fucking nervous
"Not really, no" and I curse myself for being too honest,
"Aww, I like poetry" he starts to say
"Yeah I do like some poems, you know the odd one here and there" even though unnoticeable he perks up a little, his dark eyebrow go up a fraction and he leans his body towards me slightly and I pass away
"Really now" he says and I nod "who are your favorite poets?" My breath catches on my throat for a moment and I think back to the poem in front of me, Shakespeare? No that'd be too pretentious, I wrack my head for any poet I can think of and nothing comes up. I have nothing to say, Ronaldo is going to find out I'm a pathetic lying loser and there will be no way of me being able to avenge my worth in his eyes ever again! Luckily I don't have to because daVinci comes up and disrupts our conversation and it's the first time I'm actually grateful for his existence
"Why are you talking to her?" Well that was short lived, I resist the urge to scoff and instead look down almost in embarrassment, I feel Ronaldo's gaze on me and he turns to daVinci
"Stop being rude, I can talk to her if I want to" I look up and smile at him and he smiles back, and again I'm in a sauna because wowee. I make sure to capture that for later when I can't sleep, I'll keep on replaying over and over again until it's so morphed by my memory that you can barely tell who's in it.
"Mxm wena namantombazane" I roll my eyes back, as if Ronaldo would be that kind of person, "ngiphekezekele ndoda ngifuna ukuyo khuluma noCoach" *2 Ronaldo scoffs for me and the butterflies cause chaos in my stomach
"Why do I need to come then?" daVinci stares at Ronaldo uncomprehendingly
"Hawu, ubuzani? asambe mfethu" *3 Ronaldo rolls his eyes and stands up, as they lead out the door he points at me
"Asiqhibanga apha" *4 he says pointing at me and I laugh and wave him off. After he leaves I'm left with the dumbest and widest smile on my face, I lie on my arms to hide it, I smile so much my cheeks start aching
***
Translations
"Bro Esethu is eeeeeaassyy" says a voice that sounds as dead as I feel "How many times am I going to tell you, don't go out with her, cause then you'll start dating and next thing you'll hear is that she can't see you on Tuesdays because she's booked by another guy" *1
"*scoffing sound* you with girls" I roll my eyes back, as if Ronaldo would be that kind of person "come with me I want to go speak with Coach" *2
"Ha? What are you asking? Let's go bro" *3
"We're not done here" *4