GOD'S CURSE

Chapter 2

"Jesus!" Screamed my mom as I shot past her on the stairs. "Morning Mommy!" I called out grabbing my bag on the kitchen counter and running out. "Bye Mommy!" I added slamming the door shut. I was late and the 04 would show up any second. I was actually pretty lucky to live close to the station because, if I wasn't super early, I was always super late. I ran all the way to the station, minding the slippery grass which was coated with dew. I always took the shortcut to the station, because if I didn't, it would've taken me the whole day to go around such a widely dispersed neighborhood. This was the thing about Suurbekom. Everyone took shortcuts because it was too dispersed to use the roads, only cars and seriously dumb people did that. I reached the station breathless and was relieved to hear the train faintly whistling in the distance. I made it I thought buckling my shoes, which I had no time to buckle at home. My white socks were stained a little from running through the wet dirty grass, nothing a little folding wouldn't fix.

I loved going to a girl's highschool, but the rules were absolutely outrageous at times. Our uniform was one of the things I loved. We wore white shirts and socks, navy woolen jerseys or pullovers. We wore navy skirts or a Scottish dress with the school colors. We only wore grey trousers in winter, one of the bad rules. The other awesome thing was that we were safe from the harsh teasings of boys.

The ride to school was the usual sad hiding and almost falling asleep, but I knew better or I would wake up miles away from my destination, God knows I didn't even have a train ticket with me. That's another thing about me and the people around me, mostly the school kids. We never bought tickets unless we got arrested, which I can proudly say hadn't happened to me since I started using the train. At first I would buy a monthly ticket, then I learned how much money I could save by just following everyone else's strategy, so I stopped buying it and got more pocket money. I did let my Mom know though, but she just looked at me and shook her head. I'd bet a million dollars that she's waiting for me to call and say I have been arrested, just so she can say "Cheaters never win".

Today I didn't wait for Mona and Brianna because they were walking too slow and my head was aching so hard, I had to get to school or I would faint. This feeling was very much familiar because it had been occurring since Tasha's birthday. Maybe I had eaten something with pork in it, I was allergic to pork. But whenever I ate pork, the allergic reactions would be swollen tonsils and vomiting for a week, and this had lasted for way longer than a week. If I had been dating and going that far, I'd think I was pregnant. I hurried to the hole we all used to enter and leave the station without tickets. Sometimes the ticket examiners would be there, and we would have to get off at the next station and walk all the way back, or we would get arrested.

I darted through the dusty hole and headed to school. When I reached the gates, I realised that only one car was parked in the teachers' parking lot, so I had some time to use the toilet. The toilets were sometimes very pleasant, but that was sometimes. I headed straight for the mirror to apply some lip gloss on my lips. I was a little surprised to see that my lips looked a little smaller, but I hadn't observed myself too hard for too long. I struck some poses and flashed a smile, even my teeth looked whiter. My toothpaste obviously isn't a ripoff I thought smiling wider. I quickly slipped into one of the cubicles and relieved myself, which wouldn't be very polite to go into details.

When I went to class, there were still at least ten learners and I was pissed because I was beginning to regret coming to school. Every time we wrote tests for each term, the class attendance was below zero. I was suspecting that we would be the only ones around today, it meant that we would be free for the rest of the day.

My lunch would be the usual, a chicken burger. It usually went with the little sachet's of zoom. Usually, I'd have to wait for Tasha in line because she loved Bunny chows, and the line was always long. Everything at our school needed us to line-up. The bathroom (except in the morning); the cafeteria; going in the school gates when you're late; going out of the school gates after school; buying lunch...the list went on. Since Tasha went away, I tried to find an excuse to be alone. Many of my classmates had made gestures to put me under their wings, but I knew better. Being the one on top of the A-list, everyone wanted to be my friend. But of course, who wants friends who want you to write their homework?

I always went back to class and hopefully had my lunch in peace, praying that the lunch hour would end quickly so no one would notice my solo ride. Usually, someone would stop at my desk and crack some lame joke, but I didn't have the heart to shake them off. That would end with them spending the rest of the lunch with me.....

School for me was always pretty much....neutral, not positive, nor negative. Sometimes I would wake up cheery and looking forward to school, then suddenly, it would be all ruined by some dumb s**t.