Behind the Scenes of Life

Chapter 5

Holiday wasn’t that much of a joy as it used to be. It was tedious and long. All I did was eat, read and write. My poetry book was pretty much full and I had to start a new on.  Also my birthday was coming up in April. It fell on a Monday which meant that I had extra physics. What a beautiful way to spend one’s birthday. I was so desperately awaiting the start of school so that I could speak to Kina and get more information. It felt like trying to squeeze water out of a rock.

The class I always looked forward going to was Accounting. Hearing Kina speak about ‘mystery guy’ made me feel better. It was my closure and I could live on that.

Kina didn’t seem to understand how much it meant to me to hear about whatever she had to tell me. Or rather not tell me. It made me smile, genuinely and it was like my life source in a way. My lifeline.

On the first day of school we had Accounting first period. It was just my luck. As I walked in the classroom I gave Kina a grin. It was my chance to grin at her now. I went to my desk and took my seat next to her. Art was already sitting on her seat.

“So guys, how was the holiday?” I asked them.

Kina clearly wasn’t expecting me to ask that.

“It was fine I guess.” Kina answered.

“I saw Asavela in the holiday. We were sitting on the stoop together one day watching the sun set and it was sooo nice. He’s so sweet.” Art said with a smile.

The girl was completely in love and I was completely jealous. Why couldn’t I get a guy to like me and not be ashamed about it or something stupid like that.

Kina and Art then proceeded to have a conversation in Xhosa and Zulu. Art was speaking a variant of Xhosa and Kina was speaking Zulu. Since I couldn’t speak either I couldn’t tell the difference between the two languages. The only languages I could speak were Afrikaans and English. I had a Spanish learning programme, but my Spanish was limited to the basics. One of my greatest achievements was being able to say the Spanish alphabet. I bored my friends by saying it over and over.

Art was constantly poking me as she used her entire body to explain something to Kina. I think she forgot it was me next to her and not Kina.

When Kina and Art laughed at something, I laughed with them even though I had no clue what the joke was. I just wanted to laugh okay.

I was patiently waiting for them to stop speaking so that I could have my chance speaking to Kina. It became clear after a while that they weren’t planning to stop talking anytime soon.

“Art you’re speaking too much. Do your homework.” I said to her.

“Hê wena, you must do your work.”

“Yes even me, I’m work.” Kina added in a typical black accent that she could do so well.

I laughed.  I loved it when she spoke like that.

“You see neh,” Kina continued, “Yesterday I’m go to shop and I’m but some cake neh. They say I’m must play rand 67 and I’m say, ‘Do I’m look mad?’ Rand 67 for a small cake? Hmm-hmm,” she shook her head, “I’m say never.”

Both of us bursted out laughing. We laughed until the tears came pouring out of our eyes. We had to be quiet though as we didn’t want to attract the attention of Mrs Hynz.

“Kina,” came Kerry’s voice from behind us. She and Janitha sat next to each other in the row behind us.

Kina turned around to face Kerry.

“Did you debit Trading stock by number nine or did you credit it?”

“It depends if it increased or not. If it did then you credit it. Just check because I’m not doing the homework now.”