F*** Cancer, This One Did Us All In.

3

I ran into my register class just as the teacher, Mr Wright, called my name.

"Present!" I yelled as I burst through the door, shocking my register class, prefects and Mr Wright. "I am here! Affirmative. You can tick my name off sir." I stepped inside and walked to my seat, sitting down in between Amelia and Mfundo. They were both staring at me but I just looked forward as Mr Wright coughed uncomfortably then continued with the register.

"Where the hell were you?" Amelia hissed at me.

"Well, I wasn't here." I whispered back.

"Really?" Mfundo said, his voice just dripping with sarcasm. "I hadn't noticed."

"Ok, ha, ha. But if you must know, I got into trouble with my mom."

"Oh, you told her about your detention in the morning and she had a complete meltdown, didn't she?" Mfundo said.

"Quiet during registration." Mr Wright said and looked sternly at the class which was talking even louder than the three of us. A few people let out some violent coughs in the small silence. He looked down at papers on his desk and the class continued to talk.

"Maybe." I said.

"You only told her this morning?" Amelia asked. "Why?"

"I thought she wouldn't have enough time to shout at and punish me."

"So are you coming to my house?" Mfundo asked.

"Luckily, yes."

"Damnit!"

I looked at him offended and he said, "Oh I'm not complaining about you coming. It just means Amelia and I still have to wait at the library." I snickered and Mr Wright shushed the class again.

Amelia rolled her eyes and said, "Why am I always the responsible one out of all of us?"

The bell rang before we could answer and we stood up and picked up our bags. We all stood behind our desks and waited for Mr Wright to give us permission to leave, a system, by the way, that I have never understood. The teacher doesn't want us to talk and he will only let us leave once we're silent but if he hated talking so much then why wouldn't he just let us leave his class without us having to wait for him? That would literally be the definition of a win-win. "You may leave." Mr Wright said and we all flooded out of his class.

"Where are you guys at first period?" I asked Mfundo and Amelia.

"What's the day today?" Amelia asked.

"Twenty first of October." Mfundo and I said at the same time.

Amelia rolled her eyes and said, "No, the day not the date."

"Oh. It's Friday." I said.

"Day Ten." Mfundo said.

"Thank you." Amelia said. "We're all at Afrikaans."

Ah, I loved Day Ten. Good to start the day with your friends at the same class.

"Cool, then let's go." I said. We walked to Room 36 where a class was lined outside. We got into the line and joked around until the door opened and the lean figure of Mr Nieuwenhuis stepped out. There was nothing but silence, save for a few coughs, and we all got into a proper line, looking forward. "You guys can come in." he said. We all walk into his classroom. Inside the walls are covered with Afrikaans posters about vergelykings (whatever those are) and naamworde (I swear they made that one up). We walk in and go to the back of the class closest to the corner. The rest of the class files in and stands behind their desks.