"Then Mrs Zakes knocked on the door and was all like, 'Come out, you two. I know you're in there!'" Rea paused in his story so he could chuckle quietly to himself. He leaned back and stretched his arms up and behind his head, assuming a pose of the most relaxed person in the world. But there was a slight nervousness in his laughter.
Rea was a master of this. When he spoke, everyone listened. Words fluttered out of his mouth in quick, cocky bursts. He was from Botswana, but his parents had sent him to boarding school here in South Africa. He had adopted some kind of American twang in his voice, no doubt in an effort to sound more like the hip-hop artists he admired. He was always trying to be cool, to be "gangster" and to act like he was from the 'hood. The truth is, he was from a wealthy Botswanan family. His father worked for some big diamond mine up there and he lived in a well-to-do, secure estate, where all of the houses looked the same.
"So we just went totally silent, right. Like, we were hoping Mrs Zakes would go away, but she knocked again. Don't know why that bitch couldn't just leave us alone. Maybe she ain't getting any from her husband and that's why she was jealous." (He used words like "ain't" even though nobody else in the country ever does.)
Rea's loyal audience hucked with laughter. It wasn't that funny but I guess it's kind of like when a dog barks just because other dogs are barking; one laughed and the rest followed. Mrs Zakes's husband was a biology teacher at our school, which made Rea's comment all the more amusing. When the last giggles died down, Rea continued his story
"So, we knew we were caught. Ayanda really quickly buttoned up her shirt and school dress but didn't even have time to put her bra back on." His eyes flitted around the faces of those listening to see what reaction this would elicit. He wanted everyone to know for sure that he had gotten Ayanda topless in the school toilet. The reaction was muted. Everyone knew he'd done it before and he had boasted about it then, too. "She chucked her bra into her school bag just as I was opening the door."
The rest of his story was fairly predictable: he and Ayanda pretended they hadn't done anything wrong, Mrs Zakes reported them to the deputy principal and phone calls were made from the school to Rea's parents and Ayanda's grandmother. Ayanda's father was a distant character in her life and her mother, though loving, was simply too preoccupied with making a career for herself in Johannesburg. Rea's parents were deflated, but not really very surprised. Ayanda's grandmother hadn't expected it at all. She apparently had very little to say but I'm pretty sure Ayanda was given a beating when she got home. Zulu parenting is hardcore like that.
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Lerato
Teen FictionLerato is the girl that everyone trusts. She's the one people talk to about their problems and she has kept a lot of secrets for a lot of people. Until now. These are the real-life high school stories that were never meant to get out. *Names have be...