A Dark Destiny

Chapter 5

A week had passed since the day of the little incident in the Science lab. And unfortunately, I hadn't entered for the writing competition. I think it was better this way because as much as I could recall of that day, a lot had happened that I needed to get my mind off things and worrying about the writing competition was the least of my problems. Besides, I didn't want what happened in the science lab to happen to Brenda if I were to meet her face to face. Who knows, maybe her head might burst into flames too if I looked at her for too long. Anyway, I decided that I would enter the writing competition next year.

Many people found it surprising that I hadn't entered the competition. Whenever some asked me the reason why, I would just shrug my shoulders and say that I didn't know what to write for the competition. That was partly true. But the good side of me thought it was best to stay out of the competition after what Brenda did. I didn't want to cause much of a problem with my teachers and in the past week, I tried my best not to get too close to Brenda. Whenever I saw her coming, I would either go a different direction or when I pass by her, I made sure to avoid eye contact.

It was a Thursday and just as we were done with our first three morning periods of learning, it was break time.

"Are you coming for break?" Christine asked when everyone else in class was now heading out.

"I'm fine, I don't feel very hungry," I replied.

"Okay. You'll end up starving before lunch. Don't you want anything to drink?"

"Maybe juice will be fine. Do you know where my juice bottle is?"

"I know. I'm your bunk mate after all."

I smiled at her and she also did the same. She went out with Amanda and I remained in class with two of my other classmates. Tina, the class monitor who already had her snacks packed in her bag, quickly left the classroom before any prefect showed up because they didn't allow eating in class. So that left me with Matilda, who was drawing like she always does during her spare time.

I got an exercise book from my bag where I usually wrote my stories. I had to admit, ever since the writing competition fiasco, I was more at ease with myself that I continued writing my pending story soon afterwards. I realised that my ideas for the story flowed more smoothly. It looked like I was better off writing things out of my own free will rather than someone telling me to write something that I'm not really prepared for, except for writing composition during English class. That was a must because it was school work. And also like the way the writing competition came to be. I wasn't really ready for it and I was glad that I didn't take part in it. Who knows what I would have written. I told myself to be more prepared for it next time.

I was going through a story I started writing about a girl who grew up with her grandmother and her parents had died mysteriously from what people considered to be an accident. I was making some corrections since I just started writing the story yesterday when Matilda who sat in the column to the roll on my right side but in the same column as I was, called out to me. I turned to look at her.

She looked at me, and then she went on to look behind me towards the windows on the other side of the classroom. I turned to the window and who I saw walking down the corridor made the hair at the back of my neck stand.

Brenda was walking on the corridor, and this time, she wasn't alone. She came with two of her friends, Leah and Bwalya. She had a peep into the classroom through the window and when her eyes locked with mine, a huge smile came all over her face like she had just won the jackpot. Goodness, she had finally got me cornered after all this while. It looked like she couldn't wait to get her hands on me like I was some kind of rare prize. So much for staying out of sight from her, but I had to admit, at least I managed to stay away from her for as long as I could.