As I reached my class I looked around for the girl who was nice to me in assembly but she had run off down the hallway to another class. I went in and took the only desk that seemed as lonely as I was. It was slightly apart from the others, near the door. As I sat down and got my books out, the teacher walked in. There was silence. It was Mrs Groenewald. She looked angry already. What could have gone wrong on her first day? It had hardly begun.

Everyone settled down as she got out the register. I hadn’t seen her smile once. She cleared her throat and then started calling out the names. I wasn’t on the list. Was there a mistake? I waited. I didn’t want to look around in case everyone was staring at me.

I got out my Maths textbook and opened my pencil case. I looked up to see Mrs Groenewald frowning at the list like she was trying to make something out. She looked up, straight at me.

“Shwata Maali,” she called out. Nobody responded. “Shawta Maali,” she tried again. Only then did I realise she must have been calling me.

“Chwayita, Miss,” I corrected, wanting to make sure she was reading my name.

“Shwawita Mali,” she said again.

“It’s Chwayita, Miss. Present.”

The students were starting to giggle but Mrs Groenewald didn’t see the funny side of anything. She glared at me. I shouldn’t have corrected her; now she wasn’t happy.

“I don’t know why you people have such hard names. Why don’t you have a simple name like Sarah or Hazel? Now I must spend my period trying to say your name.”

“I’m sorry Miss, but that is my name,” I said nervously. The room erupted.

“We should just call her Hazel, Miss,” said one of the girls in the bitchy group from assembly, staring at me with a nasty smile on her face.

The rest of the class was a blur. I kept my head down and the lesson went on. By the end of the lesson I could already tell who Mrs Groenewald’s new favourites were and I wasn’t among them. But I didn’t care much. I told myself that my marks would speak for themselves.

Mrs Groenewald had given us a Maths quiz. It was the first stage towards the Maths Olympiad. The top three Maths students in each class would then compete against each other. I whizzed through the questions and I knew I would ace it. Maybe she would see me differently then. Maybe she would try a bit harder to pronounce my name.

***

Tell us: Why is Chwayita being treated differently from the other learners? How do you feel about the way she is being treated?