The following day Jaden woke up and prepared for school. As he was busy preparing, he called his mother from the other room while she was preparing for work.
“Mom!”
His mother rushed in the room.
“Yes, what’s wrong my boy?”
“I just wanted a morning kiss from my mother,” Jaden said pulling a puppy face.
“Come here, my boy,” she kissed him on the cheek.
Jaden treasured his mother and she loved him, he was the only son.
Jaden then arrived at school and found himself in the principal’s office.
“Good morning Mr Johnson. Welcome to our school.” The principal said.
“Thank you sir!”
He sat at the office till Mr Mokwena come in to collect him. He followed Mr Mokwena to his new class.
“Good morning class. This is Jaden Johnson. He’s new to our school so please be nice to him.” Mr Mokwena introduced him. “Please take a seat.”
Jaden had a choice to sit with a group of girls or a boy who was sitting on his own. He chose to sit with the boy. The girls were already giving him eyes. He wasn’t sure if they thought he was cute or it was because he was the only coloured boy in the school.
“Sho!” Jaden said, greeting the boy he was sitting next to.
“Hey!” the boy greeted back.
“I’m Jaden. You are?”
“Itumeleng, you can call me Itu.”
“Oh cool! You hardly speak, hey?”
“Yeah, I’m kind of shy.” Itu said, looking back at his book on the table.
At lunch time the tuckshop was packed. Jaden could not stand the crowd, especially being new, so he asked Itu to buy for him.
“Bruh! Could you get in there and get me Toppers and Sprite?”
“No problem dude.”
Jaden handed him a R20 note. The two of them quickly became friends when they discovered that they had more in common than they realised. They both went back to class and arrived a little bit late. They got punished for it.
“Eish, punished on my first day.” Jaden moaned.
“Welcome to the hell hole.” Itu smiled.
*****
A few months later Jaden finally made a move on Tshego but she said she would think about it. Jaden was chilling in his bedroom when he decided to give Tshego a call.
“Hey,” he greeted.
“Hey, how are you?”
“I’m fine thanks. Have you thought about what I said?” he got to the point.
“About that…we can’t date.”
“Oh… alright, it’s cool. I’m kinda hurt but I get it.”
“I’m sorry…”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll be alright. Hey, I’ll see you around,”
“Goodbye Jaden.” Tshego said in a low voice as they hung up.
Jaden was crushed but he wasn’t going to let it get the better of him. He went to Itu’s house and they played video games. But Itu noticed that Jaden was not being himself.
“Yo, bro? Are you OK?” Itu asked.
“Nah man, not really.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Tshego,” he sighed.
“Not gonna date you, huh?”
“Yeah, she won’t,”
“I’m sorry bro, that’s her loss,”
“It’s cool man.”
They left it at that and continued playing. They played until it was time for Jaden to go home. When he got home he found his parents having supper.
“Evening.” He mumbled.
“What time is it?” his mom asked. Jaden checked his phone. It was 8:30. “Why are you home so late?”
Jaden ignored the question and went straight to his bed.
***
Tell us what you think: Why do you think Tshego didn’t want to date Jaden?