A few months went by, and Nothando’s friendship with her new friends grew stronger. She became best friends with Lulu and formed a great partnership out of their friendship. They liked each other very much, but one wall stood between them: Nothando liked church and always tried to force Lulu to join her every Sunday, but as an atheist, Lulu always refused. That, then, became Nothando’s weekly goal, to get Lulu go to church with her.

In the morning, Nothando went to the teachers’ staff room to submit a Biology assignment Ma’am Zulu had given them.

“Nothando, I’m very surprised with your performance,” Ma’am Ngcobo said. “I marked your previous test, and you beat the whole class, including Lulu. I’m confident that soon you’ll give her a hard time.”

“Thank you very much ma’am, I’ll study even harder,” Nothando said, then she ran to class feeling very excited and, at the same time, planning for her third term examinations.

Later that day, during the school break, the friends sat together feeling bored.

“Hey guys, I haven’t heard any of you talk about having a girlfriend or boyfriend,” Clement said. “What’s going on? Are you all playing the solitude game?”

“Well, do you have something you want to tell us, ‘handsome guy’?” Thami joked.

“I’m just saying, maybe a love story can lift up the boredom,” Clement said.

“I do want to date someone, but most of the boys in school aren’t my type,” Nothando said.

“I’ve had my eye on someone special,” Lulu said. “If he knew how much I loved him, he wouldn’t even fall asleep thinking about me.”

Thami’s heart warmed up as Lulu spoke those words.

“Wow! So who won queen Khumalo’s heart?” Clement asked.

“We’ve known each other for a long time. I keep looking at him every day, wishing he would feel the same. But as for his name, it’s mine to keep. My love song for the dreams I share with him,” Lulu said, and Thami melted even worse.

“What about you, Samson?” Clement asked.

“I love my books,” Samson replied.

Thami just kept quiet, dazzled by Lulu’s statement.

Later that day, Nothando bumped into Thami, who was sitting on a bench behind her class during break time. He seemed to have a lot in his mind, and he looked at her with a desperate eyes.

“Nothando, can we have a talk?” Thami said.

“Yeah?” Nthando replied.

“I need to ask you for a favour.”

“Shoot.”

“I’m crushing on Lulu, and I need you to put in a good word for me with her,” Thami said.

Nothando smiled. “I’m shocked, so you’re the one she was talking about?”

“I am,” Thami said. “I mean, we’ve known each other since standard two, together with Samson, that is.”

“And you started loving her long ago?” Nothando asked surprised.

“I couldn’t find the right person to tell about my love for her,” Thami said. “I mean, I even got shocked to hear she feels the same way.”

“But Thami, she’s the right person. It’s better if she hears the truth about your love for her from you. But I’ll tell her, and if you’re her fearless knight, trust me, she’ll love it.”

Lulu came from inside the class and went to the window which both Thami and Nothando were sitting under. She overheard their conversation, and hid from them in order to hear more.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Thami said.

“I think I’ll go for Samson since you’ve chosen yourself a queen,” Nothando joked.

“What?” Lulu silently asked herself.

“You won’t win him over his books,” Thami smiled.

“I have my own methods of taming people,” Nothando said while putting her hands on her chin. “Besides, he’s kind’a cute. I wouldn’t mind playing Romeo and Juliet with him.”

“You like him?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Well, we keep dreaming all day, but we don’t get to bring those dreams to reality,” Thami said.

“Mxm, that’s the sad part of our lives,” Nothando said, letting out a sigh.

“That’s not going to happen,” Lulu said to herself, huffing away with a crossed face while Thando and Thami continued with their conversation.

Later that day, Lulu lay at home on her bed, and she had been in thought and weeping for a while. “What’s wrong with Nothando?” she thought to herself. “She’s been in school for five minutes, and now she thinks she can have everything she wants. I swear on my life, nobody has the right to take Samson away from me. That’s the last thing anyone will do, and she’s the last person to dare try.”

While Lulu was thinking, her grandmother came in with a tray of food. “Lulu, you haven’t eaten since you came back,” she said.

“I’m not hungry,” Lulu responded.

“What’s wrong my child?” Lulu’s grandmother asked. “You know you can tell me anything.”

Before answering, Lulu rolled her red, watery eyes and rested on her lap. “What do you do gogo?” she said. “What do you do when you introduce someone to your group with the hope of making a new friend, but that same person, on her first day, takes your chair? Afterwards, she starts surpassing you? But after all that, she isn’t satisfied and goes on wanting to take the one person who resides in your heart away from you.”

“My dear, are you a little bit bitten by jealousy?”

“Who’s side are you on gogo!?” Lulu asked.

“Okay, calm down,” Gogo responded. “Well, my child, in my opinion, I would erase the threat in the group. Without the threat, you’ll restore everything you lost.”

Gogo’s words sparked a dark idea in Lulu. So, she wiped away her tears and got her boots on.

“Where are you going?” her grandmother asked.

“Somewhere very important,” Lulu responded.

“What about your food?”

“I’ll be back,” Lulu said, then went away.

“Teenagers,” Lulu’s grandmother said, disapproving Lulu’s actions.

Tell us: What do you think Lulu is planning to do?