The following day at school Alice tried as hard as she could to avoid the subject of what had happened yesterday. As she walked into the classroom, Unathi could not wait to tell her what had happened to her after Alice ran home.

“Girl, you won’t believe what happened to me when you left.”

Unathi filled with enthusiasm, started telling Alice how after she ran home, Pedro came running towards Unathi and asked what was happening. After she had told him, he asked if she could be his partner for the class project since he didn’t have one yet.

“Wait, What? Are you lying to make me feel better or did he really ask you?” Alice responded in disbelief.

“Yeah! He asked me and I literally screamed yes, as if he was asking me to marry him,” Unathi was always one to exaggerate about situations.

“WOW girl, I’m so happy for you”, Alice trying to look excited for her friend.

“We’ll meet at his house next week Saturday to do the project. How cool is that?” Unathi said.

“Totally cool,” Alice replied.

The two of them carried on talking until they saw Grace come running in as if a dog was chasing her.

“Guys, you won’t believe who I saw yesterday!” Grace shouted.

Alice almost felt her heart start beating fast. Oh no, I hope she didn’t see me embracing myself yesterday, she thought to herself.

“Thandokazi,” she shouted.

“Who?” replied Alice; she was not expecting to hear that.

“Thando, my friend from primary school,” Grace said.

“Yeah and so?” Unathi asked rolling her eyes.

“So, I can’t believe she is at this school! Oh you guys should meet her, you’ll really love her,” Grace said trying to ignore Unathi’s cold response.

During the lunch break Grace took the girls to meet Thando and before she could say anything, Unathi and Alice looked at each other in disbelief. “Oh no,” Alice thought loudly.

“Hi guys,” Thando said with confidence.

Grace took the liberty to introduce everyone to Thando. Little did she know Thando was the girl that Unathi and Alice saw get into a taxi with Thabo.

“Hi,” Unathi and Alice replied at the same time.

Grace and Thando went on and on about how they meet in primary school and about how they became friends. Alice was far in her thoughts about who that girl was to Thabo.

“My brother used to attend this school, that’s why my parents thought I should join this year. Apparently it’s a good school or well at least better than my old one,” said Thando. Her voice disrupted Alice’s thoughts and brought her back to reality.

“What… what brother?” Alice asked surprised.

“Yeah, my brother Thabo used to attend this school. I don’t know if you know him because he finished last year,” Thando replied.

Alice could not believe her ears. All this time she thought Thabo was cheating on her with some chick at her school. Unathi gently put her arm on Alice’s shoulder, as if she could hear her heart slowly calming down.

Alice wondered for a while why Thabo never introduced his sister or any other person in his family to her, except of course his mother. Her thoughts were again interrupted by Unathi tapping on her shoulder with excitement. She could not contain it anymore, almost like she was about to blow up like a balloon.

“Look, Pedro just waved at me,” Unathi finally said.

“Gosh! Chill woman,” joked Grace.

“Sweet,” Alice said to Unathi.

“I can’t believe it, I’m so going over there right now,” Unathi said as she started walking in Pedro’s direction.

Grace pulled her back, “Don’t act so desperate, you’ll scare him away.” she said

“Yea, you’re right. Maybe I’ll wait until after school to chat to him,” Unathi replied.

Alice felt a tingle of jealousy float over her. Even Unathi has someone running after her, where is my Thabo? she thought to herself.

The weekend could not come soon enough. Alice was waiting patiently by the phone for Thabo to call about the movie date he had promised her.

The phone finally rang.

“Hello babes,” Thabo said.

“Hey Thabo, how are you?” Alice said trying to sound calm and not too desperate.

“I’m fine, so are you ready to go?” Thabo asked. He always sounded calm and collected on the phone.

“Almost, I’m just getting ready,” Alice said. Little did he know that she was dressed 30 minutes before and had been waiting patiently by the phone.