“Grace, can you please do the project with me?” Alice said.

“Why has Unathi suddenly become too busy with Pedro to have time for you?” Grace said sarcastically.

“No, but I thought you might like to do it together. But if you have a partner then it’s fine I can work on it alone,” Alice replied.

“Girl, I’m just playing, of course I’ll work on it with you. Have you started yet?” Grace asked.

“Of course I have started,” Alice replied. She could not believe the words that were coming out of her mouth. She had even started lying too. Now I’ve really gone too far, she thought to herself. She now knew that as soon as school was over she would run to the library and start working on it immediately.

“WOW! When they say you’re claver, it’s not for nothing,” Grace added with a smile on her face.

After school Alice went straight to the library and booked a computer and started working on her project. She also did her other homework she had neglected to do that past weekend. The work load had suddenly doubled; she could not believe how far back she had fallen.

When she finally got home after the library was closed, she received a call from Unathi saying that she would be able to make it for the party.

“Why the sudden change of heart, I thought you were busy with Pedro this Saturday?” Alice demanded.

“Yes I was, but Pedro said he will be busy and instead we will meet Friday afternoon,” Unathi said.

“Gosh woman, thank goodness because I didn’t know how I would go by myself,” Alice said with excitement. She felt relieved because all that hard work she had just done seemed to have paid off because now she can go to the party stress free.

“Yeah girl, so I’ll see you tomorrow at school,” Unathi replied.

“Can’t wait, cya,” Alice said before hanging up the phone.

It’s seemed like everything was going according to plan, well everything apart from her wardrobe.

What am I going to wear? she thought to herself. She had never been to a house party or any party for that matter with no parents to supervise. She knew that her wardrobe of jeans and t-shirts would not help and that she would need something more fitting to such an occasion and also something pretty enough to impress Thabo.

The following morning she asked her mother for some money and told her it was for toiletries that she didn’t have.

“Ok, here is R100 and please buy a bath soap for us in the change,” said Beatrice.

“Sure thing mama, bye,” Alice quickly said and dashed off before her mother had anything else to add onto her list.

When she arrived at school Unathi was waiting for her at the Gate.

“Hey girl, so are we ready to party on Saturday?” Alice shouted.

“Yeah, what are you going to wear?” Unathi asked.

“I’ve got some money, so after school we can go and buy something,” Alice replied. If anyone knew fashion, it was Unathi because she always looked great when they had Casual Day at school.

“Of course girlfriend, we can go to China Town, the things there are cheap and nice,” Unathi replied

WOW, can’t believe this is actually happening, Alice thought to herself.

After school Alice and Unathi took a taxi to China Town. Alice was overwhelmed by the different shops and clothes, but one thing was for sure, the clothes were cheap and suddenly the R100 seemed like a lot of money.