Nelly walked home after school with Frank Ocean accompanying her via her earphones. She pushes her body through the heavy wind, and her tie flapped like a hero’s cape while she blocked her face with an elbow. It was a clear sky, but the sun’s heat was overpowered by the cold. The coldness was brought by the strong wind that would have blown Nelly away if her weight was matchstick. She pushed through and finally reached a passage that lead to the main road.

There was no concrete in sight except for the road and sideways. It was nothing but an open earth field and some small patches of grass. She suddenly felt like going back to the less windy passage. Waves of dust come to her like a slithering snake, so she turned her back and felt the soil on her body, and some of it hit the face. A small boy who was walking with his mother fell down and started crying, and two guys who were walking together quickly rushed to the passage.

Nelly eventually got home, and the first thing she saw after unlocking the door and swinging it open was Naledi’s brooding face. “I’m hungry,” Naledi said.

“Good day to you too, Naledi,” Nelly said as she took off her glasses. She then took out a cloth from her bag and wiped off the dust from them.

“You missed a spot,” Naledi said.

“Where?” Nelly responded, examining the glasses.

“There,” Naledi responded.

Nelly looked up and saw her sister’s small finger pointed at her face.

“You look like you’ve been bathing with soil,” Naledi said, giggling.

“Shut up,” Nelly responded, pushing her sister on the chest. She felt her small developing nipples while pushing her, and realised that her little sister was growing up.

After a while, Nelly proceeds to the bathroom, where she lowered her face in the basin and turned on the tap to rinse off the annoying dust.

“My stomach is as empty as the brains of your classmates!” Naledi yells from the living room.

“That’s not funny! Try another joke!” Nelly responded.

“How about I try your life? That’s a joke!” Naledi said, laughing to herself, and Nelly grinned with a wet face.

When Nelly was finished washing her face and she was drying it with a towel, she found her little sister jumping on the couches. She then touched her blazer and felt something in it. She took it out, and it was a R10 note. She suddenly looked to the ceiling and held her forehead. She had suffered through that long walk of the cold wind and the dust, meanwhile there was taxi money inside her blazer pocket all along. She had completely forgotten about Thabo.

“Somebody has a boyfriend,” Naledi said, noticing the green note in Nelly’s hand, and pausing from her jumps.

“You’re too young to know such things. Who taught you that word?” Nelly asked.

“No one had to. Some of my classmates have boyfriends,” Naledi responded, shrugging.

“What? Those … thirteen, twelve year olds?” Nelly asked.

“Yep,” Naledi responded, and then she snatched the money from Nelly.

“Hey wena!” Nelly yelled.

“I’m going to buy bread!” Naledi said while running to the door.

***

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