“I hope Song’s not in trouble,” Sbu said.
Airtime shook his head. “Nah, it’s probably some prize for best computer student or whatever. You know what she’s like with the awards.”
Lebo interrupted. “Sbu! I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” She was with Yankee.
Sbu frowned at seeing Yankee again. He wished the guy would just back off and leave his sister alone. “Hey Lebo, what’s up?”
“Yankee’s been checking out the chat sites and it’s not just photos of Mpho going around,” Lebo said.
“Aight, so I looked into it, ya dig,” Yankee explained. “There’s this group of cats who trade pics. Mostly stuff they find online, but also pics they’ve taken of chicks from school, usually without them knowing about it, mara sometimes they’ll go direct and try and pressure a girl into posing for ’em.”
Sbu was struck by a terrible thought. “Not of you though, Lebo?”
“No,” Lebo rolled her eyes at her big brother. “At least I don’t think so. Unless one of those creepy little perverts took a cellphone pic up my skirt while I was going up the stairs.”
Yankee continued, “I reported some of the pics and got them taken down, but a lot of the chat sites don’t care what you post.”
“So that photo of Mpho is out there forever?”
“Even if we could get it taken off every chat site in the world, people might still have it on their phones.” Yankee said. “The good news is I tracked down the guy who seems to be in charge. His user name is Hektikboi. He posts a lot of photographs of girls from schools in the area.”
“Is it this Anathi guy?” Airtime asked.
“I’m guessing so. We don’t have any proof, but Hektikboi was the one who posted the pictures of Mpho and we know Anathi took them.”
Sbu thought about it. “It’s got to be the same guy who sent Song all those dodgy photos this morning.”
Airtime put on his wrestling match commentator voice. “And in the competition for world’s dodgiest loser perve of all time, it’s Aaaaaaaaaanathi!”
“It’s not funny, Airtime,” Lebo said. “Imagine someone took a photo of you like that.”
“With my hairy legs? Sies man, Lebo. They’d die of shock.” He got serious. “Aight, I’m sorry, I know it’s not a joke mara he clearly is the dodgiest loser perve of all time.”
“I just feel sorry for the girls he’s photographed,” Sbu said. “Have you seen Mpho today? Is she okay?”
Lebo looked around the schoolyard. “I don’t know. She hasn’t arrived yet.”
Image: Austin Moody, CC-BY-NC-SA
WHAT DO YOU THINK: Are the photos that Hektikboi and his friends collecting just harmless fun – boys being boys? How do you think it affects the girls in the photos, especially when they were taken without their knowledge or permission? Does it affect the way Hektikboi and his friends relate to girls?