Karabo told Isla in infinite detail all about William’s strange arrival: the enormous father, Mr BS’s weirdness about it all, and her basketball game with William and Buzz that morning. Just as she was finishing, one of the other four boarders in their room walked in.

‘Hey guys,’ said Jess, dumping her bags and immediately rummaging through them. ‘I’m going down to the pool. Haven’t swum all week and I’m going crazy. Coach is going to freak when I tell her that I didn’t touch a water polo ball during midterm break at all!’

Karabo and Isla took advantage of Jess’s distraction, mumbling vague responses while making big eyes at each other. The rain had stopped, and they decided they would go down to the beach and sit on the dunes just before dinner.

On the dunes, Isla and Karabo looked out across the Indian Ocean. The waves crashed loudly on the rocks and sand below. The late afternoon light reflected off the receding grey clouds and made the green of the mountains and shrubs come alive. Isla pointed out a ship on the horizon. Its lights winked at them across the sea.

Their discussion had moved from William to Mzi, who Isla adored. He was tall, well-built and looked like he had stepped off a catwalk. He also happened to be head boy, rugby captain and not bad academically. He was possibly the most amazing person at their school, according to Isla. Of course, he never spoke more than a few words to Isla, but that was OK. She got to stare at him as much as she liked on the sports fields.

The girls chatted about the upcoming rugby derby. Their archrival school was going to host this year, so the whole of Dayeton College was required to traipse off to St Joseph’s and watch rugby matches – of varying degrees of quality. It was always a long and exhausting day, especially in a school uniform and blazer – but it was well worth it when it came to the big match at the end of the day, when the Grade 12s played. The girls were so involved in their discussion, trying to remember the names of the St. Joseph’s boys, that they didn’t see or hear William coming up behind them. He was almost on top of them before they realised he was there. He seemed surprised to bump into someone on the beach.

‘William!’ said Karabo, ‘What are you doing here?’ she asked.

‘Just walking,’ he said, hiding his surprise quickly.

‘OK, well this is my friend Isla,’ said Karabo, introducing Isla. William’s green eyes scanned Isla up and down. He smiled at her with just the one side of his mouth, as though his scan had found her good enough to smile at.

His manner and appraisal of her looks annoyed Isla instantly. She didn’t care if he was gorgeous or not, he was a creep in her mind. Who did he think he was, looking at her like that?

‘Hi!’ said Isla, her tongue sharp. ‘Let’s go back Karabz,’ she said, grabbing the unsuspecting Karabo and dragging her back to the main building.

‘Not a nice guy,’ she said to Karabo. ‘Can’t believe he looked me up and down like that! You may not like him Karabz. Seriously, he is yuck!’ insisted Isla.

Karabo laughed quietly. She loved Isla’s ferocity. In one instant she could make up her mind about William and cast him aside, because he had looked at Isla in the wrong way. She did have to admit though: William hadn’t looked at her like that when they had met. Maybe he didn’t find her as attractive as Isla?

The rest of the evening passed by uneventfully and Karabo managed to avoid Tiff, now that she had Isla as protection. She did notice that William didn’t make it back for dinner. She wondered if he was still at the beach in the dark? As they all climbed into bed, talk of the rugby derby was brought up again, and all four girls in the dorm felt a surge of excitement about the event. Only two weeks left and counting.

***

Tell us: What do you think William is up to?