“Sue?” Dumi’s father repeated. “You mean take us to court?”

“Yes,” Miss Majola brushed a tear off her cheek. “I’m sorry. I’ve been crying since I woke up. I can understand where he’s coming from, you see. He says it’s bad enough that Dumi’s held him up to ridicule, but he can take it. He’s used to being in the public eye. It’s me he’s worried about, and how this is going to damage me as a teacher.”

“I tried telling him not to worry, but then …” She stopped and drew a deep breath, “then we started seeing the captions people were adding to the picture. And the comments. Some of the things they wrote…” Dumi saw a pink blush staining her creamy brown cheeks. “Well they were pretty bad. That was when Vuyi really lost it. ‘There have to be consequences,’ he kept saying. ‘Boys like Dumi shouldn’t get away with this sort of thing’.”

Miss Majola looked at Dumi and tried to smile. “I told him you weren’t like that, Dumi, that I didn’t think you were responsible – not for everything – but he wouldn’t listen.”

“I’m sorry,” Dumi said. “I’m really sorry Miss Majola. Please, I’ll do anything to make it up to you. Just tell me what you want me to do.”

Miss Majola rubbed her face with her hands. “The thing is,” she said, “I don’t think there’s much we can do now. I said I was going to find it hard to teach your class today, especially some of the boys … you know what I mean?”

Dumi nodded miserably.

“And that’s when he went into action. ‘They’re not going to get away with this!’ he said. Next thing I knew he was on the phone to someone in his rugby team’s management. Someone who knows all about the legal side of things.

“He’s taking it to court, Dumi,” Miss Majola said, “and nothing I can say will make him change his mind. He’s talking about suing your family for damages. Thousands of rands. He says this sort of thing can’t keep happening; it’s about time someone was taught a lesson.”

Dumi looked at Miss Majola silently. He couldn’t blame her boyfriend. If someone had done this to Alexa, wouldn’t he be leaping to her defence? All Vuyisile Gaba cared about was how this made Miss Majola feel, not how he had been made to look. He must be quite a guy. And Dumi had leapt to conclusions about him, lumping him with the wannabe sports stars in his class, just because he had abs like a superhero.

“I’m so sorry, Dumi,” Miss Majola was saying. “I keep trying to explain that you’re just not that sort of kid, but he’s not in the mood to listen to reason.”

“Before we go any further,” Mr Allan said, “I need to establish some facts. He walked over to his desk and consulted a sheet of paper. “Dumi, the first thing I need to know is: are you responsible for this?”

Dumi looked up. No, he wanted to say. All I did was share a photo with a friend. Luke Owen and his merry bunch of asswipes are responsible for the whole Facebook fiasco. But he couldn’t say that. Because he knew, deep down, it wasn’t true. He had created that picture, and if he hadn’t done that, none of this would have happened. It would be good if Luke was here to take some of the blame, but Dumi knew that that wasn’t about to happen.

Mr Allan was looking at him expectantly.

“Ye–” he started to say, but before he could finish the word, Uncle Mivuyo stepped in.

“Before we go any further,” he said, “I would also like to consider a few matters.”

Just then there was a knock at the door.

“Who is it?” Mr Allan called out impatiently. There was a muffled response from the other side and Mr Allan strode to the door and opened it.

Alexa stood there, her face pale but determined. “May I come in Sir?” she asked.

“Not now, Miss Conradie. As you can see, I am in the middle of a parents’ meeting.”

“Well, sir, that’s just it.” Alexa stepped forward. “You see, Dumi’s a good friend of mine and I have information which I believe is very important.”

“Alexa,” Dumi said, “don’t.”

But Uncle Mivuyo put up his hand.

“I think we should listen to Miss Conradie,” he said. “Dumi needs all the help he can get in this matter.”

“It’s not Dumi’s fault, Miss, honestly it’s not.” Alexa spoke directly to Miss Majola. “I sent him the photo of you and your boyfriend. I said I thought you made a cute couple … and then …”

“Alexa,” Dumi said. “Stop.”

But Alexa didn’t listen. “I said something about your boyfriend, Miss,” she said. “Here, maybe you should all read this.” She held out her phone and Uncle Mivuyo took it from her.

He read out the text messages and when he had finished there was silence in the room.

“The thing is,” Alexa said shyly, “I think Dumi likes me, Miss. And he didn’t like it when I made comments about your boyfriend.”

***

Tell us what you think: Can jealousy make people do things they would normally not do? If so, what kinds of things?