By the time Zandi entered the school gates the siren was ringing. As she walked up the steps to her classroom she passed a group of girls from her grade. Last year they had been her friends, they had sat together at break and shared their lunch, but since her mom had passed something had changed. It wasn’t because of that, because she hadn’t even told them, (she hadn’t told anyone because she didn’t want people to be sorry for her, but also she could not bear talking about it) so she didn’t know what it was. All she knew was that they had become very unfriendly.

“Here she comes again,” she heard one of them say.

“Yoh, just look at that face! You don’t even need to speak to her to know what a bitch she is!”

“That’s for sure chommie, she has the ultimate resting bitch face. I wouldn’t like to bump into her on a dark night!”

They all giggled as they followed her into the classroom.

Zandi sat at her desk and took a deep breath. She felt exhausted and also angry. Even though it was cold in the classroom her face felt burning hot. If there were any bitches in the class it was those girls, not her. She felt tears in her eyes and put her head down, staring at the desk and forcing herself not to cry. Since Mama died her life at school had become a complete hell. It felt as though all the joy and fun had gone out of everything. She had lost her childhood and all her friends. People had given up on her because she could never do anything with them after school. There was no money, and besides she had duties at home now with Andile and Granny.

It was bad enough that home life was so hard, but coming to school and feeling like an outcast was too much. She was starting to think that the best thing would be to drop out of school and try to get bits of piece work. Maybe she could look after some babies or something.

After all this was not a life, this was just survival. No wonder she had a resting bitch face! She knew there was no point telling the girls in her class about her life, they wouldn’t be interested and she didn’t want people to be sorry for her either. No, she would just have to push through, keep everything together, do her best at school and keep hoping for a miracle. At least she had managed to do her homework last night, and she did understand the maths this time which meant she wouldn’t make a fool of herself when Mr Khumalo picked on her as he often did. She was always top of the class in maths. She was tough, she would make it.

At break time Zandi went and sat by herself as usual. No lunch today, but she drank a lot of water in the bathroom and she felt alright. She sat in a small patch of sun trying to reading her set book. The group of bitchy girls from her class were sitting nearby her. She could hear them giggling and felt them staring at her. Zandi kept her head down. She could hear the words “Resting bitch face” so she knew they were talking about her. “Why can’t they leave me alone?” she thought.

At one point she looked up at them. She could feel her face was frowning and her mouth was pulled down. She stared at them angrily, but didn’t say anything.

“Yoh, did you see that?” one of them whispered. “I feel like I’ve been cursed.” “That’s right,” said another, “Maybe she is a witch.”

Tell us: are the other girls being fair?