Mommy ✓

six

I was also able to exit again without a hitch. The trouble came when it was time to cross the two lines together with my feet.

I blamed it on a lot of factors: it was hot and my school shoes felt heavier than usual, I also didn't know how I was supposed to jump high enough to cross the thing using just my feet and the inevitable happened, I snapped the legusha in half.

“Is this your first game?” Lethabo asked me and I nodded.

“Let her continue playing, it's her first time guys,” Lethabo said and some of the other girls agreed. Despite how many chances I was given, I'd managed to break the legusha three more times when it came for the time to cross it over.

It really wasn't a train smash, I could've easily tied the thing together again where I'd broken it and then I'd have to go back to fila. That was the normal procedure but for some reason, Nozi took that as an opportunity to attack me.

Nozi and Portia were in the same boat. I'd heard that they were two years older than the rest of us and it didn't help that they were the tallest and biggest girls either.

“Doy! Doy! you must fila! You must fila now!” she yelled.

“Yes, I know,” I replied with my eyes a little widened, because I couldn't understand why she was being so aggressive with me.

“Yaz, you are so stupid! You can't even cross a legusha!” she snapped and smacked my hands away from the thread where I'd tried to tie it back together.

She moved right into my personal space, until her face was inches away from mine. She was so close that I could see the sleep dust in the corner of her left eye.

“Every time you're the only one who breaks it! You must be stupid!”

The other girls started to egg her on, entertained with the idea of an altercation. I felt humiliated, especially with this girl shouting down at me and everyone else laughing at me. My lower lip began to tremble and I could feel tears beginning to coat my eyes.

I just wanted to fit in, but that didn't seem possible. This girl would make a big fool out of me and I'd never be able to live it down.

“Why can't you get this right!”

“Hey, hey, hey!” another voice suddenly interrupted. It was one of the coloured girls. She was named Amanda and although she wasn't as intimidating as Portia or Nozi, I found it hard to approach her.

She had long, curly hair tied into a high bun on top of her head and she had the neatest uniform in class. Her shirt was always tucked in, her dungaree was always impeccably pressed and she always looked well-put together for an eight year old.

She was also really smart too and she carried the best princess lunch box. I could only imagine her packed lunches were the best too.

“Who are you to talk about being stupid, Nozipho? Paiten got twenty out of twenty for our multiplication test last week. You got zero because instead of multiplying by six you added six! You are the stupid one. Every day your mother cries real tears because she gave birth to a stupid child!” Amanda yelled.

All of the other girls began to laugh.

Amanda was a tiny thing compared to Nozi, but she didn't back down. The first emotion that ran over me was shock. How did Amanda even know my name? And why was she standing up for me?

“Where do you fit into all of this Amanda? No one was talking to you, we were talking to Paiten,” Portia said and moved to stand near her friend. The girl spoke using her entire body – her arms made large gestures and her lips twisted into a sneer.