Behind the Scenes of Life

Chapter 7

Thursday mornings meant extra math. I arrived about seven minutes to seven for the seven ‘o clock class. The class was already open and some were already sitting by desks. None of my friends had arrived yet though. I went to the row by the window that was also in front of the desk where Mrs Hysmen, the extra math teacher stood. She really put maths into perspective and I found that she actually helped when it came to math. I could always rely on the extra math class.

The row consisted of two desks next to each other, one behind the other. I sat in the third row by the desk nearest the window. I gave myself something to do by taking out my book and pencil case.

A few short minutes later, Chace entered the class. When he saw me, he smiled and walked over to me. He took a seat by the desk next to me.

“Morning.” He greeted.

“Evening.” I smiled.

“What time did you get here?” He asked.

“Shortly before you did.”

“You’re always early.”

“Not always, but rather early than late right?”

He grinned. “Rather late than never.”

My mind was so preoccupied that I had completely forgotten about the English orals being done that day. Of course it was unprepared so there was no way that I could prepare, but I still hadn’t prepared myself mentally for it. Mr Steyn made us pull topics out of a bowl and we had a minute to prepare it and then we had to speak in front of the class about our topic. The topic that I had gotten was hip-hop and at the instant that I had to speak about it, all I could do was laugh for half the time that I needed to speak. Chace was partly to blame for it as he too was laughing. We were the only two laughing in the class while I was supposed to be doing my oral. Oh well. I told my friends all about it during break.

“Did you really laugh?” Art asked me.

I nodded. “I couldn’t help it.”

“I told you Chace was a bad influence. He should’ve stood up and helped you with your topic. Then the two of you could’ve done a duet oral.”

I laughed. “Art a duet oral? Do you even get something like that?”

“You should.”

“Yeah well, I am afraid to tell you that ‘duet orals’ only happen in movies.”

“That’s too bad.” Art took her yogurt out of her blazer pocket and after opening it, proceeded to eat it. Art almost always had a yogurt.

“So did you guys start studying yet?” Kerry asked no one in particular.

“Ooh don’t remind me. The term just started and it’s nearly exams again. This school doesn’t give you time to recover.” I remarked.

I always tried to get myself to study beforehand, but I never could. I always ended up studying the weekend before, if not the day before. That again was just me and I couldn’t help it.

Tisha arrived at that moment and joined the rest of the group. She had been at the library first.

“Hey Tisha.” Meg greeted her.

Tisha waved back.

“How do you like South Africa so far?” Meg asked her now.

“It very nice.”

“And here aren’t any wild animals roaming the streets like you thought.” Kerry chirped.

 “I did not think that.” Tisha replied honestly. “Some people in Korea do think that.”