Teenager's Tale
Page 9
CHAPTER THREE
HIGH SCHOOL
Barely two months later, the school calendar commenced and schools opened on the 15th of January. It was Bagomotsi’s fourteenth birthday and it could not have come at a better time. He came to my house that morning to wait for our pickup ride and we were standing by the mirror, wearing our new school uniforms. I just couldn’t believe I was starting Junior High after all; I would soon be living the life. I think you could say the blame is on Hollywood producers yet again for giving high school this feel that just makes everyone want to go there and my few years watching those productions like the famous Grease had also influenced my excitement to some extent.
To give you a little description of my bedroom, it wasn’t anything much apart from any regular guy’s bedroom. On the wall there was my primary school certificate for Best Swimmer of the Year and a few medals from my swimming. Then there were a few pictures of me and my swimming coach, me and my family, me and Bagomotsi at the previous year’s prom and then there was the picture I adored the most: that of me and my childhood sweetheart Esther at her ninth birthday. Every time I looked at it, fresh memories of the good old times came back in a flash. I still thought about her at times but like Neo had said, I had to move on. I had given the issue of dating a thought over the holidays and had come to a decision. My mother came into the bedroom and smiled at us.
‘You boys look like you are about to join the Navy or something and it’s suiting you so very well’
‘Thanks mum’
‘Thanks Mrs. Chidzala’
‘Oh, by the way, I hear it’s your birthday today Bagomotsi. What better day, right?’
‘Yes Mrs. Chidzala, it is’
‘Well then, happy birthday to you my love. Now, I just hope you boys will behave well on your first day as junior school students and keep clean. I’m sure you don’t want those girls looking at you in a disgusted way, do you?’
‘No we don’t and yes mum, we promise to behave at our level best and we’ll keep clean’.
She looked at us for a while and wiped a tear at the corner of her eye. As she hugged us both, she said her last words.
‘It’s so hard to believe you boys were Grade one students just a while back and now you’ve grown to handsome young men. Soon you’ll each be bringing me and Mrs. Moalosi in-laws as well as grandchildren’. We both laughed at this and she kissed us both goodbye and left. She and my dad had not managed to get permission to attend the orientation and so didn’t Bagomotsi’s parents. I turned to Bagomotsi who had turned to the mirror again.
‘This is it Bagomotsi, we are finally in Junior High’
‘Yeah bra, our time has come. This really is it’
‘I mean all those girls, the fun we’ll have, I just can’t wait’ I said with a smile.
I was so happy that morning as I had been waiting for that moment all my life. We would finally have the experience our brothers had had back in the years. I turned to Bagomotsi again to tell him about my decision.
‘I’ve finally given this whole dating thing a thought and I’m going to start dating’. He looked at me and jumped on me.
‘Hey, watch my uniform!’ I said with a laugh. He got off me and hugged me.
‘Now you are thinking Brandon. I always knew you’d get back to your senses one day’ and he hugged me again.
‘Junior High, here we come’ we said at the same time and left my bedroom as soon as we heard the hooter outside.
Soon enough, we were at school and it swarmed with freshmen. Girls and boys chatting and everyone seemed to be just as excited. Junior school was different from primary school. The initial difference could be seen in the buildings and the school itself, even though it was within the same compound as the primary school. Some of our old schoolmates had either shifted to public schools for junior high or had moved to other private schools. There were more students now and the girls! Ok, I was not really the type that was crazy about girls but hey, I was still a guy. First days at a new school should literally be one of the best ever. Beats even the week leading up to a new Marvel Comics™ release! New girls, new teachers, and new this and that: new everything! That was it for us.
The entire Grade eights were supposed to converge in the school hall in an hour for the orientation so while we waited, we were all in the school park catching up with old friends. Everyone was obviously narrating how their holidays had been spent and who they had seen, as well as their expectations for the new phase in their educational and social life. It was an exciting moment until I saw Masego coming our way. I knew that the moment one of them saw the other, Bagomotsi would leave us so I tried to hide him. But I was late as she came over to us and impeded the moment.
‘Hey guys, can I please take him for a minute?’
‘As in an hour or possibly forever’ I said mockingly. She just smiled and took his hand.
‘Hi to you too Brandon’ and they walked away.
Just a few meters away they hugged and shared this rather intimate kiss before sitting down. I had thought that maybe over the holidays, they would lose it for each other but I guessed wrong. They had probably grown even stronger. But then again, it was the boy’s birthday.
‘Bagomotsi is so lucky guys, finding a girl who loves you that much is so hard these days. I wonder how he did it’ said one of our friends, Timothy, as we looked at them.
Introducing my former primary school gang, there were six of us originally but two of the gang couldn’t afford JMS anymore so they were now in public schools. The gang now had me, Bagomotsi, a Kalanga dude named Timothy as well as a guy by the name of Kago. Ever since primary school Kago and Timothy had always been our buddies and when I talk about weird friends, those two were weird friends. Kago was the nerdy type who was always talking about girls even though he had never even approached a girl before, except in class to borrow stationary. I used to be scared of girls but not as much as he was.
Timothy on the other hand talked about nothing but cartoons, even as grown up as we were. The guy watched cartoon channels 24/7, literally. Bagomotsi and I avoided them by all means possible but they always managed to find us. They were a true embarrassment and we had decided that once we get to junior school, we’d get rid of them for good. This might sound a bit wicked but hey, life isn’t fair you know. We just had to get rid of them. We were all grown up; as a grown person, you just have to lose some things.
‘More especially since Masego was such a hard to get in primary’ added Kago.
‘You fool! The girl does not love him, she’s just pretending; can’t you see?’ I said with a frown, sounding like a total loser. What was I saying?
‘And how would you know that?’ asked Timothy.
‘I just do man, it’s obvious’
‘Ooh, someone is jealous’
‘No I’m not’.
Bagomotsi had a girl and I didn’t and she did love him. The fact that he did was one of the reasons why I had decided to date because I hated being the odd one out. It was peer pressure days and I had obviously lost to it. There are so many things that our friends can make us to without realizing it. Your friend may start smoking and you’d eventually do it too, not because they asked you to but just because you feel left out. I think they call it passive peer pressure or something and it had hit me.