Bee Mine

Friday: An hour before lunch

Eleanor was annoyed, and it was not because she was in an hour block of Biology with Mr Mavhaire, nor was it the impending punishment awaiting her at lunch. Her life was in shambles due to Arundel High's main social event: the Honey, Bee Mine dance.

A wave of disappointment washed over her as she remembered her last conversation with Matthew Pugh. Her grandmother, Winnie Cole, had introduced her to Matthew the minute she landed in Zimbabwe. Matthew was a year older than Eleanor. In addition, he played cricket, hiked, and he spoke a lot about animal conservatories. Eleanor liked Matthew well enough. However, most days, she found herself mesmerised by his bright blue eyes and counting the minutes until she saw his wonderful smile.

Eleanor initially thought she was going with Shamiso Guvheyi (her only friend) to the dance, but when Shamiso got swept off her feet with pink roses it got her thinking of a possible replacement. The idea scared her.

It was in the middle of that week when she finally garnered enough courage to ask him as her date (under the guise that Winnie had ordered it). His words caught her off-guard, "I'm sorry El..." But before he could finish his explanation, Eleanor retreated in her shell with a mountain of unintelligible words and an awkward goodbye. He was kind enough to give her space, so she never bothered to talk to him, and she swore off going.

Unfortunately, Winnie was not amused by Eleanor's mood swings and the two had gotten into a row about it.

"I told you! I'm not going, so you should cut your losses, old lady and let me be!"

"Eleanor, I assume you've forgotten my rule. If it's a school event, then it's a must to go. You might as well sulk now and smile tomorrow because Matt's mom invited us for a shopping spree." No sooner did Winnie leave her granddaughter's room did Eleanor click the roof of her mouth and scroll through her social media. Most of the people in her class were posting pictures of their dates and short clips of their proposals. This fuelled her anger more, and her fingers accidentally landed on Matthew's page.

There were a handful of pictures of Matthew with his friends from his school and at his father's ranch. One post caught her eye; Zoe (a prefect from her school whom she had taken a dislike to) had her hands wrapped around his torso with words written, "Bee Mine." She went to bed and slept as if her death wish had come true.

That Friday when she arrived at school, ridiculous amounts of cartoonish posters of honey bees haunted her everywhere. From the car park, bathroom stalls and even the Biology lab. A cardboard cutout of a bubbly bee was propped over the decomposing snake tank opposite her seat.

"As we all know, the dance is this Saturday..."

The soft-spoken voice of Mr Mavhaire got drowned out by the high pitched squeals of the girls in class. Eleanor rolled her eyes and sighed. Only a few minutes left until the class session was over. She placed her pen down next to her notebook, and she scanned over a doodled page. If she was lucky, Shamiso might lend her book for the weekend to copy notes.

When the agitated man finally gained control of the class, he continued to say, "I have a few words to say. Here at Arundel, we have our annual tradition of celebrating World Honey bee day because of the importance of bees in our ecosystem. So when you're dancing tomorrow, don't forget to honour the bees." The blaring bell rang signifying the beginning of lunch, and Eleanor zoomed out the door.