A Beautiful Mess.

14.

I left the class crossing paths with Senzo who had a somewhat ashamed look on his face. He must've thought I'd look down on him or something after the conversation I'd just heard. Fortunately for him I'm not like everyone else in this school.

"What was that about?" Mak asked. I thought about my reply for a moment. Thinking to myself if I should tell Mak but knowing that if I told him he would probably use it to spite him. It was quite obvious that Mak didn't like him. Plus it wasn't my business so I had no business telling Mak.

"Nothing important, he was just talking about how badly I did in today's spot test" I lied, well I wouldn't call it a lie entirely, I mean he did mention my bad performance in today's spot test. "Let's go, I'm sure Sindi is growing impatient wherever she is"

I found Sindi waiting for me in the parking lot, impatient as I predicted.

"Wow, thanks for making me wait...and then, the blazer?"

"Its Mak's"

"Why?"

"Sindi I don't want to talk about it okay, I've just had a bad day"

"Hay' ke...what you want to eat, I'm not in the mood to cook today"

"Whatever you want Sindi, I'm not really feeling anything"

"Geez, moody much. I wonder what happened to you"

***
Thursday.

Today Mrs Dladla was absent so we had to go to subs for history and we were stuck with Mr Tau as our substitute. He read aloud the work that Mrs Dladla had left for us to do but no one did it and instead everyone got into little groups and started having conversations amongst themselves. Even though we were told that if we did not complete the work it would be homework due the next day the class still didn't care. We already had our excuse in place when she asked why the homework was not done...'What homework Ma'am?'...that was always our go to but it only worked if everyone cooperated . It takes a lot of persuasion to convince the 'goodie two shoes' of the class to not do the homework but fortunately our class has expert negotiators, me being one of them.

I sat and read my book alone in the back corner of the classroom whilst eating biscuits I had 'stolen' from Mak. Being completely transported by the book I was reading, I was in a different world, one that was peaceful. I enjoyed being by myself and treasured every minute I got being alone. It was all sunshine and clear skies until a cloud came and rained on my day. Cassie the most annoying person in class because she was a snitch and an absolute loner, and yes I admit I'm a loner but in a cool way because it's by choice, her type of lonely is just sad, came to sit next to me. Out of everyone here she choose to come and intrude my peace.

She started telling me about her upcoming trip to Italy with her family and how excited she was to be going but I honestly felt like she just came to brag to me all about these things because I haven't even been 1 cm out of the country.

I was very bored and tried to ignore her and keep reading but she slapped the book shut. I was honestly ready to slap her there and then but I restrained myself. I wouldn't want to be in two fights in one week.

"Hey, Cassie vay'(go)" Senzo said as he pulled a chair to sit next to me.

"Excuse me" Cassie replied, clearly confused by Senzo's words.

"Cassie go, I want to talk to Melo"

"Since when are you and Melo friends"

"Since forever now leave I want to discuss something with her"

"What"

"None of your business Cassie now go"

"Argh" and then finally she left.

I gave Senzo a look clearly wondering what he wanted to talk to me about.

"Aren't you going to say thank you" he said

"For what"

"For me helping you out of your misery, I could tell from your facial expression that you were annoyed, you're not that good at hiding your emotions. Like now I know you were both annoyed and confused by what I just said"

"I was going to ask you why you were looking at me but you know what that's not important right now. What brings you here Senzo?"

"I wanted to discuss something with you"

At this point I was getting a bit irritated because he was not getting straight to the point. I could tell he was trying to drag the conversation.

"What? If it's about yesterday don't worry I didn't tell anyone and I don't plan on telling anyone because it's not my place to"

"Okay that's one thing I wanted to talk about so thank you for that but I actually want to apologize for what happened yesterday with Nonhle"

"You already apologized remember"

"Well I didn't get a chance to do it personally obviously 'cause your boyfriend was there"

"Can you stop calling Mak my boyfriend"

"Okay, my bad..."

He then looked a bit nervous and not the usual confident self that he was and I could tell he was nervous because he was twiddling his thumbs. Yes I'm observant like that.

*sighs* "There's something else I want to talk about. Since you heard my conversation with Mr Neilson yesterday and you know what's going on and how he mentioned you and all of that stuff I actually came to ask for your assistance"

"You want my assistance"

"Yes, I wanted to ask you if you were willing to help me study you know so that I can get my marks up in time to play the semifinals, I can pay you, you just name the price. I just need someone to help me study...Please I need this"

Seeing Senzo vulnerable like this was an unfamiliar sight to me. This must really mean a lot to him, I mean it sure did take a lot. Thinking about spending more time with Senzo sounded like something that would add to my problems but also if I didn't do this then he would lose something important to him. I knew right then that I wouldn't have a reply for him immediately and told him I would text him later on that day with my decision.

This was a decision that was going to take up a lot of energy and time and I needed to think through whether or not I would have the time. I mean I already have a lot on my plate, school, work and public speaking, would I be able to handle all of that while helping Senzo study.

I got home, sat on the sofa and thought of ways in which I could make this work. Drafting my schedule in my head, looking at my busy days and my chill days I tried to think of how I could somehow fit in tutoring Senzo while having time for myself. I then thought of pricing and seeing that I'm actually a good student and that Senzo's family had money I thought that it was only fair to charge a high fee, I mean I don't come cheap. Plus I would need to cover travel costs so it made sense. I took a good while 45 minutes to think about it and I had finally made a decision.

"Hello" Senzo said over the phone.

"Fine I'll do it but it will cost you"