A Beautiful Mess.

23.

Friday.

"You're late" Senzo said as Mak and I approached him. We agreed to meet at the same bench where we met last time to practice our presentation one last time and I brought Mak with me, after much convincing, to be our audience.

"Ready?" I asked and Senzo nodded. I grabbed my cue cards and Mak sat on the bench and faced us. It went well the first time and it flowed. Our body language, tone and clarity was there and I was glad that Senzo took my advice into consideration. But when we practiced it for the last time with the music, the props and our poster we got interrupted by that fly they call  Nonhle.

"No carry on, don't mind me" she insisted as she sat next to Mak. I tried to keep my composure seeing that she was only doing this to throw me off and get a reaction out of me, something that I was not going to give her. We continued to present but Nonhle kept on interrupting us, every chance she got adding her two cents like we asked for it. *rolling my eyes*

"Nonhle, can you leave us to do our thing, you don't even take history so stop acting like you know what's going on. We didn't ask for your two cents."

"Excuse me Melo for trying to be a supportive girlfriend. I'm just trying to make sure that you don't mess this up for my baby. I only want the best for him that's all, isn't that right Zulu babe?"

Senzo scratched his head and pulled Nonhle to the side.

"Glad he pulled her to the side before I pulled her to the ground"

"Melo!", Mak reprimanded and I just shrugged.

We waited for Senzo to finish talking to her and when he was done she kissed her teeth and walked away.

"Sorry about that, she can get a little clingy sometimes"

"A little?" Mak raised an eyebrow.

"Glad you handled it before I did, can we continue now, we've only got a few minutes left before break is over"

"Yeah, oh and about tomorrow, I won't be able to make it.We're going to a family friend's house and there's no way I can get out of it." Senzo explained.

Yes! Thank you Jesus! *sigh of  relief*

***

I felt myself dosing off as the other groups went on with their presentations and almost every single group did their assignment on one figure, Nelson Mandela...How original

I mean hear me out, I don't have anything against Mandela but this is starting to sound like our 'My hero' speeches from grade 4.It's getting a bit much now.

The class applauded as the pair took their seats then Mrs Dladla called Senzo and I up. I connected my phone to the speaker and stood in front of the class.

"Good day class our presentation is going to be about Nelson Mandela" Senzo said.

"Oh great" Mrs Dladla said in a defeated tone as she shook her head.

"I'm joking ma'am, yoh we're better than that" he joked and the class burst out laughing. I signaled Senzo to go outside and to come in when the music started playing. The soundtrack started and Senzo entered the class dancing as he introduced who our presentation would be on. The class cheered in excitement with many not shying away from ukulilizela (ululate).Mrs Dladla even joined in. Senzo really channeled the zulu warrior in him and looked like he was ready to go to war with the spear and shield. The presentation went according to plan and it flowed and throughout our presentation I knew that a distinction was guaranteed. Our presentation was original and entertaining. We got a standing ovation from the class as we went back to our seats and that weird feeling in my chest managed to go away.

"Wow, that was brilliant, well done Senzo and Melokuhle. I think we can all agree that we were transformed to 1800s. I'm really impressed."

"Well what can we say, we had to go all out especially considering I had iskhokho as a partner" Senzo bragged.

This project was actually fun to do especially with Senzo as a partner and I couldn't believe that I actually wanted to do it all on my own. I was glad with how everything turned out and now I had one less thing to worry about. Now all that was left was tomorrow's debate and then I could probably relax afterwards.

"Good work partner" I complimented'

"And you weren't bad yourself"

"Mxm"

***

"Look what I came home with" Sindi announced carrying balloons and a plastic bag which had party platters, cupcakes and drinks. After analysing the bag I quickly thought to myself what the special occasion could be but nothing came into mind.

Her birthday is only in two months...mine has already passed...no anniversaries or pregnancies I'm aware of...boyfriend? nah...promotion? maybe. *shrug*

"What's all this about" I asked.
"This is all for you to celebrate tomorrow's semifinals"
"Yoh Sindi awuna(you don't have) timing tjo"
"What, I'm excited phela, this is the first time I'll actually see you in action and you've worked so hard I mean look at you now, you're still busy, there's no way you guys won't make it to the finals tomorrow, so this is just to celebrate, this is for tomorrow though, after everything"

This was really sweet of Sindi to do this. I mean I get that she's excited and all that but this is just adding more pressure on me to be phenomenal. Tomorrow is so crucial and I don't want to ruin things for the team especially seeing that I'm the newbie. It was really great what she did but at this point we need to keep our possibilities as open because tomorrow's competition was going to be tight and anything could happen.

I smiled and tried to look happy even though deep down I knew that my nerves were shooting through the roof and that I wouldn't be able sleep that night. And seeing that Sindi was finally coming to watch me I didn't want to disappoint her that meant I had to give it my all. I had to give it 160%.