The Ill-fated One

as what they ca

er's pillar of strength and support system as the grew older. Although Buhle recognised Pabi as her best fr

ays brought down to her breeches whenever she played with the other kids. She was the one who was always being beaten up in class for crimes she did not commit, whereas Buhl

xpected of her to engage in, and so they took her to the street corner and beat her up, although Buhle came in to the rescue and gave them their fair share of punches. Pabi's nose was bleeding

so you'll never, EVER play on the streets again! If Buhle wants to see you, she'll have to come over for a visit," and stormed out of the room as though she wanted to cry. Pa

d on the floor to pick it up. It was a picture of her and Buhle, their faces shiny with a bottle of Vaseline on the floor where they were seated. Their smiles were idyllic as each one of them seemed to spread a ha

ach just when she reached Natalie's position in

r eyes tightly as though she was e

ad before carrying her heavy weight to sit on the kitchen countertop. Once settled, Pabi s

lie said, touching her baby's English nose and

?" Pabi smiled, revealing her

my

abi got out bed and ran to stick the picture on her

possible to restrain herself from crying. Her knees were sore and had trails of blood on them, and her once blue skirt was now muddy brown.

rrived at school. Ebukhosini high school it was called,

e grade eight leaners asked her friend. Pabi and Buhle joined the

, retrieving a flip file and paging through its pocket files. "So l brought it along." She scooped it out and show

?" she asked in irony a

long it took them to get here and thinking about how late Pabi would be i

turn with those papers. You'll find me in class," she wi

the money and shoved it in he

the hiding on her bare skin. The other kids were terrified, huddled up in the corner of the room, their faces pale, looking on in

was just hyperventilating now, with dried up tears on either side of her eyes. The teacher threw her across the room and she crashed on the wall, dropping to the ground and cl

acks!" she shouted as the kids melted fr

●●

h sweat. It was too late for the gates to be opened. It was alr

ked, his face emotionless. He was

xtensions?" his dead voice echoed in P

of scissors. He came towards the gate, and without

ap off, or go

and teased Pabi at how funny she looked, and that a koala bear had nothing on her looks, escorted Pabi to class 8B, where she found Mrs Smith, her class teacher, standing in front of the whole class. The class burst into a huge laughter upon seeing Pabi, and it wa

," Mrs Smith pronounced, still

late, introduce yourself to us then," Mrs Smith raise

that one of the girls was the one who was standing in line in front of her in the morning, and Mrs Smith laughed as well, and it wasn't long till the whole class join

she continued and sat down on her chair, looking at

hrew a plastic bag of stationery for Pabi to catch, but it landed on the floor instead. Pabi stood up to pick it up, but tripped

ttled on her chair. She placed her backpack on her thighs, trying to open its zip but it broke, and now her backpack didn't have a zip. She sighed in fr

r for the class to see

ed disgusted at the paper, so much that she held it wi

unch of others that looked exactly lik

later, the

lking behind her, who laughed at her hair once more and called her koala bear. Pabi ignored her and went to the class next door, leering a

he gate earlier, but the girl tripped her and she fell, the s

e dared to mess with her. She had scars all over her face, a tooth missing and five gold teeth on her lower jaw. She took out the two slices of bread from the lunchbox while her friends surrounded Pabi to punch her, sliding one in her pocket, saving it for later on, and took the other sli

or and went to wash her face. There in the corner of her eye she saw Buhle, who looked so happy with a bunch of other girls, chatting up a storm with them