A week had passed since the day of the little incident in the Science lab. And unfortunately, I hadn't entered for the writing competition. I think it was better this way because as much as I could recall of that day, a lot had happened that I needed to get my mind off things and worrying about the writing competition was the least of my problems. Besides, I didn't want what happened in the science lab to happen to Brenda if I were to meet her face to face. Who knows, maybe her head might burst into flames too if I looked at her for too long. Anyway, I decided that I would enter the writing competition next year.
Many people found it surprising that I hadn't entered the competition. Whenever some asked me the reason why, I would just shrug my shoulders and say that I didn't know what to write for the competition. That was partly true. But the good side of me thought it was best to stay out of the competition after what Brenda did. I didn't want to cause much of a problem with my teachers and in the past week, I tried my best not to get too close to Brenda. Whenever I saw her coming, I would either go a different direction or when I pass by her, I made sure to avoid eye contact.
It was a Thursday and just as we were done with our first three morning periods of learning, it was break time.
"Are you coming for break?" Christine asked when everyone else in class was now heading out.
"I'm fine, I don't feel very hungry," I replied.
"Okay. You'll end up starving before lunch. Don't you want anything to drink?"
"Maybe juice will be fine. Do you know where my juice bottle is?"
"I know. I'm your bunk mate after all."
I smiled at her and she also did the same. She went out with Amanda and I remained in class with two of my other classmates. Tina, the class monitor who already had her snacks packed in her bag, quickly left the classroom before any prefect showed up because they didn't allow eating in class. So that left me with Matilda, who was drawing like she always does during her spare time.
I got an exercise book from my bag where I usually wrote my stories. I had to admit, ever since the writing competition fiasco, I was more at ease with myself that I continued writing my pending story soon afterwards. I realised that my ideas for the story flowed more smoothly. It looked like I was better off writing things out of my own free will rather than someone telling me to write something that I'm not really prepared for, except for writing composition during English class. That was a must because it was school work. And also like the way the writing competition came to be. I wasn't really ready for it and I was glad that I didn't take part in it. Who knows what I would have written. I told myself to be more prepared for it next time.
I was going through a story I started writing about a girl who grew up with her grandmother and her parents had died mysteriously from what people considered to be an accident. I was making some corrections since I just started writing the story yesterday when Matilda who sat in the column to the roll on my right side but in the same column as I was, called out to me. I turned to look at her.
She looked at me, and then she went on to look behind me towards the windows on the other side of the classroom. I turned to the window and who I saw walking down the corridor made the hair at the back of my neck stand.
Brenda was walking on the corridor, and this time, she wasn't alone. She came with two of her friends, Leah and Bwalya. She had a peep into the classroom through the window and when her eyes locked with mine, a huge smile came all over her face like she had just won the jackpot. Goodness, she had finally got me cornered after all this while. It looked like she couldn't wait to get her hands on me like I was some kind of rare prize. So much for staying out of sight from her, but I had to admit, at least I managed to stay away from her for as long as I could.
She turned round the corner with her gang, bypassing Tina who was also standing on the corridor. I could tell she was coming here. I looked over at Matilda who looked back at me. I expected her to leave the classroom, knowing the little drama Brenda and I have with each other, but she stayed. At least it was good to have some company around.
"I wondered when I would ever meet with you again, Diana," said Brenda as she entered the class and came up to the front desk. Her two friends remained outside the door.
"You met me yesterday," I said. Yesterday we had clubs and that meant the Writer's Club was on. I saw her and she saw me but I made sure to keep my distance because Mr Daka was there. Surprisingly, he usually never comes for the club two weeks in a row.
"I meant having a one to one confrontation," she said. "You've been avoiding me."
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"No. I realised that I've missed troubling you."
"After what you did to me last week by lying to Mr Daka, I realised that you're one person I wouldn't like to be around with."
"Ya, I am dangerous. I'm glad you know. Is that why you decided not to enter the writing competition?"
"I didn't join the competition because I had nothing to write."
Brenda looked at me with very keen eyes and I noticed her attention draw closer to the book wide open on my desk. Goodness, I hope she wasn't going to think that it was my book where I write my stories. Who knows what she would do to it. I expected the worst.
"Any new stories so far?" she asked with her hands on her hips.
I looked out the window and I realised that people were coming back to class. Break was only ten minutes. It was always never enough.
"Not any that you would be interested in," I said as I went back to looking at Brenda.
"You seem busy with that book. May I take a look?"
I knew she was going to come over to my desk without my invitation. I sat there, waiting to see what she was going to do next.
"Oh, looks like you're really busy with a story after all," she said when she got close to my desk. "May I see?"
Just as she was about to lift the book with her hand, I stopped her by holding her wrists on time. She looked at me and gave me a grim look.
"Are you scared that I might take away your book and rip it to pieces?" she asked.
"The way I know you so far, you're capable of doing a lot of things. I wouldn't be surprised if you were to take the book and give it to the dogs."
"What a good idea. I was thinking of ripping it up, but now you just gave me a pretty good idea. If the dogs rip it up, no one would say it's me."
"But you would be giving it to them," said Matilda. "It would entirely be your fault."
"No one told you to say anything, whoever you are," said Brenda, giving Matilda a snare, "now for the book."
She reached out for the book with her other hand and I held her wrist with my other free hand. No way was she getting my book.
"You think you're a better writer than I am?" Brenda asked. "No wonder you didn't enter the competition, because you're just completely worthless. Watch me take the book away from you. Leah! Bwalya! Come and get the book."
Gosh, no wonder she had her friends around, for back-up. I had to admit, she was really clever. If I let go of her hands while her friends were fast approaching at the moment, she would still get the book and throw it towards them and they would run out of class with it. By the time I would be running after them, it would probably be too late and break would already be over.
She wasn't going to have the last laugh, not like the way she did last time. I felt the anger that I had suppressed for so long from last week, flood over me like a burning river of hot lava. This time, the anger was flaming hot. It was twice as much as it was the last time. I thought the burning lava running through my veins would erupt in flames, setting me up ablaze that I wouldn't even feel myself burn.
Time seemed to slow down in my eyes as I saw Leah and Bwalya nearing my desk. I looked to my side and I could see Matilda had got up from her desk obviously coming over to help, but she didn't have to. Because what I did in matter of seconds, was shocking.
I had quickly pushed Brenda away and she was falling backwards. Everything in my eyes moved so slowly, but I was moving so fast that I quickly took away the book from the desk and I quickly left the class in a flash that for a moment, the images in front of me seemed like a blur.
I soon found myself outside the class bypassing, Tina who was just finishing her snack. I found myself down the corridor where some of my classmates were also finishing their snacks.
"Eh! Diana, what's wrong?" one of my classmates, Cecilia asked. She looked a little surprised to see me.
I looked back at the open entrance which leads to class. The others were still inside. And judging by the looks on everyone's faces outside, they probably thought something weird was going on.
Brenda, her two friends and Matilda came out of the classroom and found me outside. They all had surprised looks on their faces. I wondered why as I held on tighter to my book.
"Diana, you know you can't hide from me," said Brenda as she came on the corridor and down the short stairs and onto the concrete ground.
"But Diana," said Leah, behind her. "Did you see what just happened in there?"
I looked on at Brenda who furrowed her eyebrows even more when her friend said that. What could I have possibly done in that classroom apart from run away from these guys who tried to take away my book?
"I know what she did," said Brenda. "But let us see if she will manage to outrun us again."
A few of my classmates continued to watch as Brenda slowly approached me. I held onto the book close to my chest. Other pupils from the class opposite mine had also arrived and wondered what was going on. Even Christine and Amanda soon arrived.
"What is going on here?" Christine asked behind me. I didn't turn to look at her.
"I just wanted to get her book," said Brenda, "nothing personal."
"I bet you had something else in mind for Diana to hold onto the book like that," said Amanda.
"She was planning to tear it up or take it to the dogs," I said.
"Let's be honest, the dog part was your idea, Diana," said Brenda. "Now can you hand over the book?"
"I'm guessing you don't realise that I don't want you to take it."
Brenda came even closer and tried to get the book away from me, but I still held on to it, pulling it away from her grasp. Most of the girls surrounded us hoping for a fight to erupt between us. But that's what I didn't want to happen. I came outside expecting a prefect or two to be around but so far, there was no sign of them anywhere.
"Let go of my book, Brenda," I warned as I pulled my book. I was afraid that any second now, the book might just tear from all our pulling.
"No way, you just give it to me. Why are you being stubborn?" she asked.
"You're the stubborn one."
I suddenly realised that I couldn't carry on with this anymore. Brenda soon brought in her second hand into the pulling and I took of hold her wrist tightly. For a moment, she looked at me in the eye.
"I told you to stop this, Brenda," I said in my warning voice. "Once someone says no, you should learn to listen. And so far, you aren't doing so."
My grip on her wrist tightened and I could see the look of pain slowly show on her face. I was hurting her and I didn't mind. She had to be taught a lesson in one way or another.
"Ouch, you're hurting me, Diana," she said as she almost cried out in pain.
I tightened my grip even further. For a small hand like mind, I was putting in so much pressure on her wrist like an anaconda would tighten itself around its prey to suffocate it. I never knew I had this much strength in me. Everyone who watched was surprised as well.
Just as I expected, the prefects started to show up. That meant the siren would ring any moment now and break would be over. I looked over at Brenda whom I still held in tight-knot grip. I had to let go before the prefects started to wonder what was going on.
"Let go, Diana, you're really hurting me," said Brenda in a whining voice.
"Next time if you do something like this again, I'll make sure to make you burn, do you understand?" I warned her.
"Okay, I get it," she said and I let her go. She looked at her wrist and where I held her tightly left a round red ring round her wrist. I could have sworn the ring looked like she had once worn a hot metal bangle.
Our prefect inspecting my class came to stand on the corridor as she called out, "all of you standing around there, can you please make a line. Break will almost be done and those who are done eating can go inside."
Brenda soon left us, going up the corridor and joining her friends who followed her back to their classroom. I blew out a sigh of relief. Luckily, the prefect hadn't thought that there was some fight going on. I didn't want to get into any trouble.
"That girl brings nothing but problems," said Christine as she came to stand beside me, finishing up her bags of crisps. She had my juice bottle tucked under her arm. I took it from her because I soon fell thirsty.
"She really is," said Amanda. "I'm glad you dealt with her, Diana."
"But she will be back, eventually," I said.
The siren rang and we were all in class waiting for the next period of class to begin. While we waited, everyone was indulged with what happened outside between Brenda and me.
"You should have seen the way Diana ran out of class," said Matilda, who was telling the story. "She ran out of this place like the speed of a cheetah."
"Mmm," murmured Christine who was also listening to the story. "Now you're just lying."
"It's the truth. I know people run fast in races, but no one could run like the way Diana did."
"If she was such a fast runner, she would have run for our house in the Inter-hostel sports competition," said Amanda who was by her desk.
I agreed with her, "It's true. I've never been a fast runner. Maybe I ran so fast because of instinct."
"Even if a lion were to chase me, I would become the fastest runner alive and would still get caught," said Tina. "But I noticed the way Diana came running outside. I didn't want to say this, but it looked like the wind just passed me by not realising that she had come straight from class."
"It's true," said Cecilia. "I thought Diana appeared out of nowhere when I looked in front of me, because a second ago, she wasn't there."
Everyone continued to debate, some saying that the others were just exaggerating, while some believed the story. A few good classmates of mine said neither of the two and were just silent. I think it was best I kept quiet too. Most of them weren't listening to me anyway.
"Is what Matilda, Tina and Cecilia are saying true?" Christine asked me.
I simply shrugged my shoulders. "They had the eyes to see what was going on," I said. "I can't tell."
"Well, I believe them."
"Not you too," I couldn't help but roll my eyes in irritation. "I have an idea. Once we have the chance to go to the play field after class, I will run and then we'll see if I can really move like the wind or not."
Christine nodded with so much enthusiasm as if she had been invited to watch a football match. "Okay," she said.
I also nodded my head in agreement. I was going to prove to Christine that all that had happened was nothing but pure luck. But I had to admit, the time I was in class with Brenda, her two friends and Matilda, something had happened. Maybe I did run out of class in extraordinary speed, but it still didn't prove that I could naturally run like that.
Soon after class, Amanda, Christine and I went to the sports field. And when I ran, I was afraid to say that that little luck of running as fast as the wind had disappeared as soon as I had anticipated.
ns 15.158.61.12da2
