TIT-FOR-TAT

Jane was staying with her grandmother while her mother was in the city of Gold(Gauteng), during this time she was just a little girl who used to obey her grandmother in all aspects of her life at least for that particular moment. She started at Mamothalo primary school, during her primary life, she was so sweet and kind only made bad choices and chose the wrong people to hang out with. Her friends had poisonous plans and evil minds, she was groomed into their bad deeds and became as evil as them. As they say, you cannot befriend lions while you are a goat, their prey. She was not academically talented but yet evil, on their grade seven-year the principal decided to throw a farewell party for their class. The principal was wishing them luck as the will be embarking on a high school journey next year. On the day of the farewell ceremony, it was finally time for grade seven pupils to be honored with certificates of excellence in each and every subject they were doing throughout their primary school life. As they were calling all those who were working well on each subject, Jane was surprised to reveal that her biggest enemy Alicia, was the top learner. She stabbed her with a cold gaze. Though, Alicia did not realize that she even made an enemy out of her. Alicia was a beautiful girl with a delicate smile though she was from a poor family.

**THE FOLLOWING YEAR **

They enjoyed their festive season with the excitement of going to be in a new grade at a new school, a high school. Alice was fortunate enough to have been staying the same street with the new high school, the school was called Malatswa High School. On the first day of school, Alice woke up very early in the morning to prepare for school: black shinny school shoes, navy blue skirt, a white shirt, a pullover, and a navy blue & white striped tie. After dressing up the school uniform, she ate breakfast and slowly walked to school, just a few houses away from her home.

**

Jane’s home was very far from school, she had to be out of her home at least 30 minutes before the actual school’s starting time. Jane refused to be driven to school for her first day, she wanted everyone to see her in a new school uniform. She refused to wear a long school skirt, Jane folded half of the skirt and sewed it underneath... She always wanted to be the center of attention, her hurt was fuming when she would not come across anyone who knew her. There was one thing that kept her confidence, it was her body. It was perfectly crafted, she had toned skin and bigger breasts than most of the girls in the village. Although, she was a fearless troublemaker that most of the pupils were scared of her. It would be because her family was wealthier than most of the families while some were scared of her because of her self-confidence and her talkative attitude. She walked to school with her head held up high and her eyes looking around to know who she is attracting, when she was 10 minutes away from school a firm voice lunchtime her. When she turned to look for whoever was calling, her gaze fell on a muscular body so she lifted her eyes and saw a black handsome young man who looked 17 years old. The young man greeted her and asked for her name and contact details, she quickly wrote them down and ran to school.

**AT SCHOOL **

Alice was placed in Grade 8A while Jane was placed in grade 8 B along with some of her evil friends. They had 6 periods of different subjects before lunch, each period had thirty minutes to run. The time flew by like a hungry hawk, it was then lunchtime. Alice had to eat food prepared by the school kitchen, whereas Jane had pocket money to buy from the nearest store, her lunch was better than what Alice always had. Their grade 8 and 9 years flew by like a rocket.

**THE DETENTION WEEK (in grade 10) **

Alice was climbing on steps to her classroom when she mistakenly stepped on Jane’s toes. Jane quickly stood up and slid in front of her, Alice shyly dropped her gaze which led Jane into raising the palm of her hand to slap her face. Alice fought back, she was so angry in a way that her body was removed on top of Jane by the school principal. Jane’s face was left bruised and wounded, those evil friends of hers never helped her anyway. Alice was given week detention so she was assigned to help the new Mathematics teacher to pack his office and his classroom. The new mathematics teacher was Mr. Mojapelo, Alice found it as a coincidence that Mr. Mojapelo is her class teacher and her mathematics teacher, he looked handsome and young, I can say he looked 22 years old.

After the day of the incident, Alice was always the one to clean the classroom, pack the books properly, and clean the chalkboard. So today after Mr. Mojapelo’s period, when Alice was about to exit the classroom with everyone else Mr. Mojapelo asked her to stay behind. Mr. Mojapelo began to question Alice about her family and where she is from, all those personal questions shocked Alice. She dropped her gaze to the ground and began to play with her feet, she never knew what to say to her teacher who seemed to be making moves on her. Mr. Mojapelo moved closer to her, she then moved backward step by step. She was suddenly blocked by a pile of boxes that contained books, then her teacher told her that he will not harm her. That he only fell in love the first time they meet but he was stopped by the school policy which was written down on the contract he signed when she started working at this school. Alice firmly stood and asked, “Mr. Mojapelo, tell me what is giving you the courage and the strength to tell me now?” ANDREW please Mr. Mojapelo said. Mr. Mojapelo continuously stated that he had seen that Alice is matured enough to make choices and he again said that this moment was perfect. Alice ran out of the classroom with tears running down her pretty face, she was suddenly stopped by her best friend Mary. It was unfortunate that Jane overheard the whole conversation between Mr. Mojapelo and Alice, Jane started to act recklessly around Mr. Mojapelo just to gain his attention and be the focal point. She went to an extent of visiting Mr. Mojapelo’s house, she would intentionally rock up with a pair of revealing shorts and a net t-shirt. She actually seduced the teacher, Mr. Mojapelo tried to threaten her and told one of the school’s board member. Though, it was not a solution because the school’s board member (John) was also in the deep end of what is in between Jane’s thighs, he couldn’t help but keep on going for more and more.

*****

Immediately after Alice was shocked by her teacher's love confession, she ran to her dearest friend, Mary wiped the tears off Alice’s face and asked her what is bothering her, she was unable to explain but Mary understood everything. They stood up and fetched her bag in the classroom, they were both surprised to find Mr. Mojapelo, oh! Andrew putting his head on his knees in a corner behind his table. Mary went closer and patted the back of his shoulder and gently asked “SIR, WHAT IS GOING ON?” Mr. Mojapelo looked at Alice with an “ask her” look, Alice then looked at Mary and said that Mr. Mojapelo has said that he loved her since the first day he started teaching her. Mary then looked at Alice and said “my dear friend this is the right time to confess your feelings, do not try and hide them”. Jane was looking at them throw the window of the classroom, she planned this with her evil friends after they heard Mr. Mojapelo talking over the phone with his friend, telling him that he loves Alice. Jane was capturing everything when Alice went closer to Mr. Mojapelo for them and Andrew for Alice. Alice hugged Andrew and for a minute they forgot about who they were and who was around them.

**VENGEANCE TIME **

Alice was excited and she could not even control herself, Andrew was all in her mind. All of the things around the universe did not matter anymore, she had what her heart desired. Mornings and nights passed with one blink of an eye, in all those mornings and nights that passed Alice and Andrew were enjoying their relationship in secret while Jane was plotting against them with the aim of paying revenge. After all classes for the day Alice and Andrew planned to meet in his classroom, Jane sent the video she took on their first day and sent it to the school principal, to other teachers and posted it on Facebook, the video that was sent to the principal had a message underneath “quickly go to grade 10A’s window”. They got to the classroom so they sat down, they spoke, shared memories and soon they found themselves breathing closely to each other when they parted they looked sideward to find people watching by the window. Alice dropped her gaze and tears ran down her face, Andrew took Alice by hand to faced the principal and the others who were against them. It was a tit for tat because of being stepped mistakenly. Jane had nothing else to do nor hate, as Andrew was even intending on resigning from being a teacher just so he can be with Alice. As for Jane, she hit an enormous stump block where her friends moved away from her because at the end of it all, her venomous intentions failed. After the stunt Jane pulled, Her friends intentionally told the school's principal about what happened between John and Jane, and what Jane did to Mr. Mojapelo. It was a tit for a tat, Jane was called and asked to confession at the assembly in front of all the learners and the teachers. She did that everyday for a period of one month.

By:Maphefo Patricia Mojapelo