Bound Across Worlds

Swapping desks

“What do you want, Taine?” Rocksyn asked and rolled her eyes. Jane glanced up at me then looked back down at her textbook.

“Hello to you too, Rocksyn. I was wondering if we could swap desks?” I sweetly stated, and Cameron nudged my side. He was probably wondering what was going on.

“So, you can sit next to Jane? Hell no. Nope, na huh. She doesn’t want to sit next to you. Right, Jane?”

“I don’t mind.” She softly replied and looked up at me. Jane had such an innocent look about her. I wanted to pull her to one side and demand her to tell me her darkest secret. It would probably be something like, she stole a sweet before supper and lied about it to her mom. Or that she copied homework from someone else that one time because she stayed up all night reading a book. I diverted my gaze from Jane and looked back at Rocksyn.

“No, you got me wrong. I don’t want to sit next to Jane.” I stated a bit more sternly than I intended. Saying her name reminded me of a feather softly floating down to the ground. I repeated it again in my head. Jane. “I have this thing, where I feel anxious if I don’t sit by the wall.” I quickly added. It was true because I always needed to be aware of my surroundings. If I didn’t sit at the very back of a classroom, I couldn’t observe the people behind me.

“Yeah, like Taine really can’t sit without his back to the wall.” Cameron piped up.

“Well then, why did you choose this desk?” Rocksyn asked and gestured to my seat.

“The other desks at the back were already taken,” I responded.

“Fine, whatever. Cameron, you’re also swapping. Jane and I don’t leave each other’s side, you got that?”

“Yes, sir.” I nodded, and we swapped seats. Cameron nudged me and gestured for me to look at his exam pad.

Why did we swap? He wrote. This way, you can see Rocksyn. I wrote back. He smiled, gave me a thumbs up, then wrote: She knows my name!

I smirked and nodded my head. Jane had very messy handwriting, and she annoyingly wrote every letter as capitals. It was like she left caps-lock on and forgot how to switch it off. She also drew a flower in the corner of every single page before she started taking down notes. I noticed she was easily frightened as she slightly jumped from every noise; even a cough scared her. Rocksyn saw it too and touched her arm every time to let her know she was okay. There were things about Jane that irritated me, but then, on the other hand, I was curious.

Why was this girl so crucial to D.T.A?

The bell rang for the end of school, and Cameron begged to come to pick me up before the social later tonight. I was hesitant as a slight bit of shame crept into my mind for living at an orphanage. I shook it off and told him where I stayed. He didn’t seem to mind that I stayed there but did ask if I was an orphan. I then explained the situation of my parents.

“Don’t worry, dude. My mom left when I was 4 and ran off with some other guy. They have their own family now, but it was always just my dad and myself.” He stated, then walked off as a bakkie hooted for him.

I watched Jane walk across the street and stopped as a red Ferrari hooted for her to get in. That cleared up one thing; she was defiantly from a wealthy family. I waited a bit after school since the bus would pick me up last because I was the oldest. I went into the notes on my phone and typed out all I had learnt about Jane. Peanut didn’t say whether I had to forward information or just get to know her to figure out if anything suspicious was going on. I wrote down the details I collected just encase.

***

A car hooted around 5a.m. later that day. I walked outside, and Cameron waved at me from his dad’s bakkie. I basically had on the same outfit as before, without the plaid jacket. Cameron wanted me to wear a similar rugby jacket to him, which he threw at me when I climbed in.

“Thank you for picking me up, sir,” I said to Cameron’s dad.

“No stress, my boy. If you ever need a lift, just let Cameron know, and we’ll come to pick you up.” He smiled. His dad had a broad Afrikaans accent when he spoke.

“Dude, I was thinking I pick you up and take you home every day. That way we can go to rugby practice together. It’s on the way to and from my house, so we drive past here all the time.” Cameron added.

“Sounds great, thanks.” I nodded. Maybe they just took pity on me since I lived in an orphanage. Oh well, it was better than taking the crowded bus with noisy children.

The chairs in the hall had been taken out, and a few were moved against the walls. Music played, and everyone split into groups to chat. We walked over to the group of guys from lunch; all of them had rugby jackets on. I guess Cameron wanted us all to match.

“Sweet dude. Check out all the fine chika’s.” This guy in the group cheered and winked at a bunch of girls that walked past. They giggled and walked away. His name was Jarrod, and he always made inappropriate jokes, which I found hilarious. “Wow, oh wow, I think I just found myself a Mammie.” He panted and walked towards Gale.

“Wait, Jarrod…” I started to warn him, but Cameron pulled him back.

“Let him learn,” Cameron stated. We watched Jarrod attempt to talk to Gale, but she ignored him and walked away.