First sight

Duke.

The hall was bursting with the excitement that only a group of first year high school kids would possess on the first day of school. I was pretty nervous since this was a fresh start for me. I always worried before that day about not making any new friends since most of my friends had gone to different boarding schools outside the city. I always hated the concept of a fresh start personally because it meant I had to make a good impression on people all over again.

As I sat in the middle of the hall waiting for the orientation to start, I saw one of my best friends from primary school Tax, walking in and let out all the tension and nervousness in a relieved sigh. I stood up and smiled so that he could see where I sat. When he saw me, he walked over with a relieved smile that mirrored my own along with a tall guy I hadn't realised he was with earlier.

"Boy am I glad to see you; I was worried that I would be the only one from Halsbury at this school," I said while bumping fist with him.

"Man, I heard from Karen that she would be applying here last year so who knows maybe she got in and is around here somewhere. Anyway, what's up my guy?"

"You know the usual, were just waiting for this orientation to start before we get separated into our different classes. Fingers crossed that we end up in the same class this year bro.

"True that bruh, oh yea Duke, this is Chris my friend from the neighbourhood. Hope you guys can be great friends."

I sized up the guy who was way taller than me and felt as if I had lost in some way. I did not want to be that guy who feels insecure about meeting his friend's other friends so I put on my best confident smile and shook the guy's hand. Tax was always way more confident than I am and pretty popular even in primary school so he easily started a conversation with a few guys much to my envy. I tried to crack a few jokes while referencing a cartoon I liked watching at the time though I don't much remember what it was.

Some guy who sat in front of me then made some offhand comment about me sounding like a kid who watched cartoons all day. I did not find anything wrong with that but then I still felt ashamed to be put in the spot in such a way. We were all thirteen years old for Pete's sake. I denied it.

"Well, you sound like a cartoon character right now," the asshole said with a smirk on his face as if I had killed his dog in the past life or something. The other guys around me started laughing and Tax along with them and just as I was about to retort, a lady dressed sharply in a dark blue attire with jacket and pencil skirt walked in with another man who looked quite serious though I don't much remember what he was wearing.

The whole hall suddenly became extremely quiet as we all focused on the two adults. They looked at all of us for one or two suspenseful minutes and then addressed us. "Welcome new students to St. Paul's secondary school. This institution has a proud history and has groomed great men and women who have succeeded in all walks of life."

"My name is Ms Hwambani and I am the senior woman of the faculty and besides me is Mr Kalari who is the senior master. We will now call out your names and group you in your classes."

They called off each name loudly, starting with the kids from the upper classes who had transferred in and then they were led off by prefects who were waiting outside the hall until finally only the first years were left in the hall. My anxiety spiked as they began calling the names for Class 1K. they called a lot of names and I heard them call out 'Audrey Chimusimbe' and 'Anna Machaso' who were girls I went to primary school with.

They called my name and I was glad to be in class with some familiars although I did not talk with those girls in particular when I had still been in primary school. I went to stand in the line outside where my class was gathered. I looked around at them and saw quite a few pretty girls. I did some small talk with the guy in front of me and then a couple of people later I saw Tax come out and was very happy to be in the same class as one of my oldest friends.

We grinned at each other and waited, finally after our class hit 50 kids we were finished and Chris got into our class too. Unfortunately for me, the asshole who had basically called me a cartoon character was in my class too. We were led to the last block in the school just before the area where the residences of the ground keepers and other teachers were. My class was nothing special, the first class from the right on the form 1 block.

We all entered our class and rushed to grab seats. Tax, Chris and I took a corner at the back of the class to the right. Fact, the protagonist of any good story either has a window seat or a corner seat and I had both. There were some girls who sat in front of me and some guys besides me and my friends. The chattering was pretty loud once everyone sat down and started getting to know each other.

After about thirty minutes in, a nice-looking lady with thick-framed glasses came in and the conversations finally died down. We all looked at her and she smiled at us. "morning class, I am going to be your new homeroom teacher Mrs Harisu. I will also be your history teacher and I hope we can get along well."

The class applauded her much like students do about almost every announcement that teachers make (I still wonder why that happens). "okay ladies and gentlemen, the first order of business. Why don't we go around introducing ourselves briefly before we begin any serious work." This sent my heart racing. So okay, let me explain a certain about myself. I am a blend of high levels of self-consciousness as well as an overthinker. These two traits usually compound and cause no end of grief especially in situations where I have to do something[P1] in front of a crowd.

So, there I was, a skinny kid in a blazer that kind of looked too big for me about to give an introductory speech about myself to a class full of strangers I would spend a long time with. This took the fear of a bad first impression to a whole other level. To make matter worse the introductions started on my side of the room from the front of the row. So, I was like fifth in line to speak.

As I watched the people in front of me do their intros, I obsessed over what to say. The girls in front of me introduced themselves Freda and Mutsa (I thought Freda was very pretty) and before I knew it, my turn had come. I sucked in a breath and stood up weakly and said in the most confident voice I could pull off, "Duke Mapanga, I'm glad to meet you all." I sat down to the obligatory applause wondering why I made such a big deal out of it.

Tax stood up with a smooth smile on his face ever the charmer and said in a cool voice, "Tax Mudimu, glad to be here with all yall and let's have fun," the girls did little whispers for him, typical for him to be honest. I just facepalmed at his skills. Then began to really focus on the intros. A pretty girl said her name was Florence and another was Melba. Then I saw a girl who was my type totally. I used to have a thing for girls with light skin and hers was a caramel complexion that I was totally into. Her name was Ruva. She was sitting in front of a petite girl who was pretty serious looking who identified herself as Winet.

After Winet is when I noticed her for the first time. She had a skin tone a bit darker than mine but she was still very beautiful. Her eyes were something that I would later identify as sexy when I was older and her voice was a high pitch that was very cute and innocent (it still is to this day really). She had a nervous smile on her face and I found it cute. "Hi, I'm Zola Isla, pleased to meet you all." Then she sat down and smiled conspiratorially with her friend beside her and I liked her instantly.

The rest of the day was a blur but some things stuck with me, when I got home, I reassured my dad that the day was fun and hung out with my two brothers. In the late hours of the night, I was up staring at the ceiling in excitement wondering about my new classmates. All the pretty girls; the light-skinned girl, and the cute girl with the friendly smile (. That was honestly the first time I ever stayed up late too excited to sleep because of Zola and it wasn't the last.

[P1]