Tie Your Laces

Thabo had perfected the art of secretly listening to music during class. The vague sound of Mr Govender analysing the witch scene in Macbeth was being drowned out by Kurt Cobain’s vocals in Thabo’s left ear Apple AirPod. The trick was to conceal your ear with your hand by making it seem like you were resting your head on it, whilst also pretending to write with your right hand. This gave the image concentration to an inattentive teacher who never expected a kid in the A class to be slacking off. And Thabo made it look so natural that he had never been caught. Well, at least not by a teacher.

Whilst concealing his left ear, Thabo casually scanned the classroom, and his eyes locked onto the one person who was always wise to his deception.

Lisa Shah, the class representative of Grade 9A and the general representative of the Grade 9 learners, was staring daggers at Thabo from across the classroom. It was the same look she had given him for as long as he could remember being in school with her, which was at least since first grade. Through all those years, she could always find something about him to warrant voicing her disapproval at him.

“Your shoes are untied.” 

“Why do you smell like smoke?” 

“Why are you always late?”

Critiques, complaints and condemnations of this sort formed the bulk of their conversations over the last nine years. 

In the past, it was just scolding. But since her election as the general representative for their grade, she could issue demerits for him with the school and had threatened to do so many times. However, Lisa’s actions always fell short of actually getting Thabo into trouble, so he could not really bring himself to hate her. It did not make her any less of a nuisance, though.

Let this be the one time she doesn’t find out what I’m up to, Thabo thought as he steered his face away from Lisa’s glare and back to the book, he was pretending to write notes on.

Tonight, Thabo had plans.

Tonight, he would not be caught by that busybody.

Tonight was the Southern Rap Battle Tournament quarter-final matchup at Club Stunner in Pietermaritzburg, which Thabo and his friend Khaya had tickets to attend.

It was, of course, not permitted by the rules of this boarding school for students to leave the campus after hours. Their school was Catholic, which meant that anything related to hip-hop was out of the question, including even asking for permission to attend the tournament. So, of course, their only recourse would be to sneak off campus.

He and Khaya were planning to leave campus just after ten. They had already bribed the security guard at the gate to look the other way, and they had also scheduled an Uber to collect them near the gate. But even with all this planning, Thabo still had the sneaking suspicion, somehow, that Lisa would find him out with that supernatural ability she always had for knowing whether he was doing anything wrong.

English was their last class for the day, so after homeroom ended, Thabo accompanied Khaya to the school library because Khaya had an overdue book. On the way, Thabo shared his anxiety about Lisa, only for it to be dismissed by his friend.

“It’s all in your head,” said Khaya, “she has no way of knowing we plan to leave campus today. And even if she did, it wouldn’t matter. You are just paranoid about her at this point.”

“It wouldn’t matter? And I’m paranoid?” scoffed Thabo. “She’s always watching me. Or at least she must be to always know whatever I’m doing wrong.”

“Is it really so bad? I wish a pretty girl like that paid that much attention to me.”

“Hey, I’m still in my adolescence. That type of attention from a pretty girl may lead to me developing a fetish for women yelling at me.”

The pair’s laughter was severed by a familiar, “Your shoes are untied,” from behind them.

The boys were completely frozen as Lisa Shah walked past them and into the library.

How much of that conversation had she heard? Did she know about the concert? Was she going to report them?

“She probably didn’t hear anything,” said Khaya, who must have read the panic on Thabo’s face. Those words did not provide Thabo any comfort, especially since they were said by a person failing to stifle a laugh.

Khaya left after returning his book, but Thabo stayed in the library and observed Lisa on library monitor duty. He had to know what she heard, and the best way to know was to ask directly.

Thabo approached the library's front desk, where Lisa was directing a pupil to where to find a book. When the pupil finally left, Thabo walked towards her as nonchalantly as he could manage.

“…Hey, Lisa, howzit?”

She ignored him. She didn’t even raise her eyes from the file she was writing in. Thabo persisted.

“Look, about what Khaya and I were talking about, how much did you hear-“

“If I reprimand you for talking in the library, will that develop a librarian fetish?” she said without raising her eyeline by even an inch.

So, she heard them. Well, at the last part of the conversation.

“I don’t have a fetish-“

“You are holding up the line, Thabo, and I need to help the other students,” she said, indicating the two pupils holding books behind him. “Unless you have actual business related to the library…”

She still would not look at him. However, Thabo left the library with little more confidence about his plans tonight. Lisa had never really gotten him in trouble before. She was more of a nag than a snitch. She only ever reprimanded him personally. If she were aware of their plans, she would have warned him not to leave campus tonight just then, rather than have told on him.

Though she does think I’m a creep now, huh? He could expect a lot more of those fetish-related jabs in the future.

His assertions about Lisa must have been correct, as Khaya and Thabo managed to get off campus and to the club without incident. They were allowed inside after having their tickets stamped and found some open seats on the second floor, where they sat.

“I hope this was worth all the trouble that it took to get here,” said Thabo.

“It will be, trust me,” said Khaya.

For some reason, Khaya seemed to be fighting back a grin, but that was not all that unusual for him. This excursion had been all his idea. He was a major hip-hop fan, whilst Thabo liked rock for the most part. Thabo only came with him because it was something to do and because of Khaya’s insistence that it would be “memorable.” Before Thabo could ask who the contestants would be, the lights in the room suddenly went dark, except for the stage lights, where a man in the most colourful tracksuit Thabo had ever seen stood, holding a microphone. When the man raised the microphone to his mouth, the speakers began to blast a huge, “WHAT'S UP MARITZBURG!”

The crowd responds with cheers. The club was violent with excitement.

“THIS IS THE SOUTHERN RAP BATTLE TOURNAMENT RIGHT HERE AT CLUB STUNNER! AND TODAY WE WILL BE WITNESSING THE BATTLE BETWEEN TWO GREAT TALENTS. ON MY LEFT, THE REIGNING CHAMPION, MUUUUUUURRRRRRRDDDDDEERR MIIIIIIIIIIKE!

A man in his late twenties came onto the stage and hugged the announcers before waving to the crowd, which responded with a roar of enthusiasm.

"AND ON MY RIGHT THE HOTTEST NEW TALENT IN BATTLE RAP. HIS OPPONENT, LIIIIIIIIIIIIIISAVAGE!"

A young girl walked onto the stage wearing a hoodie and some track pants. She turned to the crowd and made the classic “let me hear some noise” gesture with her hand, and the crowd obliged.

The room was buzzing with anticipation, yet Thabo alone sat quiet and bewildered.

It was Lisa. Lisa Shah, of all people, was a battle rapper? Thabo looked over at Khaya, who was laughing hysterically. In between breaths, Khaya mouthed, “I told you.”

The battle rap consisted of three rounds, which were decided by audience reception. Lisa won all three. She seemed a different person altogether on that stage. She had a different kind of confidence. A swagger he had never known and could still hardly believe existed at all. The girl he went out of his way to avoid had now become a source of quiet curiosity to him.

Thabo and Khaya spent the Uber ride back to campus quoting each other’s favourite lines from the battle. They both agreed on how funny it was when she threw the fact that Murder Mike kept calling her a little girl into a bar, comparing him to Jeffrey Epstein, which was genius. Thabo went to bed still mesmerised by his class representative.

The next day, Thabo headed for the library the first chance he could, knowing he would find her there. She did not disappoint his expectations. She was back into the school version of herself. Serious, bookish and focused. But behind those red glasses, Thabo could see the fire that excited him and many others that night.

Thabo approached her at the front desk, where she was working again today.

“Does your new fetish involve bothering people when they are busy?” Lisa said. That harsh tone that he knew so well had returned.

At least she’s looking me in the eyes again.

“Why are you so worried that I look sixteen? It’s like you were on that island with that man Epstein,” said Thabo, mimicking the cadence and flow Lisa had used when saying that line during the battle.

At first, confusion was all that occupied Lisa’s face, but realisation came like the tides and washed it all away. She basically jumped out of her seat and pulled Thabo away to a corner.

“Okay, what is it that you want? Are you planning to report me? Because if you know about that, then that means you were there too and-”

“Relax, I come in peace,” said Thabo, “No need for any threats of mutually assured destruction.”

“So what is it then?”

“I have a proposal. You know I’m in the Music Club, right? Well, I kinda suck at writing lyrics, and based on last night, I would say you have a talent for it. The talent show is coming soon, and I was wondering if you would want to collab. Are you interested?”

The tension in Lisa’s face loosened a bit. She looked surprised, then contemplative. When she faced him again, that fire that Thabo witnessed on that stage was there in her eyes again.

There she is.