He walked in slowly,
Cup of tea in hand,
Looking as bubbly as ever.
But we knew better.
Behind that cheerful mask
Was a man who exerted dominance
In the face of parents
Like it was a casual hobby.
He stood near the doorframe,
Taking delicate sips
On his ceramic cup.
His eyes scanned the room—
Like a predator stalking prey.
Another sip.
Then he drifted toward the desk in the back.
No student ever sat there.
We all knew it was his throne.
He sat down.
His height vanished.
He reached into his pocket,
Pulled out an iPhone
Glimmering with a golden shine
That screamed royalty.
Then he announced:
"Today we'll be doing a verbal task.
Each of you will obtain a news article
And read an extract from it
In front of the whole class."
For most, this was a breeze.
For me?
An emotional roller coaster
With no seatbelt.
My anxiety hit .
My brain simulated every possible failure.
My hands grew warm.
I raised them—
Red.
Shaking.
Just from the thought
Of standing in front of 44 students.
Commotion burst from the inmates.
Some were excited.
Asi's shriek was more of a bubbly giggle—
Like soda fizzing over.
Others were frustrated,
Just like me.
The noise grew louder.
Every school has a no-noise rule.
Ours was no different.
It was only a matter of seconds
Before he'd snap.
He took one sip of his tea,
Placed the cup on the table
With the elegance of a king.
No words.
Just silence.
Instant silence.
As if something suffocated the room
And stole every sound.
Despite not giving us corporal punishment
For a whole year,
This man still had
An overwhelming influence.
He continued scrolling through his phone,
Other hand in his pocket,
Like he didn't just scare
The living daylights out of us.
Boredom struck me
Like a mosquito bite—
Annoying, persistent,
Hard to get rid of.
So, like every introvert,
I reached for my comfort zone:
My phone.
Time to doom scroll.
I checked to see
If Mr. Tyantsi was watching.
He wasn't.
You're probably wondering
Why I was hiding my phone.
Well, phones aren't allowed
Inside school premises.
Getting caught means
You'll be phoneless
For a whole year.
But I didn't care.
My phone is my SafeZone.
Tecno Pop 5 LTE.
Despite being a six-year-old
R1,000 Android,
It still held up.
And they say Android lags?
Please.
I scanned the class.
No eyes on me.
Must be anxiety.
I always feel watched.
After arguing with my fingerprint scanner
For a full minute,
It finally remembered
I'm the owner.
Unlocked.
I opened WhatsApp.
27 new messages.
Only two were relevant.
One from Leo:
"How's school going, lil bro?"
The other from my local gaming community,
Germa 99:
"Kitsune in stock today."
Before I could reply to Leo,
The bell rang.
Startled me.
Almost dropped my phone.
Huge blunder.
Sir stood up,
Cup in hand.
Ordered us to close our eyes.
Said a little prayer.
Reminded us not to forget the news articles.
He wants to start the task tomorrow.
Then he walked out.
Phone in pocket.
Cup in hand.
A man of few words.
And we were thankful for that.
I removed my bag from the table,
Placed it on my seat,
And prepared to head out
To munch on whatever
The school was offering today.