bee time

Peo woke up to the muffled chitchats of her roommates, she opened her eyes-only to be nearly blinded by the bright morning light. With blankets below her chest, she stretched and yawned as she remembered where she was.

“About time you wake up!” cried Elena, brushing her long locks, all wrapped up in a white towel. “Now, go take a shower. Like, you don’t wanna be late for the first day of the competition…and by the way, you’re gonna love the bathroom, wink-wink.”

“What’s the time?” Peo yawned, lazily.

“It’s after nine.” Said Elena.

“What!”

Peo sprang out of bed and grabbed her pink toiletry bag and followed some of the girls to the bathrooms. As quick as she was hoping to get things done there, the city girl felt sorry for herself the second she set foot in that bathroom…the floor was literally carpeted with filthy grass and the ceiling brown with dirty water dripping down from it and onto the walls. And the smell in there…never to be mentioned! The water in the toilets was of slimy-stinky black thus causing most of the girls to throw up.

Peo could have fainted, she wanted to go home that very instant. Just the sight of some girls showering with brown water gave her the goose bumps of her life and to think that her body was bound to be covered by that rusty water…gross!

“Sies!” cursed Peo as she spat out a puddle of saliva.

“We have no other choice my sister.” sneered a shorter girl who groomed the fluffiest afro ever, she too had just walked in with Peo. “We would have cleaned the bathrooms too, but cleaning the bedrooms took most of our time.” Said the girl, feeling all guilty an stuff.

Peo was sure that the girl was part of the Maun team because she was a finalist in the previous year’s competition, she understood why she felt guilty in that very moment.

“This is our first time hosting the competition…and this is how we welcome you guys,” sighed the girl as she shook her head sheepishly. “I am so sorry we disappointed you guys but this was really last minute…you know, cause the river flooded our campus. So sorry.”

“Well you better be!” scowled a brunette who was nicely wrapped in a black towel. “You guys are officially the worst hosts in the entire universe.” She dashed away, without looking back.

There was nothing Peo hated more than PORTIA! That devil! Maybe part of that hate was developed when Portia’s father took away the mayor tittle from Peo’s dad or maybe she just hated her because she always won the spelling bee competitions with no effort, it could also be because she was unapologetically mean.

“I’m so sorry about her.” Peo apologized in behalf of the Gaborone team “She is always in a bad mood.”

“Oh I know that,” Said the chubby afro girl. “I was there when she slapped a contestant during last year’s finals.” She sighed and then looked Peo in the eye with recognition “It’s Peo, right?”

Peo could have fainted, the girl knew her name but she didn’t know hers, she did remember her face though. To make things worse, the girl stared deep into Peo’s eyes, she was clearly awaiting a response but nervous old Peo didn’t dare look back at her. What on earth was she going to say to her? She honestly didn’t know her name.

“Yes, I am Peo and you are?” Peo could have stabbed herself for that response-she didn’t mean for it to come out like that but it came out worse than she had thought.

“I’m Mosa.” She muttered with a bit of disappointment. “We should probably go shower; time is not on our side.” Said Mosa before taking off with a long face.

Peo sighed and went on to take a shower, which became the shortest shower she had ever taken. She couldn’t bear to see brown water sliding down her perfect skin.

On her way back to the girls’ room, she caught two rascals gawking at her. Although she very much loved being admired, she didn’t want boys staring at her while she was half naked.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Peo mumbled as the boys smiled and winked at her. She trotted to the girls’ room and shut the door behind her with relief.

“About time!” cried Elena, she was all dressed up like a pink cheerleader. “What took you so long in that awful place?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” she took a deep breath before wearing a pair of jeans and a matching shirt, Elena helped to placed her long braids into a perfect bun which she settled with a lovely pink hair band.

After getting ready, the duo made their way into the assembly space which served as the official site for the competition, they moved swiftly and then took their seats besides the rest of the Gaborone team.

Mr. Kabo came over and gave each of the late comers a number tag, which they wore round their necks so that a bolded number was visible on their chests.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

While Elena was busy painting her nails, Peo was all ears to the competition. It seemed to her that the Maun team had gotten stronger than expected, only two out of fifteen competitors got their words wrong during the first round-which was unusual, maybe the Maun team felt a great motivation because the bee was held in their region for the very first time.

“Competitor number thirty can you step forward please!” said Mr. Delta who was seated at the front behind a white table with the rest of the spelling bee conductors.

“We are still waiting for you, competitor number thirty, can you please move forward.” Mr. Delta cried impatiently as he scanned through the blabbering crowd.

A few minutes passed without the requested competitor showing up. Pupils began murmuring amongst themselves in frustration.

“Competitor number thirty can you please come forward.” Mr. Kabo requested as he got on his feet, just to show how serious he was.

When no one stepped forward…well, let’s just say, it was lucky that Peo’s mind had registered something accurate well on time, she rolled her eyes in disbelief before speaking to her nail painting friend.

“Elena, can I please see your number tag?” Peo demanded with a deep sigh.

…Elena rued the second she showed Peo her number tag because of how she savagely pushed her out of her seat and all the way to the front.

“Go!” cried Peo “It’s you Elena, you’re delaying everyone. Go!”

As soon as Elena was at the front, the crowd started mumbling-that they should have known it was her, she famously did that in previous competitions.

Mr. Delta cleared his throat, “Your word is xenophobia.” He announced with a lousy sigh.

“Zeno what now?” cried Elena, blankly. “Is that like French or something?”

“Do you want the meaning, young lady?” Mr. Delta asked as he scratched the tiny spaces between his erect dreadlocks.

“No thanks, like, that only complicates stuff more anyways.” said Elena before taking a deep breath “-Xenophobia, Z-E-N-O-F-O-B-I-Y-U-H.” She paused and saw that everyone had lost grip of their jaws. “What? Did I get it right?” She asked, enthusiastically.

“Elena go an take your seat, please!” Said Mr. Kabo, in disappointment. “Number forty, can you please come like this!”

Elena dashed back to her seat and the look on Peo’s face made her feel guilty, as if she had done something wrong.

“Elena my friend, remind me again why you joined this competition…again?” asked Peo, she was genuinely wondering.

“Well-technically, I wasn’t gonna enter this year but when I head Maun was hosting, I didn’t think twice. I wouldn’t wanna miss a free vacation an the lighting here is everything.” said Elena as she made use of her phone’s front camera.

Peo would have rebuked her had Portia not been upfront. Everybody was always looking forward to seeing Portia upfront, so that they all cross their fingers and wish that she gets her word wrong.

“Your word is excrescence.” Ms. Tebogo announced with satisfaction.

“Excrescence,” Portia started without the slightest sign of anxiety on her. “E-X-C-R-E-S-C-E-N-C-E, excrescence.” She proudly left before her spelling was even announced correct.

Peo’s turn had arrived and her entire body registered lumpy goose bumps. She knew that if she got a single word wrong then she was bound for second place as usual because Portia never got her words wrong neither was she aiming below first place.

“Czechoslovakia is your word.” Mr. Delta declared with a raised bushy brow.

Peo’s goose bumps faded at once, she instead developed a feeling of internal excitement as for the word. She was familiar with it from her history classes with Mr. Mafuta.

“Czechoslovakia.” She started “C-Z-E-C-H-O-S-L-O-V-A-K-I-A, Czechoslovakia.” She crossed her fingers and hoped for the best.

“That is very correct.” Smiled Mr. Delta with amazement printed all over his face.

Presently, the competitors were sat for lunch. After dishing up some colorful scones Peo and Elena occupied an empty table and started with their meal. As they were digging in, their attention was captured by a saddening scene that involved a beefy guy picking on a skinny nerdy looking fellow who lacked the courage to defend himself.

“That bully’s name is Owen,” Said Mosa as she and a male colleague sat next to the city girls. “He is always picking on weaker boys for no reason. People call him Snake, secretly.”

Peo almost lost her appetite because of Owen’s despicable behavior. She could very well understand why People called Owen a snake, the boy had a small circular head that threatened to sink right into his broad chest and his eyes were big and dark like that of a cobra.

“Why are the rest of the boys not helping the poor guy?” Cried Elena as she carefully took photos of her meal.

“It’s for his own good,” Said Mosa with her mouth full “Mo-guy has to learn how to defend himself, he is going to be a husband and a father one day and he will surely need to protect his family.”

“That guy is basically a girl, not just a girl but a chicken-girl.” Chuckled Mosa’s male college who was pouring food into his tiny mouth.

Mosa nudged some humility into her friend. “Nelson! Do not say bad stuff about someone so loudly-I think he heard you. You never know what they are going through.”

“By the way, this is my boyfriend, Nelson” Mosa gushed with pride as she threw her arm around the boy, who was at the time licking his fingers.

Peo forced a smile. As innocent as he looked, the tall fellow’s words and facial expressions said otherwise to Peo. She did not like people who supported abuse like Nelson had just did.

“This is my best friend Elena and Elena this is Mosa,” Peo awkwardly introduced the ladies who smiled brightly at each other.

“Nice to meet you again Elena. Jesus loves you my sister never be discourage by getting the same word wrong year after year, maybe God has something special planned just for you.” Preached Mosa as she grabbed Elena’s hand in comfort.

“Uh…amen I guess?” Elena shrugged, her eyes were wide with shock. She wrenched her hand free from Mosa and carried on with taking photos of her food.

“Is this seat taken?” A new comer asked. It was Portia and she held a tray of fancy foods that none of the other competitors were having.

“Oh, hey Portia!” Mosa greeted her with a warm smile. “No, this seat is not taken; all I see on this seat is your name all over it.”

“Look here afro-puffy! The only reason I even came over here is because everywhere else is already taken, so don’t be too honored to have me.” Sneered the snooty brunette as she took a wooden seat next to Nelson.

“You think you’re better than everyone else, don’t you?” Peo scowled away her appetite.

“How about we find that out in round two, tomorrow.” Portia smirked before digging into her fancy meal.

Peo boiled with rage and almost evaporated, she savagely pushed her chair backwards with her feet and shot up. “Let’s go Elena, I don’t wanna sit next to trolls.” She grabbed Elena’s hand and trotted away with her.

“Can I at least take my food with me?” cried Elena as she looked behind her shoulder, only to see Nelson grabbing her plate.

“Just leave it, I have some snacks in my bag.” Peo muttered with annoyance…Elena was ruining her storm out-didn’t she see!