Chapter 18

And indeed, the fateful evening came. Right after Buhle finished her shift, she looked around to see if anyone was watching her. She did not see anyone. However, her roommates stood in hiding, watching her. They were carrying out the plan they created the previous night. Buhle put away her cleaning tools, washed her hands and disappeared into a midst of trees. The girls followed. And they watched Buhle pick a tree and stand behind it.

As the girls watched on, they saw a bright green glow being emitted from behind the tree. They walked closer and to a spot where their view of Buhle would not be blocked by a tree or anything huge. The glow, it was Buhle. They gasped, and immediately after remembering that silence was of the essence, they covered their mouths to mute their gasps of shock.

It seemed Buhle heard something. She stopped and turned from one direction to another, but she did not see anyone. She continued, remaining sure that no-one was there.

The girls watched on as they saw Buhle's scales begin to disappear. And her hair began to flatter. Her eyes, although still somewhat catlike, they became normal. They stared on with their eyes protruding. They had never witnessed magic, although they had heard of it at some point in their lives. Buhle had transformed into her pretty self, and the girls saw it all.

The unsuspecting Buhle, went to her room immediately after. Her roommates wobbled down to the ground. What they had seen was beyond explanation. Each one reacted differently. Sana held her head as if she was going mad. Letho shook her head, fidgeting as she tried to process the matter. And Lebo kept blabbering in shock;

"What just happened? What did we just see?! How?"

But one thing they had in common was that they were all shocked out of their wits.

Anyway, Buhle entered an empty room. Her roommates were not there. Although she was a bit suspicious of their absence, she also felt a sense of relief. Buhle shortly went to the shower.

Lebo, Sana and Letho entered their room. They were expecting Buhle to be there, but she was not. And for that, they were relieved. The three girls sat on their separate beds and deliberated on the matter a little until they decided to go shower.

Later that night, there was an unbearable awkwardness in the room. Each one laid in their bed, silent. That awkward silence went on until the inspection hour. The girls got up and honoured the head-maid's inspection. After the inspection, the four girls were left alone again. After a moment of exchanging looks between Lebo, Sana and Letho, Lebo finally blurted out;

"What were you doing in the trees?"

Buhle got taken aback, she did not expect that. She remained silent.

"We saw you among the trees and flowers. What was going on there?" Lebo wanted to know, she had a bit of aggression.

Buhle's persistent silence annoyed Sana. She intervened;

"We now know that you are the real Buhle. Mind explaining what that was about?"

Buhle said nothing.

"Ugg! I am getting annoyed!" Sana exclaimed. "You look peculiar during the day, but possess the world's beauty during the night. Did it ever occur to you to clear out the misunderstanding that first night we argued?" Sana questioned.

Lebo chimed in;

"You liked the attention, did you not?"

"Yeah! She liked having The Queen speak to her. It must have made her feel like some sort of a special case", Sana remarked.

Buhle did not appreciate their accusations. She defended herself; "What? You wanted that attention to yourselves?"

The girls hissed.

"You could have at least told that you were some special case!" Letho yelled out of frustration.

"Yeah!" Lebo agreed with Letho. "We sleep in the same room and Letho has been eating with you to try and make you feel at home. Do you not think that you owed us? At least that much?"

Buhle felt as though the girls were ganging up on her. She yelled; "I do not owe you anything! I do not even know you, so let us stop pretending like we are friends. If I do not want to tell you anything about my life you should then back off!"

Lebo hissed and remarked; "Back of?"

Lebo threw her hands in the air and went to sleep. And so did everyone else.

In the following day, Buhle noticed that her roommates were giving her a cold shoulder. Each one rolled their eyes and shrug whenever they walked past her. Buhle was very well acquainted with that kind of treatment; she received a lot of it growing up. It did not bother her much.

When the girls noticed that Buhle was genuinely unbothered, they got together in the middle of their shifts to come up with different strategies and shenanigans. After a few moments of the meeting, they were already hard at work.

The girls took turns passing by the kitchen responsible for The Prince's meal, which was where Buhle was stationed, and they littered. Secretly so. Buhle got a scolding from the kitchen supervisor for the mess.

"Were you not cleaning here just now?" the kitchen supervisor questioned as she pointed at the litter.

Perplexed, Buhle stood speechless. She had just cleaned that spot. And it was very clean and neat when she left it. She could not explain where the litter came from. Buhle quickly took a broom and started sweeping.

The girls had run away long ago. They were at a hidden garden, laughing. They were truly proud of their mischief. As if she had an epiphany, Lebo stopped laughing. She said;

"But then, what good is this if Buhle does not know it is us? And if we do not get to see the whole thing unfold?"

The other two went silent and thought about what Lebo had just said. The girls then decided that they would show themselves to Buhle right after every mischief and then disappear immediately. They wanted Buhle to have no-one to blame.

The next trick was to pour dirty laundry water on her as she went to pick flowers and fruits to bring back to the kitchen. The water was brought by Sana who was on laundry duty. The girls waited behind a tree for Buhle to come.

The unsuspecting Buhle came indeed. She squatted and began plucking some flowers. The girls came from the back. Right when Buhle heard the footsteps and turned, the water was already splashing down on her. She stayed there, not unable to move; she was shocked. She did not expect that at all, it all happened too fast. When the last drop of water fell on her, she managed to see the girls. They were giggling, and then they went away. It seemed they returned to their duties.

Buhle looked down. The basket of flowers was drenched with water. She spilled the flowers away and returned to the kitchen. The chef who had sent her saw Buhle's empty basket, and it was wet but so was Buhle. Disappointed, he asked;

"What happened?"

Buhle did not know where to start. The chef seemed angry, and thus appeared scary to Buhle.

"I sent you to get flowers and some fruits. But you bring an empty, wet basket? What is going on?" the chef asked again.

Buhle responded; "I got ambushed by other girls. They poured dirty water on me.

"Ok. But where are the things I sent you?" went the chef.

Buhle stood silent.

"You are new, right?" the chef asked, Buhle did not respond. "Then that is your welcome. Your fellows are welcoming you. But you still need to carry out your tasks. And you walk around the palace and also enter the kitchen with a uniform that looks like that?" the chef scolded her. "Go get changed."

The chef turned away and remarked, angrily; "Now I have to send someone else."

Meanwhile, Lebo, Sana and Letho watched the whole situated unfold. They were hiding behind some decorative flowers. Their little mission had gone well, they felt happy. The girls returned to their duties. They had had enough for the day.

At the end of the day, all the girls of room 112 were in their room. They had already showered, and inspection had already been done. They began taunting Buhle.

"What do you say, Sana? We sure had some fun today, did we not?" said Lebo.

Sana agreed; "Oh indeed." Sana added as if reminiscing; "We blessed the yard at the kitchen with some… glorious waterfall."

The other two laughed. Buhle avoided looking their way. She was doing a skin routine on her beautiful face. The girls continued.

"And we let it rain on someone. Someone really special", said Lebo.

Buhle felt that she could not take it anymore, she lashed out; "I know you are talking about me! Are you trying to get my attention that much?"

She then walked out the door. Because of that, the girls thought that they had not done enough. They felt that they still did not like Buhle's attitude, so they conspired again.

"Ugg! Did you see that nasty attitude? It seems we have not gotten through to her" said Lebo.

"Indeed, so it seems", remarked Sana as she ominously rubbed her palms together. "There is more we still need to do, it seems."

"I do not like any of this but, she does seem a little arrogant… Lebo? What are we going to do next? Do you have any ideas?" asked Letho with a pout.

Lebo caressed her chin as she thought. "I got it", she said. "Let us not tell her that the next two days, the maids under head-maid Kamva are on two days off."

Sana liked the idea.

"Yes!" she said. "We will let her work all day for the next two days. Oh! It will be fun seeing her tire herself out unnecessarily."

"Yes, and we will get up early and leave, creating the impression that we are working our shifts. She will not know", Lebo said, gloomily.

The girls did exactly that. Buhle worked those two days not knowing that she was supposed to be off for work. The head-maid only found out on the second day in the later afternoon, that Buhle was working. She had seen Buhle flapping some cloths, removing crumbs and powder from them as the sun was setting. At that time, head-maid Kamva was seating outside the palace on an inclined area. That area gave a perfect view of life down at the palace. That was her favorite spot. In fact, she had never taken anyone there.

She sat looking down at Buhle hard at work. She sighed wondering what had happened, why she was working.

In that evening, the head-maid budged into room 112. All the girls were there. Lebo, Sana and Letho wondered what could possibly bring the head-maid to their room when she should be resting on that day. The head-maid had an angry look on her face and her aura was threatening. The girls began suspecting that the head-maid may have known that they did not inform Buhle that she was not supposed to work on that day.

The girls were sure they were going to get fired.