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An in-depth summary of all the most important events and aspects in every chapter, written in English for your convenience.
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The train is fuller than usual because it is Friday and all the office workers leave
the office to go home earlier. Jana realises this too late and she can’t sit in her
usual spot in the train: the last bench in the row where nobody except the
conductor walks past her.
Today she had to find a seat in the middle of the train with three people sitting
across from her and next to her: a boepmaagman (beer belly man) with a red face.
He looks like he’s suffocating with his wide tie. He is wearing brown shoes which is
dusty and has round tips, like school shoes. He smells like garlic (knoffel) and beer
(bier).
Jana tries to move to the edge of her seat to feel less claustrophobic. She likes to
be on her own. She hates the way people look at her sometimes, like they feel
sorry for her.
Jana quickly pulls her head back when she sees three school boys on the platform
(perron). They are wearing track suits (sweetpakke) and it seems as though they
had a good practise. One of them, a bulky boy with broad shoulders, is in her class.
They call him Fires because he has red hair and he has a bad temper (humeur).
The other two boys are in grade 9 (standerd sewe) and they hang around with Jac
Cilliers.
They are talking about Jac and how he is late for the train. Fires remarks that he
played well that afternoon and another boy remarks that it was probably to
impress Alicia.
Alicia Theron is the prettiest girl in school. Fires suddenly looks in Jana’s direction,
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, but she knows he won’t recognise her because she took off her school clothes in
the bathroom at the train station and she is not wearing a pair of old jeans and a
jersey.
Jana is not like Alicia. She is not popular.
Jana hears the boys talking about getting on the train without Jac and then she
thinks of him as well: Jac is smart and he is an excellent athlete (atleet). Now he is
apparently a very good rugby player too. Jana thinks he is an arrogant windbag.
The train starts moving and this is when she sees Jac Cilliers running next to it. The
boys keep the door open for him and he has to put in a lot of effort to jump into
the moving train.
The boys start talking about rugby and Jana loses interest. If there’s one thing her
and Alicia agree on, it’s that they both don’t like rugby.
The train is leaving the city and Jana looks at the factories and neglected buildings
with all kinds of graffiti written on it. She lifts up her school blazer from her school
bag to take out her library book. It’s an adult book she is busy reading and it is not
written well at all, but it is easy to read. She grew tired of children’s books and
besides: she could not find a book about someone with a similar situation to hers.
That’s why she reads love stories: it helps her to forget about her mom and Bruce.
When the train stops at another station Jana overhears Fires talk about her. He
says that she is the only one who did well in a test they wrote. Jac wants to know
who she is and Fires replies that she is this ugly girl with thick glasses and a thick
braid.
Jana cannot believe it. She turns her face to the window so the other people can’t
see her crying.
At the next station Fires and one of the other boys get off the train. Jana hides
behind the boepmaagman to avoid detection. She recognises the smell of alcohol
and food and cigarette smoke. Her mom’s husband is younger and more attractive
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