After a 10-minute bus ride, we arrived home. First, I took a bath. Then, my mom gave me some noodles to prepare for myself - I was already capable of preparing simple dishes at that age. I was just twelve years old at the time.

After I finished cooking, I started eating in the living room. Just to provide some context, we lived in a two-bedroom apartment with a living room, a kitchen, and a bathroom attached with a toilet. After I finished eating, I decided to relax on a long chair on the left side of the living room.

While I was relaxing, my mom started asking me questions about my first day at school. My mom asked, "How was your first day at John Felix Academy?" I was expecting that question, so I had already thought about what I would say. "It was great," I replied with a neutral expression.

There was a reason for my measured response. I had considered how my mom would react if I told her about the weird things that happened on my first day at John Felix Academy. I thought she might laugh, doubt my story, feel worried, or try to brush it off in an optimistic way.

I figured she would take the latter approach. Ultimately, I decided that there was no point in giving my mom a bad impression of the school on the very first day. After all, it's possible that my first day was not representative of my overall experience at the school. It would be premature to judge the school based on just one day. A more accurate assessment would require a longer period of observation.

There's a chance that the first day was an anomaly, and that the rest of my experience at the school will be different. I don't want to form a negative opinion based on one isolated experience. Rather, I want to give the school a fair chance and see how things go over time. That was all what I thought.

Well, if you think my mom went along with my response, then you will be shocked by what happened next. My mom could tell that I wasn't telling the whole truth, so she probed further.

"Just great? Nothing else to add?' she asked. But I was a skilled liar. I invented things that never happened and mixed them with some of the things that did happen. In other words, I mixed lies with truth and told my mom in a convincing way. I have to say, my acting skills were top-notch.

After our conversation about my first day at John Felix Academy, my mom fell asleep. I think work had been hectic for her that day, and she was tired. While she was asleep, I began drawing in my sketchbook to pass the time. I've gotten into the habit of drawing when there's no light, as a way to fight boredom.

An hour passed, and my mom woke up to find me doing my homework. Of course, I hadn't forgotten that I had homework to do.

I'm the type of person who does my homework whenever I feel like it, as long as I meet the deadline. I don't like rushing through my assignments, because I think I'm more likely to make mistakes if I do. I've never tested that theory for myself, though, because I've never rushed through my homework.

Anyway, when my mom saw me working on my homework, she said, "Oh, I'm glad to see you doing your homework, Paul. Why didn't you do it sooner? Were you busy drawing or something? Because if you had started right after I fell asleep, you would have been done by now."

She sat up straight and looked at me. I scratched my head nervously and gave her a shy smile. It had only been a few minutes since I started working on my homework before she woke up. I was doing my math assignment, and the problems were pretty easy.

After two hours, I finished my homework. My mom was busy preparing dinner in the kitchen, using a rechargeable touch light she had hung up nearby. I was still waiting for the electricity to come back on. After a few minutes, the lights flickered on. I was quick to turn on the TV, excited to watch my favorite show.

But right before I could settle in, my mom called me to come set the table for dinner. I reluctantly left the TV and went to help her. The delicious smell of stew and fried fish filled the kitchen, and I was looking forward to eating. I sat down at the table with my mom and began eating. The food was delicious, and we chatted as we ate.

After dinner, I cleared the table and washed the dishes. I was happy to help my mom, who had been working hard all day.

After I finished the dishes, I went back to the living room to watch TV. A few hours later, I went to my room to sleep, and I had a strange dream about Rebecca. In the dream, I was treated like her dog. It was very strange. I can't believe that I licked her shoes in front of my classmates because she ordered me to do so. That's the part of the dream that I'll never forget.

The next morning, I woke up early. I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth, then had a shower and ate breakfast. I had the same breakfast I had in the night. My mom simply reheated the food. In case you're wondering, I ate rice and stew.

After breakfast, I went with my mom to the bus stop, where we caught different buses. I was going to school, and she was heading to work. During the bus ride to school, I thought about how to deal with Rebecca.

Without being told, I knew she would definitely approach me at school to ask about the nonsense she'd said. The dream I had about her had actually made me angry. I realized what the girls meant by calling me her 'toy'. Rebecca definitely had an ulterior motive. I was prepared to be cold to her at school. While I was thinking, I soon found myself in front of the school gates.

On my first day at school, I didn't attend the assembly, but on my second day, I did. I went to drop my bag in class, and soon enough, I heard the bell for assembly. All the students rushed out to the school grounds and stood in orderly lines according to their classes. The girls and boys had separate lines. I stood in line with the other boys from my class. We all stood silently, waiting for the principal to start the assembly. The principal walked up to the front of the assembly and began to speak.

"Good morning, students," he said. "I'm pleased to see you all here today. Today, we will be discussing the importance of respect and responsibility. These are two very important values that we must all uphold at John Felix Academy. Without respect and responsibility, we cannot have a harmonious and productive school environment."
He continued to talk about the importance of these values, and I was listening Intently.

The principal continued his speech: "Respect is essential in any school community. We must respect our teachers, our classmates, and the school property. Without respect, there can be no learning. Responsibility is also important. We must be responsible for our actions and take ownership of our mistakes. If we are irresponsible, we will not be able to succeed in our studies. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

The students murmured in agreement, and the principal smiled. "Good," he said. "Now, let us recite the school pledge together."

We all recited the school pledge in unison, followed by the national anthem and pledge.

After that, the principal dismissed us, and we all started to march back to our classes while singing a school song. As I was marching back to my class, I thought to myself, "What a brief assembly!" It felt brief to me because in my previous school, Goldridge International School, the assemblies were much longer. We would sing praise and worship songs, do daily prayers, recite the national anthem and pledge, and then march back to our classes while singing a school song.

When I got to class, I barely spent ten minutes before I was called to the principal's office for my school uniform measurement. As you all know, my mom had paid for everything I would need at school on our first day. I went to the principal's office and met a woman holding a measuring tape. She was the school's tailor. I went up to her, and she measured me. After that, the principal dismissed me to go back to class.

Our first class that day was English. Our class representative, Joshua, went to get our English teacher. Mr. Adisa, our English teacher, taught us well, just like he had done the other day. I still enjoyed his class. After he was done teaching, we had Basic Science with Mr. Mathew, our Basic Science teacher. He also taught us Basic Technology. After that, we had Agriculture with Mrs. Susan, before we went for lunch break.

During lunch break, I stayed in the classroom. I'm sure you can guess why. Well, Rebecca stopped me from going outside. We sat in the same place we sat the other day when we first talked.

This is what happened next: Rebecca asked me about my decision regarding her proposal for us to be friends with benefits. I looked her straight in the eyes and told her I wasn't interested, and that what she was proposing was wrong for both of us. Her expression changed when she heard that.

At first, she looked disappointed. Then, in the next moment, She started insulting me, calling me a weakling, a scaredy cat, and a fool. But I just stared at her as if she was a picture. This really annoyed her, and I could tell she wanted to fight me. Luckily, the bell rang, signaling the end of break, and she stopped. She went and sat somewhere far away from me. I was relieved to have avoided a fight, but I knew our conversation wasn't over. She was still angry with me, and I knew she would confront me again later.

I turned my attention to my notebook and began reviewing my notes from earlier classes. But my mind kept wandering back to my conversation with Rebecca. I couldn't stop thinking about how annoying and forceful she was, insulting me just because I refused her proposal. It showed that she had bad intentions towards me.

I remained where I was seated as I began to wait for our Physical Health Education (PHE) teacher to come.

I'd like to make one thing clear: our seating arrangement had not yet been assigned by our form master, since it had only been a week since the semester had started.

While I was waiting, my seat mate, who was sitting close to me on my right, started picking his nose in a very disgusting manner. He was removing solid mucus from his nose and using it to rub the table. I felt like throwing up when I saw him do that. The guy kept doing this, and I was getting increasingly annoyed. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and snapped at him, saying, "Can you please stop doing that? It's very disgusting!"

All eyes turned to me, including those of my other seat mates. The guy just smiled at me in a strange way, almost like the Joker from Batman. Then, to my horror, he licked his mucus right in front of me, just to annoy me further. Nobody else in the room reacted to this gross behavior, and I was beginning to wonder if they were unaffected to this kind of thing. Maybe they had seen it so many times before that it didn't bother them anymore.

I was completely taken aback by the events that had just occurred. I was disgusted by the actions of my seat mate, but even more so by the fact that nobody else seemed to be bothered by it. I couldn't believe that no one else had the courage to say anything. I felt completely alone in my disgust.

I decided to sit somewhere else, as far away from my seat mate as possible. I walked to the other side of the room and sat down, putting my head in my hands. I couldn't believe that I had just experienced such a horrible thing. Not long after, our PHE teacher, Mr. Steven, walked in. He was an exciting teacher, and for a few minutes, I was able to forget the horrible thing that had happened in front of me. We had one more class, CRS, which was taught by Tutor Martha.

Tutor Martha's class was interesting, just like it had been the day before.

After that, the bell rang for break. I spent my break watching students play in the school compound, until it was over.

When the lesson classes resumed, I enjoyed them all, especially Tutor John's class. At the end of the day, we were all given assignments. The bell rang and I walked home. Fortunately, Rebecca didn't confront me again.

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