Overfamiliarity breeds contempt 2

BOOK 2- CONTEMPT

SS2. I managed to avoid Basil’s ass-whooping, not entirely, but the only notable injuries I received from the rod weren't from him; it was from his other security colleague called Sars (story for another day: a lot of screaming and blood involved).

Well, I did say two teachers threatened me, and I had escaped one. The other was the house master for SS2. I avoided him for the first four days of resumption. We were made prefects on Thursday, and I left his hostel for good, escaping the opps. Or did I?

See, I was made the Assistant Laboratory/Library and Social Prefect, and that put me in charge of the labs. It also made me privy to the place where the keys for the inner office were kept. The office consisted of two desks: Sir M’s and Mrs. Oruche’s (The chemistry teacher for SS2).

These desks kept confidential files and also sometimes abused elements, like the sodium metal, which if put in water will produce tiny bursts of fire. I loved it; I might have been a little bit of a pyromaniac in my day.

Case in point, I had access, and with access came whatever the saying said, mehn.

Rite of passage: The previous laboratory prefect would take you under his wing and teach you how to maximize the opportunities that came with your post. One piece of information was that the week before practical exams, the white papers were normally kept in the office.

Whitepaper: A piece of paper containing the different types of chemicals that are to be used in the practical exams.

It's like entering the kitchen and seeing tomatoes and eggs; you can already deduce it's yam and egg sauce that's to be made for lunch. That's what the whitepaper did: to eliminate the need to prepare for inconsequential practicals. When you know the chemicals, you know the angle the questions are going to come from.

Sooooooo—a day came when I went on the hunt for the whitepaper in the office. I found it. I was in the middle of copying it when a flashlight flooded the office. Lo and behold, it was Basil. He asked me what I was doing, and I lied, saying Sir M sent me to get something. He didn't. Strike one.

Basil went about his business up until the next time he saw me with Sir M and asked him if he was the one who sent me. Of course, he wasn't.

I was asked what I was doing there. I grasped for straws and came up with I was taking sodium metal to play with. Everyone’s thoughts went to stealing. LMAO, I was flogged eh —like 12 to the back

by who? Sir M... I was sent to the Ghetto too, spent about 4 hours inside.

After my punishment, I went to his house, and he told me something that never left me till now: Overfamiliarity breeds contempt.

I felt it was okay to lie with his name because I became too familiar; I abused our relationship. Long story short, there was a fracture. I wasn't Little M anymore. I stopped being one of Mrs. Oruche’s favorite students to teach because I was caught "trying to steal from her purse".

Basil got his getback, and I lost close relationships with both of my teachers.

Did I spill the truth? Hell nah! I allowed the stealing narrative because the white paper story wasn't any better. My classmates ended up reading for the right practicals; I ended up with blood on my back and broken trust that I didn't manage to fix until I left school. You can't have it all.

Did I learn anything? Of course, if you are going to do something illegal, don't be caught, lmao, just kidding..

It taught me not to take people’s favour and friendship for granted, they can easily retract the hand with the same ease that they stretched it with.

Ciao, don't be like me.