Bolaji stepped into Martins's house, feeling ill at ease; he wasn't expecting the other classmates there and wished his friend had told him about the others. Martins had invited his very close friends at school over on Saturday without telling him the purpose of the gathering.
"You didn't mention that they were here," Bolaji stuttered, pulling back Martins behind the door curtain.
"I know you wouldn't come if I told you. They don't bite," Martins replied and pulled Bolaji outside the curtain.
"Hi, Bolaji," The other classmates chorused upon seeing him, and Bolaji just waved, forcing a smile off his face.
Everyone knew Bolaji as a timid guy, and they barely expected anything from him when it came to expressing himself, so they went straight to the purpose of the meeting.
"I gathered you guys because of something I discovered about our school examination style," Bolaji paused, and everyone paid attention.
"I discovered that the school has been repeating exams over the years," He concluded and reached for some A4 papers carefully arranged on the center table.
"Check them out, I carefully collected these past questions. We can't let anyone know about them," He gave the papers to his friends and they checked it thoroughly.
"You mean the same examination the previous SS2 did is what was repeated for us?" Bolaji asked still staring at the past questions he was holding.
"Yes, that's it. Check the years and classes, they are different but the questions are all the same. No difference whatsoever," Martin replied, feeling like he had just won a jackpot while the other students felt really happy.
"So, what's the essence of this?" Bolaji asked and the living room went quiet immediately.
"Essence? You don't get it?" Esther, one of the girls asked.
"I guess he doesn't. He doesn't get anything," Emmanuel teased and everyone burst into laughter.
"Don't mind us. The essence of this is that we have the opportunity to top the class," Martins replied to Bolaji's question.
"I still don't get it," Bolaji stuttered.
"Common, just say you aren't interested. Stop playing games here," Emmanuel replied.
"I am not interested because this is of no use. Exams are meant to test our understanding, and you know what cheating means," Bolaji replied and immediately stood from the chair.
"How do we even know if those topping the class aren't using this," Martins tried convincing his friend.
"Let them do it because the real test is still ahead. We don't need this," Bolaji paused.
"But why? Do you really need this?" Bolaji stuttered, turning to Martins.
"There is no big deal. Let's get the respect and recognition too," Martins replied.
"Not this way," Bolaji replied and left. Martins followed him but couldn't convince his friend to be part of their scheme.
"You shouldn't have involved Bolaji. You of all people, should know how he behaves," Esther said immediately after Martins returned inside.
"He is my friend, just like everyone here," Martin replied, and they moved on with their meeting. At the end of the meeting, everyone made photocopies of the past questions while Martins made extra for Bolaji.
He didn't stop persuading him to take the past questions but Bolaji wasn't really interested. Weeks passed, and the school examination timetable was pasted, but something unusual happened.
Unsplash
Bolaji was heading to the school notice board when he heard students complaining about the number of papers they would do in a day. It used to be two papers daily, but this time, each department or class will take three papers, meaning the exams will last for just three days.
Bolaji was surprised, too, and just copied the timetable. He expressed his concerns about how hard he needs to study more because of how the exams would be rushed.
"That's one of the reasons why you should take the past questions. I and the others aren't even bothered," Martins's response angered Bolaji, and he went to the library.
He doubled his reading time, and even when the temptation to take the past questions came up, he assured himself that he would do just fine in the forthcoming examination.
Bolaji did his best in studying and on the first day of the examination, the unexpected happened. The examination questions were different from what's in the past questions and just like Martins had said, they weren't the only ones who studied with the past questions.
There were lots of murmurs in the examination halls, and the teachers had to put things under control immediately.
Martins hurried home after closing hour and Bolaji had to check on him to be sure everything was fine. Upon arriving at his house, Martins lamented about how he barely answered a few questions correctly and was scared about not getting promoted.
"I need to study for the remaining exams," He told Bolaji, who left immediately, too.
Martins and all the students who depended on the past questions didn't get enough time to prepare and it was a mass failure in the school that term.
Parents and teachers were disappointed about the results, and the principal had to open up about some things during the school end-of-the-term gathering. It was just for students but parents had to be invited.
"We discovered that a lot of students were using past questions, which is good, but the mistake on our side was that we didn't see the need to change the questions."
"Repeating questions has been a tradition here and we thought it was a secret until recently. So we had to fasten the examination and also change questions to know how much damage we had caused from our mistakes."
"Sadly, the extent of the damage was bigger than what we imagined. Only about 12% of the school clearly didn't depend on the past questions, and from these little numbers, we will select our best students for this term. We hope the culprits of all this mess learn from their mistakes," The principal rounded up his speech and announced the best students in each department.
Bolaji was announced as the best student compared to his previous regular ninth position in the class. He was happy and wished Martins hadn't taken the shortcut. Martins regretted his actions but his relationship with his friend turned sour as he and his other friends believed that Bolaji had a hand in how the school got to know him.
