BACK TO HIGH SCHOOL (TROUBLE)

Back in the good old days in secondary school, it was such a memorable one. One more than in elementary (primary) school, largely because there were not many personal adventures and we were not yet that mature to think for ourselves – the parents did the thinking for us.

Well, in school and due to the incessant advice from parents, I always tried my best to adhere to rules and stay from trouble. But you know children always want to explore new things and in doing so may tend to go against some rules or morals. Generally, I as well as other pupils do share similar kinds of disobedience to rules such as late-coming, dirty uniforms, bushy hair – my school strictly upholds low-cut for boys, etc. As you may have known, I was and still am a good boy, a studious one at that.

For the purpose of this edition, the only time and what I could call the major one that I got into trouble was due to the after-school football (soccer). You know, averagely, every boy in my society plays the game at least in their prime; whether you suck at it or a GOAT! Since I left primary school for a secondary school that was a bit far from home, I kind of had some freedom to do and undo. But for the first year, my journey could be predicted such that it was always from home to school and back home. No sooner had the closing bell rang than I left home, at that very minute.

It Started Here ...

It was in my second year that I started to wait behind for some minutes after school and see things. Then, I was introduced to the after-school football on Fridays, and man, I liked it. At times, we’d skip fellowship hours to go play at the pitch. This was because, at home, my playtime had been reduced. We had different locations where we meet with codenames only we could understand😉. This time I always got home late every Friday and you know mothers, she’d scold me and even threatened to report to my school but I kept doing that as a ritual.

In my fifth year in secondary school, my school introduced the formation and entry into the football (soccer) team. But I and my goons refused to join and kept doing our own. It was later on that we got the info that the reason for setting the team up was to stop students from doing the after-school thing. But we were coconut-headed beings🤣. Even the new coach beseeched us to hop in, we still declined by giving different excuses including that we were preparing for external exams which were in the next year. Can you imagine?

So, on one fateful Friday, in one of our locations (pitches) which were not very far from the road which was a frequent route for our school bus, we saw that the bus slowed down a bit and then zoomed off. It was as if someone was watching us. We kind of knew someone sighted us because there was no bus stop around there. Some minutes later, we saw the football team’s coach marching toward us. Some tried running to some kind of safety but it was too late. It later dawned on us that it was the Principal that drove the bus, saw us, and called the coach to come collect our names. Oh my, we felt doomed!

It Awaits

Fast forward to the next Monday’s morning, every one of us – the so-called culprits – resumed to school in double wears, and double shorts, all in expectant that there were some canes waiting to unleash their wrath on our backs, hands, or buttocks. We all thought it was all going to go down on the assembly ground during the morning prep but somehow it didn’t happen. So we thought maybe the Principal forgot and hoped it’d just erase from the timeline.

But we were wrong!

Some hours later, the coach came and said the Principal wanted to see us. Damn, this is the hour in which the son of man shall be tested with the rod. Long story short, we knelt down for what seemed like from sunrise to sunset in the Principal’s office. Then, after he addressed us we filed to feel some brunt of the cane. I cannot even remember the number of strokes but it was not painful as per group flogging. You know, we were seniors and some of us were prefects. But it was painful after we all returned to class like heroes 😎 and sat on those hot buttocks. This was the only time though that I received the highest amount of strokes in one stand.

But my dear people, this did not deter us. The next Friday saw us sweating and playing soccer but in another of our many pitches away from the prying eyes of any teacher or anyone to rattle us out.