A sheep that moves with dogs will eat faeces

This is a story my mum told me when I was young. She told me the story so I could stay away from bad friends and avoid bad company.

The story goes thus;

There was once a girl named Sarah. She had a friend Rehoboth, a close friend of hers. They've been friends right from the first day she joined high school. Sarah joined the school in grade 2, but now they were in grade 7, which is now called SS3 (senior secondary 3). Some students get jealous of their friendship. Even the teachers do cherish the two best friends, most of the teaches call them twins. They do things together. Both their parents rented house in the same apartment, so they go to school together and come back home together

In their last semester in grade 7, a new student joined their school. Her name was Clara. Clara was a bad girl. Few weeks after she joined the school, she already had boyfriend. She was placed in the same group with Rehoboth for a chemistry practical. She somehow managed to get into Rehoboth's mind and told her to come to a party. Rehoboth did go to the party without telling Sarah. From there she began to do the bad things with Clara. She had her own boyfriend too with Clara's influence. They all go to parties and night club together. Sarah noticed and warned Rehoboth of the new friend she's keeping, but she turned deaf ears to her.

In Nigeria once you are in the 7th grade (SS3) you are almost done with your secondary school. The only thing between you and leaving secondary school is a final examination called WAEC west African examination council. Which is not only written by Nigerians, as the name implies, It is written by all West African countries.

Few weeks before the exams Sarah called her friend and ask her to create time for them to read, but Rehoboth said she had no time. She was busy enjoying with her new friend.

The exam they have been looking forward to came, Sarah's Seat number was 023 while Rehoboth's was 127. So they weren't close at all. Their first paper was further mathematics. Sarah answered the questions very well, but Rehoboth on the other hand was busy looking around without knowing what to write down. After the exam ended, Sarah walked up to Rehoboth to ask how the exam was, she couldn't talk, because she knew she didn't do well, same as her boyfriend and Clara.

Their next paper was 2 days after the further mathematics exam. The trio Clara, Rehoboth and their boyfriends went to their gathering as usual. Rehoboth's boyfriend brought a deadly advise. He told them to do examination malpractice . They bought the idea and didn't think of the consequences.

They wrote the answers down and hid it as they went into the exam hall on the day of Biology. As usual Sarah did the best she could. Rehoboth and her friends signalled each other, they brought out the paper they wrote the answers and began to copy. Fifteen (15) minutes to the end of the exam, an invigilator caught Clara cheating. She saw the paper on her and took her script and tore it into two, asked for her name, and wrote it down. WAEC is known for her zero tolerance for Exam malpractice. The invigilator then said her name will be sent to the council and she would be banned from writing WAEC no matter the school she changes to. When Clara heard this she began to cry. So as not to be the only one caught, she exposed Rehoboth and their boyfriends. They searched them and found out they were doing malpractice as well. The three of them were also called out. They all began to weep and started begging. The invigilator wrote their names down as well and sent the four of them out of the hall. The invigilator told the students that they were used as scapegoat, that whosoever is caught cheating will suffer the same fate. After the exam that day, Sarah as usual was going home straight, as she was about to get home, she saw Rehoboth crying under a tree, she couldn't go home, how will she tell her parents?

Sarah then said; I warned you when you were walking with them, but you refused. Now look at where they led you to.

As the saying goes; A sheep that moves with dogs will eat faeces and a dog that moves with goats will eat yam peelings.

This was where mum ended her story. I have been following her advise since then, and it has never failed me.

Thanks for reading 💕💕🙏🙏

Rehoboth no longer follows Sarah home. She goes with Esther, they don't go home directly ,they go to their boyfriend's place first. On Fridays they go to parties with some boys in their class.