My Bully became my Partner- in-Crime

Hello my amazing friends. I'm so sorry I was off yesterday and i couldn't visit your articles. I wasn't feeling too well. I promise to visit as much articles as I can as soon as possible.

Well , When I was in senior high school, there was this tomboy in my class. Rita had always had the mannerism and guts of a boy. This was probably due to the fact that she was the only girl among five brothers and they were always together. Anywhere are brothers are gathered, she'd also be present. Rita even played football well. She often was the goalkeeper protecting their fortress while are brothers go out to attack.

Rita was so annoying and tricky that it always gives me the idea that the only reason why she comes to school every morning was just to torment other students both the boys and girls alike.

Whenever a boy in class gets a new haircut (the type that's very common among African males), she'd smack him at the nape of the head and incessantly tease him. This ofcourse could be very painful and whenever her victim grumbles, she'd threaten him and challenge him to a fight . Rita would further go ahead and boast about the number of boys she had beaten up.

Rita had a very dense brain, she was entirely aloof with studies. She never solicited the assistance of other students in an assignment or a test. During a test, she'd always stare at her blank sheet with callous indifference while nibbling on her finger nails through out the duration of time. Then when the results are out and she had floundered terribly, she'd only give a casual hiss and sometimes curse the subject teacher.

The two biggest boys in class were friends with Rita and they were bullies too. Unlike Rita, her two friends never bedeviled other students. As a matter of fact, they were quite friendly to the smarter students in class who were wise enough to assist them with their assignments. I never had any problems with her companions, I even whispered answers to them during tests and exams. No need to mention that they became fond of me.

I had always hitherto kept a safe distance from Rita, not because I was actually afraid of her but because I never had time for such students. Suddenly, Rita began to pick on me. Maybe she became jealous of the new closeness between me and her two friends. As the weeks passed, her attempts became bolder and she'd call me Silly names when we are out for break, just to trigger a laughter from other students and make me feel bad. I still continued to ignore her, thereby making a fool out of herself instead.

Then one day , she went the extra mile.i returned to class after the break and found Rita walking all over my seat and desk with her dusty shoes. This made me really angry but I was determined to continue to give her the silent treatment. I had already turned my back on her, about to walk away when she pulled at locks of my hair. It was obvious she couldn't continue to bear the psychological torture I had been dishing her.

Sharp pains shot out from my root hairs through my scalp and I turned around immediately to confront my tormentor. I was so maddenned by rage that I pushed her down roughly from the seat she was standing and she crashed on the hard floor with a full thud.

As soon as she was sprawled all over the floor, I squated on top of her and started decking her quick but automatic slaps with both hands and on both sides of her cheeks as she tried to shield her face . I continued to hit her on the sides on the head, elbows and the arms. Other students were already screaming with excitement. Finally she was able to push me away from her. We were about to continue the scuffle when a teacher entered the class and came between us.

Honestly that was the first time in my life I had engaged in a fight. I never thought i had the strength for a physical brawl, let alone fighting and beating up someone like Rita who was feared by virtually all students. I was so surprised at myself that I began to shed tears. Rita on the other hand was acting like a wounded lioness. The teacher had to give her one more slap before she could calm down. Our teacher took a long look at me, I could see that he was very disappointed and I felt hot shame on my face. He also never thought a student of my Calibre could ever be found fighting.

Both of us were sent to the principal's office to be given the appropriate punishment for behaving shameless. Now, the school principal also doubled as the discipline master. He was feared by all students for his unassailable mastery of the whip. I had already started crying even before getting to the office. As an obedient student, I had always dreaded the whip and also made absolutely sure that i avoided every situation that would warrant the edges of a whip falling on my body.

As luck would have it, the principal was not in the office at the time. So, the teacher asked us kneel down in the office and await his return.

I was kneeling down near the open window of the office. From my position, i could see the principal outside, few meters away from the windows. He was obviously engaged in serious conversation with a visiting parent. Rita was kneeling in an opposite direction at the other end of the room. She was still staring at me with a murderous gaze but she wasn't my problem anymore. I was only thinking about the principal's whip. I also thought that the principal would be disappointed in me too and I felt worse.

Just to avoid Rita's stare, I decided to fix my gaze on the principal's desk that was in front me. Seconds after I started observing the big desk and it's contents, a big bundle of notebooks caught my attention. Dragging my knees on the floor, I moved some inches towards the desk to get a closer look.

Lo and behold! They were the note books containing the exam questions of all the subjects. Each subject teacher had submitted their questions to the principal office and they would all be ready for printing before the commencement of the exams the following week.

I beckoned on Rita to come closer and she was quite confused at the sudden change of expression in me. I quickly pointed to the principal's table and told her that I just saw all of our exams questions.

Rita immediately rushed towards me and together we started going through all the eleven note books containing the exam questions of the eleven subjects we were being taught.

Rita couldn't contain her excitement and started laughing out loud. I quickly pointed out of the window where the principal was still talking with a parent and she shut up immediately.

Then we organized a strategy. I told her to keep watching out for the principal while I copied as much exam questions as I could on the waste papers i found on the floor and in the bin since I was faster in writing.

Rita kept watching the principal from the window curtains as she beckoned on me to write faster. With a mischievous grin, Rita would jump up and down and clap her hands in excitement. She was going to pass her exams for the first time in many years. The smile she had was big enough to tear her face into two. She obviously couldn't believe her luck. I remained focused on my task. One or twice, we gave each other a "high five" and continued at our respective duties.

Finally I finished copying most of the difficult questions especially from mathematics, chemistry and physics. Together with Rita, we stuffed the papers into our socks, bras, and under our berets. We were laughing like hyenas as we did this. We then drank two glasses of water from the the principal's water dispenser. We even did some quick silly dances in the office before the principal returned.

The principal was quite surprised that we didn't recoil to the whipping as painfully as he had expected. Rita even maintained a mild smile as she was being flogged. If only he knew what had just happened in the office, I'm very sure he would have used a gun instead.

With our hands locked together, and smily faces, I and Rita walked back to class in a queenly manner. The other students were already eagerly waiting for our arrival. Most of them were getting set to burst out laughing as soon as they set their eyes on us. When they saw us together, they became so confused that they couldn't say anything for some moments.

"What happened,Why are you both looking so happy, Were you not punished by the principal??? The rest of the class members kept asking as they form a crowd around us.

Rita told them that the principal gave us a lot of candies and encouraged us to fight again next time. I found this very funny and the both of us burst into a heavy laughter, leaving the class members more confused than ever.

Me and Rita became very close after that day. We would always meet at her house and practice the exams questions together before the commencement of an exam the following week.

I would have love to tell you that we both emerged first positions in class but........... The whole story is fictitious ad it never happened. All my life, I have never engaged in examination malpractice and would never be part of it even if presented the opportunity 😂😂😂

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