Rants & Random

Rant #6

I had a crappy first experience in boarding school.

I was the first JS1 girl (7th grader) to arrive on resumption day (at about 7/8 am) because my mum wanted me to get a good bed space and locker.

After I was checked in by the house mothers on duty, some IGCSE students (mainly some SS2 and SS3 - 11th and 12th graders- that had resumed school earlier than everyone else (it's called extension) helped me carry my things to my room and helped my unpack some of my things.

They all had a fun time speaking to my mum.

At some point, they had to leave, so my mum and I continued to unpack my things.

I hadn't eaten much that morning, so my mum had packed a sachet of Golden Morn and a pack of plantain chips because she figured that the school wouldn't have planned to make extra breakfast for the new students (maybe lunch, but definitely not breakfast)

I started to eat the Golden Morn dry (I like it like that 😊) while my mum continued to unpack my things.

Note: She was not more than an arm's length away from me.

One of the IGCSE students came in and saw me eating.

Then she asked me, "why are you eating"

I had just poured that round of Golden Morn into my mouth and was still chewing it.  It naturally would have taken me some time to finish what was in my mouth because it was dry.

And I most definitely did not want to talk with food in my mouth (good manners right?)

So I pointed to my mouth to signify that I was still chewing (even though it was quite obvious since my mouth was moving)

She asked a few seconds later and again after that (I was still chewing it)

And then, she did the unexpected.

She slapped me!

Remember that I said my mum was sitting less than an arm's length away from me (she was beside me).

The guts right?

I was in shock while my mum was calming herself down.

She scolded her and told one of the older girls what happened. The older girl apologized on behalf of the former one and promised to talk to her.

After that, I was highly shaken and that spoilt my expectations entirely

The day went on and my mum was one of the last parents to leave (she left when it was time for all the students to go to the chapel) and naturally, I cried- no sorry, I bawled my eyes out. 

I literally cried for most of the rest of the day.

My cousin's cousin was a senior in that school, so she calmed me down.

Fast forward to a few days later - we had orientation and parents came (they also had their orientation earlier on, so thy were allowed to see us in the chapel).  So my mum told me what she had been doing the past few days and also told me that she had reported the slapping incident to the administrator and that she (the administrator) apologized and promised to take care of the issue.

Later that day (or was it the next- I'm not so sure), the slapper (that's what I'll call her here) came to meet me during lunch and was like "thank you very much, you hear? Thank you"

And I didn't understand why. 

One of her classmates, who was my tablehead told her to calm down.