Teenage Tendency

Chapter Ten

The room was large but smaller than the main principal's office. I rarely come in here except to give testimony to those who have gone against the school rules.

It was large and devoid of any warmth. The walls were painted white, and at the edge of the room, close to the window, there was a polished table with black cushions on the top desk, surrounded by one padded chair in front of the wall, closer to the window, and two padded chairs on the other side of the table.

The school rules, listed on laminated paper, were hung on a nail that was nailed to the wall. I sat on one of the chairs and looked at Mrs. Stanley Eze. She was looking at an exercise book, but when I tried to take a glance, she closed it, opened a drawer, and threw the book inside.

“I'm disappointed in you,” she said in an irritated voice. “I get that you are still children, but with the others, I can fathom their behavior. But with you, I am so disappointed and ashamed for you.”

If Amaka says, ‘I'm disappointed in you’, I just laugh and would never wonder or think about why she would ever be, because I shouldn't think of disappointing people.

They will naturally be disappointed because things didn't go their way or they didn't like what happened.

I wouldn't care if Cynthia said it or one of my schoolmates said it.

But there are some sorts of people you hold in high regard. Those kinds of people whose curriculum vitae had been ticked excellently by many sources. Those that don't dwell on people's emotions or what society thinks. Those that are guided by rules and regulations.

Mrs. Stanley Eze was one of them. She wasn't just disappointed. She just couldn't understand why I did what I did. I mean, her star student just committed a rule against the school.

Anyone would be disappointed.

“What happened? I never gave the others a chance to explain, but you... What happened?”

I thought about what had happened.

I was so bored and empty. Nothing interested me back then except that. I didn't regret what I did, but I wish I had chosen something else that would give me the same euphoria as Cynthia did.

Now that I look at it, most of my moments were really cringy and embarrassing.

Had I actually done that?

But I can't tell Mrs. Stanley any of those. She would never understand what I felt. 

“I was curious. I just thought, Let me try it and see. I did, and after a few times, I dropped it.”

“Jenny did say you led her to other atrocious misdeeds in the school,” she said.

“Jenny?”

She looked at me and said, without missing a bit,
“My detective. Odinma, what you did wasn't good. Do you know that now?”

I nodded and looked down.

“But it doesn't save you from expulsion. Someone else will represent us at the chemistry competition. But I'll give you a recommendation for any school you would like to attend except a boarding school. We will monitor you closely to see if you've improved.”

“Thank you, ma,” I said.

It's not easy to get a recommendation from a school that expelled you, but her recommendation will help me secure a good school.

With renewed determination, I decided not to blow it.

“I shouldn't be doing this, but your talents will be wasted if you don't enter a good school,” she mumbled.