Boarding School Stories I: The Bully (Long Post Alert)

I was just thinking about how I had all these crazy – and sometimes life changing – experiences in boarding school and I decided to start blogging about my boarding school experiences. I decided to start with the one story that had everyone wondering about me after the 2T1L meme. I'm trying to give the whole story here, so it might be a little long, bear with me.

I was an SS3 student, eager to write WAEC and be done with secondary school; I just wanted to get out of that hellhole (that was how I felt about my school at the time). This one girl whom I shall call Bolo had become a friend over the earlier months of the second term. I don't know how it happened but we became pretty close. She was in SS2 at the time. It was surprising for me because I'm not one to become close with someone easily; I'd found that I was too trusting and I'd had one too many people take advantage of me. Anyways back to the story.

I can't remember clearly if it was second term or third term but we were told to get our money for the WAEC exams and some other fees. I went home and got the money from my dad, it was about 5000 naira I got in total, and my dad had decided to add a little pocket money for me too. I got back to school pretty late that evening from home (the woes of public transport in Nigeria), so I couldn't pay or deposit the money with the teacher who 'kept' my money for me. I decided to hide it in my koala bear bag; nobody but me, my school daughter and Bolo knew that the koala bear actually was a bag, it just looked like a stuffed animal to everyone else. I locked the bear in my locker for the night. The only times I left my corner that evening were when I had to use the restroom and I made sure my locker remained locked.

The following morning I went to get my money to pay for the fees and it was gone! Not some of it, all of it. I called everyone in my dorm together and started questioning them to see if anyone knew where the money had gone or if they had seen anyone suspicious activity around my locker or corner as a whole. The majority of the people indicated that they hadn't seen anything and they didn't know anything about the money. A few people, however, indicated that they thought Bolo was responsible. I didn't believe it at all; Bolo wasn't even in the same dorm, and she was my close friend. She wouldn't steal from me, and I hadn't even told anyone that I got any money from home. Sure one or two things had gone missing in the past, but it surely was because I was somewhat careless. Those things hadn't been stolen, had they?

I had a lot to think about, and I had to get that money before it got spent. Things were hard at home; my dad couldn't just come up with that amount of money just like that. My school daughter had spent the night in another dorm; I hadn't even seen her till after I discovered the money was lost, and people could vouch for her, so that eliminated her. I decided to call Bolo and talk to her, to find out if it could be possible that she did that. Bolo came over and before I could even get around to saying anything she was already getting an attitude with me. I decided to play it cool so it wouldn't be like I was abusing power (I was deputy head girl at the time) or trying to jeopardize our friendship. When we finally got around to really talking, she started with the theatrics: she got angry, she cried, she used every emotion that ever was. I was feeling bad until she said, "I don't know why you would think I stole your 5000 naira." I was like ermm…seeing as I never indicated how much was stolen, and it wasn't the exact amount for the WAEC fees, how would she have known how much was stolen? I didn't think rationally, I just saw red. I still gave her a chance to confess but she wouldn't so I started administering corporal punishments, and I told her to come get me when she decided to tell the truth, and then left the dorm.

My mates decided to take over where I left off and she still wouldn't tell the truth. Finally when I got back one of my mates asked her and she confessed. She then proceeded to boast about how she'd spent part of the money. I felt so betrayed and humiliated. In my mind, she had played me and I just couldn't bear the thought that someone close to me had betrayed my trust. I saw a deeper shade of red, lost my temper, and hit that girl. In dorm then if you were a thief, you would get in a lot of trouble. Jungle justice, as it was called, would be administered. After I had hit her, my anger was somewhat sent, so I left and went to another dorm and slept. If I'd stayed there, I might've wounded her, I was that angry. I don't know what happened after that for the rest of the evening.

The next morning I was called to the principal's office and once I stepped in I was told to kneel down and then I was just slapped and beat on. Nobody even told me what I'd done wrong, and in my daze I didn't think back to the issue of the previous evening. Finally me and three other girls were told that we were heartless bullies and that we had wounded Bolo so bad that she needed stitches on her thigh. She claimed that the three other girls told her to sleep on the top of the locker room and she'd fallen and cut herself. I was held as the instigator. That day was hellish for me. I was beaten, flogged, my hair was cut, I was paraded around the dorms as a bully (with my hair cut and my back bloodied from the vice principal flogging me), and then to top it off, I was suspended.

What hurt me the most was that Bolo walked around with a smirk, still spending that money and boasting about how she'd taken care of me to everyone. I found out that she'd stolen before (which is weird since her parents were stinking rich). She never paid a dime of that money. Heck, my dad even sent her money when he got posted outta the country. My dad was so disappointed in me…he said I'd embarrassed myself and ruined my "spotless school record". He took exception though to the fact that the vice-principal had beat me so much that he'd left scars on my back and arms. The man just always had it out for me and just used that as an excuse.

Before I left that school, the other VP (the one who cut my hair) called me and apologized. She'd found out about Bolo's criminal past, and she'd inspected that locker room. She said there was nothing in that locker room that would've caused that type of injury. She though it must have been self-inflicted. She said she shouldn't have pushed for me to get so much punishment and that they overreacted. It was cold comfort for me; the damage had already been done. There were worse cases of actual bullying that didn't receive such punishment or attention.

So yeah. That's the story of how I became a bully in secondary school. Looking back on it I probably shouldn't have lost my temper like that. I also learnt to pick my friends more carefully after that!

Nodi nu ofuma!