It was on Monday morning. A bright sunny day and the first day of the second term academic session at the Nicho Hilson high school.
Student gathered in the school compound with their uniforms neatly worn. Boys from the junior classes wore white short sleeve shirts on black trousers while girls wore black pinafores on white shirts. It's was white long sleeve shirts on black trousers for boys in the senior classes and white long sleeve shirt on black skirt for the girls.
Assembly starts at 7:30am every morning. Students who came early gathered at the assembly ground while late comers were held at the school gate and punished by the school prefects either made to pick littering objects in the school compound, made to cut grasses or simply flogged.
Stephan looked upset as he walked side by side with his mom into the school compound. Mrs. Susan, Stephan's mom, called out to a student walking down the hallway and after a brief conversation, the student pointed them in a direction.
"Thank you dear" Mrs. Susan said as she walked off with Stephan with his face still prematurely wrinkled with frown.
Knock! knock!! Mrs. Susan called out before entering the school principal; Mr. Anayo's office.
"Please come in and have a seat" Mr. Anayo said pointing to a chair laying just in front of his old office desk with half of it's surfece covered in papers and files.
"Good morning Sir" Mrs Susan greeted as she made herself comfortable on the chair.
"Morning and welcome" Mr Anayo said smiling with his lips tight and left cheek slightly raised. "How may I help you?" He continued
"This is my son Stephan and we had come to seek admission into your school" Mrs Susan said turning her head to look at Stephan who was still standing behind her with his hands crossed against his chest staring at an old picture of students in their sport wears hanging from the wall of the principal's office.
"Hello Stephan, how are you?" Mr Anayo asked looking at Stephan.
"I'm good" he replied quickly restoring his frown once again.
After series of briefings and signatures, Mr Anayo showed Mrs Susan and Stephan to the cashier's office for the admission fee to be paid.
"You can resume lessons once you have your school uniforms, desk and stool ready" Mr Anayo said after a short walk with the two into the school compound.
"Thank you sir, he will resume immediately these things are made available, have a nice day Sir" Mrs Susan said sharing a smile and handshake with Mr Anayo
A week later Stephan resumed school and was shown to his class, the SS2A since he was a science student. He sat at the extreme end of the classroom with his face most at times buried in his desk.
After a lesson session the bell went and it was time for the long break. Stephan was sitting with his face still on his desk when a voice waved into his ears
"Hello" the voice said in a calm friendly voice
Stephan played dumb and showed no sign of response.
"Hey bro" the voice said again with a soft tap on his left shoulder "you good?" It said with Stephan raising his head.
" What is it?" Stephan asked with a quick frown
"I'm Gabriel, the young Swain and this is my buddy, Tony" He said with his hand stretched out for a hand shake. Without taking the hand Stephan exhaled and said "nice to meet you Swain, Tony" as He let his head fell back on the desk.
"What's your name bro?" Swain asked.
Stephan still with his head tight on the desk pulled out an excercise book and place it on his desk so as to enable Swain see for himself his name.
"Nice to meet you Stephan" Swain said "we're going out for break if you'd like to join us" Tony added
Stephan didn't reply. After a brief silence Swain and Tony turned around and left