Monday couldn't come any sooner! I was excited! As much excited as a little girl who knows she had won a quiz and was to be presented her gift that very day! I was going to meet the SSG whom I had been able to attract to the school through my sheer hard work and emphasis on improved standards! Government College Mbasi was a mess during the previous school administration! Infrastructure was rapidly dilapidating! Academic performance was nose-diving! Corruption among staff was greater than ever witnessed in my time in the school! And the general school standard was woefully failing! I suddenly looked like the messiah! One who would have to upturn the fortunes of the school for good! Being a woman, many opposed my appointment and insisted that the work required a man, even when the previous administration was headed by a rather incompetent male idiot! Predictably, I had put all of them to shame! Within two years, I initiated the construction of 6 new classroom blocks and instilled new methods that effectively brought corruption to a stand-still! Academic performance drastically improved and we were soon top-listed in the state performance index after 4 years of abject ineffectiveness! There isn't any doubt that I had done wonders, and the visiting SSG was a living evidence to it!
Ironically though, as if to burst my biggest bubbles ever, the SSG's visit eventually turned out to have an entirely different agenda altogether! And of course, I'm yet to ever see myself so inwardly angry as much as I was for most of that day! I cussed and swore at her under my breath, wishing I had had a reason not to be in school that Monday! I was livid and bitterly disappointed! And even though I maintained a bright and an 'it's nice meeting you' kind of face, I so wished she could f**k off already! She had come with a full fleet, and had the entire school entrance cramped with Highlander Jeeps. She looked in a hurry but yet managed to have enough time to have a proper chat with me. Her mission was simple; her son wouldn't be staying in our dormitory which she even specifically described as 'a dog house'! He was being arranged to be a day student who would be attending school from town. Coincidentally, a relative of theirs whose family is supposed to accommodate him during his 6 years in our school, were currently on vacation in the UK. But since the lad has to resume school despite his new family's absence, he needed a place to 'squat' for a 'few' days! So….she needed me to accommodate her son, in my house, until the said new guardian returned! Needless explaining the rage that inexorably rose from my belly when I heard her! "C*nt!" I cussed…in my heart!
I just wished I had the power to give her a resounding slap! How could she?! A student, sleep in my house?! It was unbelievable! I didn't even know how to comprehend it! Couldn't just believe she requested for her son to squat with me! Which Principal allows that? If she wasn't guaranteed of accommodation for her son, she should have informed the school and requested for her son to resume as soon as she settled the admittedly pressing concern. Not for her to come request that I accommodate her little boy! It was just plain madness! No wonder people dislike politicians so much – I had to think – given how arrogant and downrightly insensitive they can be! A woman with her right mind wouldn't make such requests and what quite poured the salt into the injury was her added explanation that staying with me would give me extra advantage to keep an eye on him! Now I was also being suddenly made a guardian, and what quite made her think I wasn't supposed to equally have an eye on the thousands of students who were also part of the school, really beat me! She must have felt she had first refusal to the idea, being Mrs. SSG of course! "C*nt!" I inwardly cussed again!
Basically, after all said and done, I had no choice but to agree! She was the SSG and a no was always only going to bring me the sack! That is the situation of our country, where being a public officer literally made you next to God! All that would be required would be a flimsy phone call and my 27 years of hard work would be binned in less than a wink's time! I had to be clever! In as much as I wished I could pounce on her and give her the fight of her generation, I still knew that would only be the dumbest action on earth to take! I swallowed my pride and said a yes – maintaining that unending smile which of course, is more of a fake than anything else! Even her son, Samuel, wasn't looking like he deserved the favour one bit! He, in fact looked the most spoilt brat I had ever come across in my life! As I occasionally looked at him where he was seated on the sofa at my guest lounge, while having the talk with his mum, I only just wished I could get him on his belly and give his back the lashing of a lifetime! Offence or no offence, he looked spoilt and deserved brute discipline, as much as he could get! His pop heavily-studded face cap, which he chose to wear right-around, rather than the 'proper' way, was in every sense not keeping my spirit at peace! His mother was likely going to be his only 'saviour' while he would be with us, it appeared!
Soon, my conversation with the woman SSG was eventually over. Sam as she calls him, was going to say spend a 'few' days with me, even though the 'few' wasn't exactly specified. She also needed me to occasionally check him up during school hours even though I couldn't understand how I would combine such a role with that of being the principal head of the school! By the time she was set to leave anyway, Sam unfailingly confirmed my suspicions that he was more of the brat than anything else! So when he went on to ask his mom how he would be getting some 'pocket' money from her every week, I only just hissed under my breath bemoaning such a hapless method of raising a child! The rest of the students within the school are usually even lucky to get any monies transferred to their guardians' account monthly. And here was the lad asking for a weekly arrangement! And as though the boy's transgressions weren't enough already, her mom went on the promise that she would make sure she sent in a certain amount – which was apparently too large for a secondary school kid – every week through me! I literally collapsed! Not only was she sending a stupendous amount to a kid weekly, she also had chosen me of all people, to regularly hand it to him! I had to pity my life!
Subsequently, after the SSG's departure, I had some time to look up the young lad again! Basically, while he was young he wasn't going to exactly look so to his imminent classmates. From the documents in my hand, he was 17 years of age. Two years older than my daughter who was a class ahead of him. He was also rather on the bulky side! Despite being very young, one could see that he was definitely going to be super-athletic as he approaches his mid-20's! He was also admittedly good-looking even though his sense of fashion appeared like it would always make it count on the negative. Hence leaving you easily suspecting that he was more or less of a silver spoon and thus definitely a self-entitled arrogant ego-maniac, even for his age! His choice of words, didn't help his case either, and it was barely a full 10 minutes before he got into trouble with the teachers I called upon to clear him right in my office! I just kept seeing a kid I was never going to get along with, let alone accommodate in my house! As though I hadn't seen enough from him already, I had barely walked around my office a handful of times as the pressure of the day fervently returned, when I caught the little lad's eyes on my moving bum! Goodness knows her mum's public status was his only saving grace that instant, even though I barely reacted to catching his eyes! And this boy didn't just do this once, but a freaking 8 times!