[It is nighttime, Sunday. From the bird's-eye view of a gated community, we zoom in on the pink house between the turquoise house and gold house of the stretch of 4 single family (detached) homes. We are inside the home, in the 18 x 20 feet hall, where we see two people seated behind a dining table. An old couple with the man being in his late 50s and the lady in her early 60s. And this is what ensued:]
Old woman: It's getting late. Let's speak to him before he sleeps. Are you ready?
Old man: Alright love.
Tell him I'm calling him [He tells the young man seated in the couch watching the telly. The young man then goes upstairs, kicks a door open and calls out]
Young man: Yo they calling you.
[The boy leaves with him and when he got down he was asked to sit. His parents (the old couple) begun addressing him]
Dad: Boy?!? Tomorrow you're headed to SHS. After finishing….what do they call that thing now? Primary and JHS——YES Basic School. After finishing Basic school you're now heading to Senior High. And as such we expect you know things won't stay the same.
After spending these 3 months lazing about, running up my bills, eating all my foo—
Mom: Aaaanyway, what daddy was heading towards was that things should change.
[She began to organize her thoughts and went on her knees and spoke, as she spoke her voice began to speak in sobs] Philip, please don't repeat what you did in basic school. The fights, skipping school even though you took money with the intention of going to school, destroying bulbs and chairs and—oh dear God my heart. Philip please I beg you, stop it.
[She began crying and her husband lowered himself from the chair, embraced his wife and was consoling her. In a somber gentle tone, with his gruff voice, he spoke to Philip]
Dad: Philip, as you can see, we're growing old. Your mom has done incredibly well to raise you four and you can bear witness. Philip, let it all end now. The fights, destroying school property, the reports….we are old. We can't be coming to your school three times in four days. Please, have mercy on us...pity us small. I beg you, let it end.
Philip: [In a remorse-filled voice] I promise you Ma, I won't give you cause to worry anymore. I promise you both…it ends tonight.
Dad: Good good, now go to bed…it's almost 10. We're leaving at dawn tomorrow so don't stay up late. [While still consoling his now calmer wife]
[Philip nods and then goes to his room, was watching videos till it was 11 getting to dead of night, and then he passed out while the video was still playing. He was woken up at 4:31 am, asked to take his bath and get ready in 3 minutes]
[He and his dad alone went to the school. His dad was driving and almost three junctions to the school, they met a plumb-and-heavy kid carrying some stuff heading to the direction of the school. His dad pulled over and asked him to join them when the boy told them he was going to the same place they were]
[The time was 8:44 as they arrived at the school gate which was open. When his dad honked the horn, the security then came and his dad asked for the boarding houses, but the security directed him to the administration square where they would check his son's status. He went to the administration square (the square as it was called), 3 stretches of single-storey buildings. The square was teeming with students…some in uniform and others in "informal" attire who were scuttling about and almost all of them were dealing with manual registration]
[The administration room was the office of the assistant head teachers; assistant head academic and assistant head administration. Right beside their office was the Science lab, which was followed by the two "special" classes, and the last class on that stretch was the room that contained the offices of the Senior House Master and Senior House Mistress. Philip, accompanied by his father, presented an admission slip to the Senior House Master first who then after inspecting, stamped it, and referred him to the Assistant Head Administration, Sir Bonaventure, who also stamped it after reviewing it once more. They were directed to the boarding house and he said;]
Mr. Bonaventure: Mr Addams, we would kindly plead with you to return Wednesday. We would hold an opening ceremony where we would welcome the freshers and some crucial forms would be signed.You may escort your son to the building but you won't be allowed inside their rooms. There are visiting rooms downstairs where if it pleases you you may wait for him as he packs his luggage. You could then spend the day with him if you choose to, you may stay, as it is 10 am but we would require all visitors to vacate the premises at 4pm per school regulations. Welcome to Valder Senior High School.
[After expressing their gratitude to Sir Bona, they made their way to the boys' boarding house. Enclosed by a sturdy wall, the house boasted two gates: a grand one for vehicles directly facing the building, and a smaller one for pedestrians on the right side. The space within the walls stretched 40 steps from the main gate to the building and 85 steps from either side, creating an expansive courtyard. The boarding house itself stood tall at four stories, each floor equipped with a shared bathhouse and lavatory, alongside five rooms. Down on the ground floor, three spacious divisions awaited.The first room (from the right) was the resident house master's room which was designed like a living quarters with appropriate divisions. The next room (middle) was the visitors' room (also called visiting room) and last room (left) was the dining hall where they had breakfast, lunch and dinner. The student quarters were upstairs.
There were two stairs; one in front of the door to the dining room, and the other exactly between the wall that divides the visiting room from the resident house master's]
[Philip and the plumb kid, Sam, entered the boarding house with their stuff. There was a table in front of the visiting room where their luggage were checked by the Senior House Master and one of the students there. They weren't supposed to bring any electronic gadget and their cutlery was inspected. Philip left his cutlery set and plate at home cause he thought it wouldn't be needed since he would only use his bowl and spoon for all meals. He was immediately made to buy those things as they were being sold at the boarding house. After their inspection, the student (178cm) then called out to four people behind him who came and hauled Philip and Sam's luggage. They then followed the student as he led them to the first floor and were put in the last room on the right end. The other rooms were equal in size but the last room on each end was much bigger than the rest. The last room on the left was the bathhouse and lavatory, and the last room on the right was called dormitory 5 (dorm 5). This was the same for the second and third floor too although the third wasn't in use.
Philip and Sam were sent to the fifth room since the others were full. They each chose available beds. It was a double bunker bed completely made of metal with a wire mesh part where the students would put their 5-10cm thick mattresses which each was asked to bring from their home (the school didn't provide the mattresses). Phil chose the top slot and Sam chose the bottom one (for obvious reasons) but not the same unit. After packing his stuff and setting up his bed, he changed clothes into the prescribed wear for first years. It was a neatly-pressed clean white t-shirt, with brown khaki shorts fastened by a black belt, no socks and brown or black birkenstock sandals as footwear) went downstairs and sat by his father in the visiting room...the time was 12:13 pm then so his father told him to walk with him. His dad heard people could get food at one side of the school so they drove around and arrived at the cafeteria. His dad ordered food, they ate and immediately he took his last spoon he stood and told Philip:]
Dad: I've said all I have to say, the ball is now in your court. Be observant of your surroundings and act accordingly. Goodbye soon [And with that he got into his car and drove home]
[Philip then went back to the boarding house and laid down on his bed. At 4 pm an announcement was made through the speakers asking the visitors to vacate the premises, and another announcement in the boys' boarding house was made at 5 pm. This announcement was preceded by the ringing of a handbell being rung by the student who received the freshers earlier. They all came at their own pace downstairs when he bellowed after the bell:]
The student: ALL FRESHERS, DOWN!!!!!!
[When they all finally got down (at the open space created by the enclosure), facing them, he said] All of you kneel down.
[Some of them started chuckling and were hesitating, so he screamed furiously] ON YOUR FUCKING KNEES!!! [They all went down immediately and the whole place fell dead silent. He turned around and went into the visiting room, comes out with six others and one was given a seat. He then introduces himself as they were on their knees]
I'm Nuck, I'm your head Protocol Prefect, final year. My job is to make sure students are always in the prescribed wear, neatness of rooms and attire, using prescribed tools--in short I make sure students are always prescribed and confiscate if otherwise.
[He said, pointing to the tallest one among those he came with, 186cm] That is Doggy, repeat the naaaame. [They repeated after him and were made to regret immediately. They said only "Doggy", so he asked them all to stretch their hands with the command "Stretch". He then took off his thick leather belt and hit them three times, each blow more painful than the previous. One person stood, in an attempt to challenge, and three of them jumped on him, stomping him, after Nuck began brutally whipping him. After making an example of the scapegoat, Nuck continued speaking as if nothing happened, completely ignoring the fact that his colleagues were still beating the kid]
Nuck: So I hope you've learned a valuable lesson. Always, aaalways refer to your seniors as Senior this or that. He isn't on the same level with you. As I was saying, Doggy is your sports prefect. Now we're about to have a short exercise. While you're still on your knees, all of you form one straight homologous line and from the front number from 1 to 4. When it reaches four the next person is 1, so go.
[They finished numbering and Nuck took over again]
Nuck: All 1s, gather yourselves in a straight line, same goes for 2s, 3s and 4s...still on your knees [because some began to rise up. When they were done, he took a sheet of paper and asked them to write their names on it. He then asked all of them to now get off their knees (after kneeling down for 47 minutes) and bring all their luggage downstairs. He called 10 names from the 1s list and sent them to room one, 10 from 2s list and sent them to room two, and same for lists 3 and 4, after they finished moving their stuff. Each list had 14 names.]
Nuck: All names on list one, you're now in House 1, those on list 2...House 2, and so on. The remaining four from each list will be sent to room 5. Doggy is the house captain for house 2 so he'll go to room 2, the one by him...Soldier (176cm) is the house captain for house 1 so he'll sleep in room 1, Gilbert (181cm) is with room 3, and Dom (180cm) is with room 4. The last one there (the one seated) is your SRC President, Senior Boys' Prefect and Head Prefect, he is Jason (174cm). Me myself I'm going to room 5 so woe unto you lot. Now they'll each your name, let us see your face and start packing to where you're supposed to be. Take only the top beds, the bottom ones are for your seniors.
[They finished packing and we saw the remaining 16. Phil was among them and they followed Nuck to their room, it was 8:23 pm. Once they completed their relocation, Nuck instructed them to kneel once more, citing their actions as a source of frustration for him, and he himself proceeded to sleep. Nuck, now awoke from the comfort of his bed around 3 am (some of them slept on their knees), relieved them and asked them to go take their baths. Afterwards, he instructed them to make their beds, then to sweep both the downstairs rooms and the open area outside (the compound). When they finished it was 5:44am and they ate whatever snack they brought from home, Nuck sacked them from the room and told them to go to the school]
[This concludes day 1 in hell]