I Got My Student Expelled
I watched as a tiny black drop of ink fell onto my desk. It only took
a millisecond for the remaining contents of the gigantic jar to spill onto my books,
splatter onto my dress, pour onto to the floor and leave me with my mouth hanging open.
I wasn’t new to the ‘harmless pranks.’ Working with teenagers had long given me more than enough
experience with this. I just hadn’t expected to have fallen victim to their foolish jokes on
a public holiday –a day when they weren’t even expected to be in school. But this was the straw
that broke the camel’s back. I was the camel, and it was finally time to deal
with those pimple-faced nitwits. I’d always dreamed of becoming an Educationist.
I had a noble interest to impact the younger generations and help nurture their talents. I had
the most impressionable teachers while growing, and I wanted to do for others what they’d
done for me, so I pursued the career line. My intentions were quite pure, and the young
age of 23 (for teachers, that’s quite young), I was given the privilege to be a substitute
teacher for a high school. But not even my degree in child psychology or professional instruction
classes could prepare me for those monsters. When you’re new to a set of people or dealing with
new faces, you treat them with polite uncertainty, but I showered these kids with love and
kindness because I really do love kids, and that was where I made a huge mistake. They
saw my kindness as weakness and fragility, and they took it as an opportunity to misbehave.
I started my first day with a gigantic smile on my face and ‘Get to know you cards’ for all
twenty three of them. They sat watching me with hawk eyes looking out for my weak parts to
feast on. I didn’t realize that I was supposed to build defences with children too. I mean, I was
a really good kid. My teachers were good to me, and I reciprocated the goodness. So I reckoned
that it’d be an almost similar experience. Maybe I expected the odd child here and there, but
not a majority of rascals. Little did I know I’d walked into a class of rebels and pranksters.
The head teacher had walked me into the classroom, and introduced me to the class.
‘Good day, welcome to the 10th grade.’ They’d chorused (murmured).
‘Hey guys!’ I’d beamed. ‘ It’s so exciting to be here. I’ll be your
classroom instructor, at least for now.’ Silence. That hadn’t surprise me. They
were probably just shy or something. How could anyone respond to a greeting anyway?
‘I’ll be off now.’ The head teacher said from the doorway. ‘Be careful with these kids, they
can be a handful.’ Something like worry flicked across his face, but almost immediately, his brows
relaxed he regained his emotion free expression. That should’ve been enough of a warning to
me, but I dismissed it as fast as it had come. I turned towards the children with a
broad grin on my face, ’If it isn’t clear, I’m delighted to be your teacher. First, I’d like
to get to know you all, so here are some cards, fill them out, and return them to me.’
I handed out the cards and watched read through the questions. They were basic questions that
were supposed to make instructing them better: tell me your name; write out your favorite
subjects; write out your least favorite too; what qualities do you appreciate in a teacher?
Are there any topic you’ve treated that you’d like me to retake? Anything else you’d
like me to know? Those type of questions. I’d noticed a small brunette bent over her paper
with a frown on her face like she was having some difficulty with understanding the questions.
After some minutes, she still hadn’t written down anything. To help her and anyone else who couldn’t
answer the questions, I asked, ‘Please, can anyone who’s done filling the card and feels comfortable
enough sharing with the class step forward?’ Some curly hair kid stood up and I asked him
to read out his answers. A terrible mistake. My head snapped back to his face when I heard him
say that ‘he wanted me to know that he was into older women.’ What? He’d actually said that? The
whole burst into laughter and he swaggered back to his seat with a proud smile on his face.
I watched in horror as the kids who’d written sensible answers decided that they weren’t
funny enough or gathered the courage to change their answers into rude comments. The
brunette had also began furiously writing. I sighed. This was not how I wanted my
first day to go. I cleared my throat loudly, and they actually stopped laughing, but you could
still see the glimmer of humor in their eyes. I went round and picked up the papers and stuffed
them into my bag. I’d deal with them later. I had to get the class under control. I got out the
class scheme I’d prepared and started to teach them history till the break bell rang.
I let out a relieved sigh, and sat down. I hadn’t properly interacted with the children
the way I’d wanted to. I had to start afresh. It was still my first day, I =could make a
better impression. I remembered the box of Bakewell tarts I’d brought to give to them at
the end of the day, and I decided to distribute them then as a peace offering. I didn’t even
have enough time to rethink whether to share it then as they’d just had lunch because
just then, the end of break bell rung, and they started trickling into the classroom.
I waited till everyone had entered into the class and I started. I wanted to have an actual
conversation with them, but most of them weren’t responding. They weren’t even really listening to
me, They were just greedily munching on the tarts. I was absolutely annoyed,
but I held back my anger, and started to teach what was required of me.
I returned home that day feeling defeated. I had a long bath and a nice meal to cheer myself
up. Then I had the bright idea of reading through the cards that were still at the bottom of
my bag. Horrible mistake. They were either full of nonsense or absolutely or absolutely
indifferent: someone thought I needed to know that there was something called a razor for my
‘mustache’ (I certainly didn’t have a mustache); someone’s favorite subject was sex education
(eye roll that wasn’t even properly a subject); someone needed to know where I got my shoes
from; someone didn’t like the teacher being extra by asking personal questions (sigh).
There was one cute card, however. The person answered all the questions properly and
made it really easy for me to already get a scope of the person’s progress. The person
liked teachers that pushed them academically, and was available emotionally. Nice. And the
person wanted me to know that they were quite shy, but would love get to know me. This card made me
forgive all the others. They weren’t monsters, they were just under a lot of peer pressure.
Still, I wasn’t really looking forward to going to school the next day.
I got into class the next day, and met a couple of early birds. They were mostly guys including the
curly haired one from yesterday’s joke. I greeted them with a smile and slipped into my desk. Then,
I saw a little red box beside my stack of books. There was a note attached to it. ‘To our lovely
new teacher, we’re excited to have you.’ My heart warmed at that. ‘I really should never think ill
of children, they were angels.’ I thought as I reached out for the box. I opened up the box and
I withdrew that thought immediately. Angels? More like nightmares. As soon as I’d opened the
box, a furry animal had jumped onto my and I screamed. I thought it was an actual animal at
first, and I frantically threw it miles away from me. Then my eyes caught the metallic gleam of the
spring in the box. Ugh. It was a stuffed animal. That was when I finally regained proper
consciousness and I could hear the boys hooting and howling with laughter.
I calmly put the books I’d pushed down back onto my table. I wasn’t going to let
them get to me. Like the old saying goes: kill them with kindness. That was what I was
going to so. I had to be the mature one. Sadly, it hurt to be the mature one. No matter how much
I tried to reason with them they weren’t willing to stop. It was either they set up one nasty
prank or the other, or they were just plain rude. And the curly headed dude who turned out
to be called Alex was always the ring leader. I refused to let their parents or the head
teacher get involved because I felt like it’d make me feel less competent. But they were
pushing me. And they were making it really difficult for me to work properly. I hated going
to work in the mornings, and all I could think about when they got to me was my bed at home.
There was one girl who was an absolute delight. Thalia, the small brunette I mentioned at
the beginning of the story. She was the one who’d written the cute card and she
was the perfect student. She was always hungry for knowledge and she never caused
any trouble. She was really pretty too, and she told me all about her crush on a senior.
Anyways, work became a torment for me and the only person that made it bearable for me was Thalia.
I made up my mind that I couldn’t take anymore of the chaos when they made ink splatter all over
my table. It was a public holiday like I mentioned before, and I have no idea how they got into the
school or when they set up their trap. I needed to get something I’d written during a sudden
flash of inspiration the day before. I wanted to enter it into an article competition a local
Newspaper was holding, and they destroyed every single thing on my paper with thick black ink.
Any writer knows that the absolute worst feeling is having to rewrite something you’ve
already written a second time because the original copy had an accident.
I couldn’t control the tears rolling down my cheek or the anger that rose in
my chest. Those kids needed a lesson, and I was going to give it to them.
I didn’t even smile the next day when school resumed. I was a lion waiting for my
prey to step out of line, so I could capture it. I was waiting very expectantly, and it
was going to surprise them when I acted. That afternoon, I saw Alex taking a bit too long
at his locker before he went out for break. So, I decided to investigate. After he left
the classroom, I went to his bag. I know I wasn’t supposed to have done that, but
anger had gotten the better part of me, and it was good that I’d searched his bag, because
right there, sitting like it was rightfully supposed to be there, was a bag of cocaine.
I knew it was cocaine from the color and the texture. God, he must have been high.
And this probably wasn’t the first time. I’m not too proud of I did next. I
grabbed his bag, went into the cafeteria, dragged a very confused looking Lucas by his
ear and pulled him into the principal’s office. The whole school management was furious, and I
proposed that he should be expelled. They all agreed to it. I know I could’ve done better and
tried to help him out, but I couldn’t help it. As I watched him pack his bags and cower while
his parents yelled at him, I felt satisfied. In this life, I guess one of the most important
things I have come to realize, is that, one should always try to be honest, in whatever scenario is
presented. And, I am not just saying this for the sake of anything else, but because there was a
certain incident that occurred, that involved my entire family, right from my parent, to my
siblings, and even to some of my other relatives. The story I am about to share with you, affected
my family, in particular, as my other relatives, only incurred some minor financial setbacks.
I would like to take you to the very beginning of my story, so as to provide a clearer perspective
for you all. My names are, Nathaniel O’Brian Jnr. The first and only son of my father. I have two
younger siblings, girls, I have just recently completed and acquired my college degree, as I had
finished my major in Medicine/ Pharmacology. Being the first born son of my father, I have always
been saddled with a whole lot of responsibilities, as I was always made aware by him, that, in the
event of his absence, I was the man of the house, and I was supposed to act like it. So right from
my high school days, I have always engaged myself in working part time work, from time to time, all
so I could be able to become independent from my parents, as quickly as I could, because I could
tell, that at that age, it was already beginning to become a hassle for my parents, taking care
of me, as I was already growing, as a man. I cannot say, that I have been doing the part
time job search on my own, as I was backed by my one and only best friend, Matthew. We had been
best buddies ever since we both were little, as he would on most occasions, visit my home,
on special days, or during the holidays, and sometimes, I would visit his. Through
Matthew and I, both our parents came to become close friends too, as they were in our
place even more times than we were in theirs. Being as close as we had been since our childhood,
Matthew and I were practically inseparable, as neither of us were present without the other.
Even in school, we were always together, and we were sometimes teased as the Homosexual couple
of the school, seeing as the times were quite a while back, the use of the term “Gays”, was not
really generally accepted back then. Anyways, following my search for a part time job, Matthew,
decided to help me out, as he too would like to join me, in my journey on becoming independent
from my parents. So on most days after school, we both would leave on our job search, as
we had always wanted to cover more ground, in search for someone to hire us. It
was quite tiresome, and it took a while, but we soon found a restaurant that was willing to
accept the both of us a part timers. This was the first step I had taken, in becoming independent
from my parents. However, little did I know that this was the moment everything would take
an unexpected turn, and not for the better. We resumed the following week after being
accepted, and we were immediately put on kitchen duty, as we were both told that,
he who was outstanding of the both of us, was going to receive a promotion, from kitchen
duty, to reception, and then to the counter. And we were also told that depending on how diligently
we worked, it would reflect greatly on our pay slips. I was really motivated, as I thought it was
best we both made the best out of our situation. Little did I know that, this was not how Matthew
felt, and back then, I had literally no idea about this. Anyways, we got to work, on the days
we had net to nothing to do in school, as we went straight to the restaurant, and worked from
the time we got there which was usually by 12AM, and we would be there until few minutes past 8PM,
before retiring for the evening and heading home. Apparently I was the only one motivated by the
promotions, that was awaiting us, when they would notice the hard work we were doing, but Matthew
on the other hand, was a bit contented with his current position in the kitchen, as he did not
want extra work for himself, which I respected, but the moment I was set up for a promotion, and
my wages were increased slightly higher than his, this was where it all began, he noticed this,
and his attitude towards me began to switch up. On some occasions, he would get angry at me for
no reason, and on other occasions, he would just straight up ignore me. This went on for quite
a while, and when I confronted him about this, he just simply said, he thought I was trying to
overshadow him, as he thought I wanted everything for myself. I guess I was not in the correct
state of mind, because right after that, I flared up when the argument got heated, and I said
some things I should not have, but I immediately apologized, I guess it was not enough, as we both
did not speak to each other, for quite some time, and by this, I mean, even after I quit the job,
and even after college, he still held the grudge, and I soon found out after he did something
terribly uncalled for, and I just could not sit for it, I just had pay him back in his own coin.
Right after our argument, I quit the job, and focused on school, and getting a scholarship, for
my college, and once I had done that, and gotten accepted in the school, I left immediately, as I
did not want to be anywhere in the neighborhood again. My time in college sure flew pretty fast,
even taking into consideration, the fact that I spent close to 6 to 7 years, it still seemed
like it was just yesterday, I was admitted, and I left home, because ever since then, I had only
visited home 4 times, in the span of the 7 years, that I was away. I guess I was just too focused on
school and everything, but right after graduating from medical school, I decided I wanted to
experience the things I did not have the time for, while I was doing my medical residency. And I
must say, obtaining my degree deprived me of a lot of things, one of them being a partner, as I had
always thought having a partner in one’s life, was some sort of a distraction, and I could not afford
any at the time. But when I was done, I finally had the time for one. And I guess when the time
is right, the right person would present herself, in the right place, at the right time, as I met
Eunice, in the cafeteria of the hospital I had my residency in. she was also having her residency
in the same hospital, but in a different field, as she was a pediatrician. We got along pretty
fast, and in no less than 2 months after meeting her, we both knew, that we were right for each
other, I guess it was because we understood each other. Everything was perfect. Until something
happened, that has led me to tell you this story. The Hospital had hired an external supervisor
from the state, sent to monitor, and regulate the activities of interns and residents on each
hospital, in each province, and to my greatest surprise, this was when I met Matthew again,
for the first time in almost 10 years. I was literally awestruck, when I found out that he was
going to be one of the individuals, conducting the supervision. I literally had nothing on my
mind except to talk to him, as it had really been quite a while, since I either saw or heard
from him. The supervision, was supposed to take place across the span of 2 weeks, starting from
the coming week, and since the state had provided living accommodations for each and every one of
them, I just had the thought of contacting him, and inviting him over to my place for lunch
or dinner sometime. I guess you could say he did not take seeing me, after all these years, as
pleasantly as I did, as when I went to meet him, he gave me this cold stare, the same one a person
of higher power and societal stats, would look at one of meager or powerless status. It really hurt
to see someone I had once considered my brother, give me such a stare. I could not sleep properly
for the next few days, as I just could not get the stare out of my mind, and the next thing I could
think of, was to ask Eunice, for help, as I did not know what to do, and she just simply told
me to, talk to him, taking into consideration, the fact that I decided to up, and leave one day,
and I never once called to check on him. She made me know that, he was most definitely hurting, and
I understood. I soon grasped, what it was that she wanted me to do, and I got to it immediately. I
invited him to have early morning coffee, as I was hoping we could at least, talk for a little bit,
right before my shift that day. And surprisingly, he accepted, and we met the next morning.
The air was quite stale, as I did not know what to say, I soon summoned the courage to say
what I really wanted to say, and it honestly took quite a lot from me, but I did it anyways. And
right after this, he just nodded in positivity, as he said he had forgiven me for everything. To
which I thought everything was cool between us, little did I know he still something in mind
he wanted to do to me. As the following week after our supervision, he sent a letter to the
hospital’s board, saying, after supervision, he did not think, I was capable of carrying out
my duties, as I do not have the proper mindset, and focus, required of a medical practitioner,
in my field. I was soon summoned before the board and I was put on a week’s probation, and
if there were no visible changes after this time, the hospital was going to let me go. I just could
not understand what was going on, as I know for a fact, I was one of the best amongst my peers. I
tried to approach Matthew, as he was the one in charge of my supervision, as to why the report
on my work, came out as so, in the meantime, I was on the phone with Eunice, as I was still
complaining to her, right before I saw Matthew, I think I forgot to hang up, as when I was talking
to Matthew, he admitted to falsifying the report, as he felt like it was his way to get me back,
after all these years. I felt disappointed in him, and how low he could stoop. I threatened to report
him to the board, but he insisted I went ahead with it, as I had no proof. I was really lost,
and I did not k now what to do, as my job and career was in literal trouble. But thankfully,
Eunice, while overhearing our conversation, decided to record the call. And she gave the
recording to me, to use as evidence against him. I was really happy when she gave me this, that
I became unprofessional at work, just this once, and kissed her. I soon ran to the chief of staff,
and reported with evidence, who took it up to the medical board. And from there, I was let off
probation, and with immediate effect, Matthew was relieved of his duty, and he was told to give me
a proper physical apology, and while he was doing so, I looked him in the eye and said to him, “you
got what you deserved, I’m seriously disappointed in you.” “I did not believe you would stoop so
low”. And he glared at me, as he walked away. That was seriously the last time I ever saw him.
I got my ex-husband’s childhood home demolished. My ex-husband and I got married pretty early to
the annoyance of his overprotective sisters. I used to think that a man who had so much love
and respect for his sisters would make a great husband but he was the most abusive, narcissistic
man I have met to this day. When met through my late best friend who was his cousin. On that day,
I rode my bike to her house and saw a boy in her room with another girl who I later found out was
his immediate older sister. They were both helping their best friend braid her hair. I thought it
was cute that a guy was helping his cousin out with something like that. I didn’t have any
brothers and my dad was barely ever home and even when he was, I never saw him do something
like that for my mom or my sister and me. It was refreshing to see a guy do that and that warmed my
heart from the beginning. I may have even imagined being his girlfriend and him helping me to loosen
my braids. After my best friend introduced us, I caught him stealing glances at me as
he braided her hair and from that moment, I knew we were going to be together. Unlike I who
had been in two relationships before my ex at the time, I was his first girlfriend. His sisters
were nearly indifferent about me at first, they were not friendly but they were not
hostile either, as soon as their brother proposed, they began to show me so much
animosity and they did it so openly too. My boyfriend proposed just after we graduated
high school and while his mom had little issues with his decision, his sisters were, for reasons
I never understood, very pissed. My parents didn’t care about me accepting his proposal. As far as
they knew, I was no longer their responsibility since I was an adult and they could finally get a
divorce and be free from each other. My sister and I were never close so I never even got to know
what she thought of me getting married. I got a job at a local drugstore and moved in with my
ex and his family after a very small wedding with only our mothers in attendance. Marrying my ex was
the worst mistake I ever made. His sisters were bullies and he was emotionally abusive toward
me and even hit me once toward the end of our marriage. I wasn’t from a comfortable family,
my parents were not rich but my ex’s mother was comfortable. She owned a small restaurant in
town and her business was doing quite well. While my ex-mother-in-law was quite a decent woman,
her children weren’t. Her daughters ganged up on me all the time and would hurl insults at
me while their brother watched. Their brother, my ex-husband, would call me “average”
and point out my overbite all the time. “I know I settled, don’t make
me regret it,” he’d say to me. He was handsome and he knew it, everyone knew it
and they didn’t think someone like me deserved a handsome guy like him, especially his sisters.
I caught my ex cheating on me a total of six times in our marriage of three years. I decided I
was going to leave him when he hit me when I was pregnant. We got into an argument about a girl he
was seeing and I told him I was going to confront her which I did. I told her he was married
and she apologized to me. I didn’t angrily confront her or anything, I knew there was no
way she’d know he was married. My ex was just twenty-two at the time, no one would think
someone that young had a wife. That evening, my ex returned from work and asked why I
confronted her. I was going to tell him that I wanted her to know he was married and he slapped
me. I held my face in my hands for thirty minutes, unable to believe what had happened. He
left the house and didn’t return that night. I told his mom that I was going to go to the
police and report him for hitting me. She begged me in tears not to ruin her son’s future but his
sisters mocked and dared me to go to the police. One of them even mentioned that they’d tell the
police that I often hit myself and blamed my husband. When they said that, I just knew that my
time in that marriage and house was up, they not only didn’t like me, but they hated me. I left a
month later and never looked back. Even though I was relieved to have left the marriage, I was glad
that I had my unborn child. I looked forward to her birth and wanted that to be compensation for
all I went through. Sadly, I suffered a stillbirth and my doctor blamed it on the emotional stress I
went through both when I lived with my ex and his family and after I moved out of their home.
Of course, I wanted revenge on my ex and his sisters but there was only so much I
could do as a young woman trying to find her feet and start all over again.
Two years after I left my ex, I met my current husband and he was the sweetest
man ever. People say that you know from the first day of meeting someone if you’re going to be with
them for a long time and that was how it was for my husband and me. I knew on the evening of the
day I met him that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life. He was just different from
the three other men I’d been with. A good kind of difference. When I met my husband, I decided that
I was going to start afresh. I wasn’t going to tell him about my ex or what had happened between
us. I just wanted a fresh start. I did tell him though that I used to be married and that I left
my marriage because my ex was emotionally abusive. My husband worked with a real estate development
company that was all about taking down everything old and building new stuff. Now, my husband had to
leave the company eventually because his boss was so fixated on tearing the entire world down and
executing this dream of a big capitalist city, but at that time, my boyfriend was desperate to
impress his boss. He wanted a bright new idea, something that’d earn him a promotion, a
raise, and his boss’s respect. I finally gave my husband the full details of
my abusive ex-husband when one day, I saw a picture of the house my ex used to live
in one of the work files he brought home with him. “The owners of the house had to sell it. Their
mother was ill and they had to borrow a lot of money to settle the bills. When she died,
they decided to sell the house. That was the only way to pay their debts…”
“My goodness! She’s dead?” My husband shot me a confused look. It was
at that time that I told him about everything that had happened in my previous marriage.
Coincidentally, my late best friend’s sister had asked me to visit her sister’s grave with
her and I happily joined in. On the drive to the graveyard, she asked if my ex-husband
and I were on good terms. I didn’t want to start anything given that we were going to
a graveyard and it was a solemn outing so I told her that my ex and I hadn’t spoken in a long
time but that I wished him well and all of that. “Oh, they are all doing okay now. At least
everyone had a job,” she chuckled. “All they care about right now is buying back their mother’s
home. The house meant a lot to them, you know.” I nodded as I cared about whatever
meant anything to their devilish family. “Yeah, they have a lot of memories in that house,”
I said remembering the memories I had of that house.
“Exactly. They want to buy it back so his eldest sister can move in with her
son and the others can visit whenever they want” I smiled. “That’s a brilliant idea.”
After that visit, I knew just what I had to do. I was going to come up with an idea that
would not just help my husband get a promotion but would also hurt my ex-husband and his sisters.
When I got home that day, I asked my husband if he’d come up with any ideas for his
boss’ dream and he shared some with me. “You know, I thought of something.
How about an indoor playground?” “What?” my husband looked
at me like I’d grown horns. “Well yeah. It’s going to be
a park, but an indoor one.” “No way, the whole idea of a park is
for kids to be able to play outside.” “Look, it’s a fresh idea and will fit into your
boss’s dream for innovation. Just have to find a perfect location, such as a place at the entrance
of a suburban area and that’s it. You’ll have parents bringing their kids in for a fun time.”
I didn’t care if my husband liked my plan or not. If he wasn’t sold on that one, I was going to
sell him another idea and many other ideas as long as it would mean that my ex and his
family would never get their home back. “Honey, I’ll bring that up in my next meeting
with my boss but that will of course be after I lay down my first bright idea.”
I smiled. If my impression of my husband’s boss was right, he would love my
indoor playground idea. My husband’s ideas were good but were going to be a bit too
traditional and old school for his boss. I wanted to hurt my ex and his sisters and
I wanted them to know it was I who did it. They underestimated me for so long and thought
of me as nothing. Before I left their brother, I told him I was going to leave and he laughed
in my face. When his eldest sister who lived with them returned from picking her child
up from daycare, he told her that I said I was leaving and she laughed too. Even after
I left, she called me and ordered me to “stop all this silliness and return home.” She then
asked me what man would want a pregnant woman. “I’m never getting back together
with him,” I'd told her. “You are such a clown,” she said and hung up.
As I thought of all that had happened, it strengthened my resolve to make
sure they never get their home back. That evening, my husband returned home
with the best news ever; his boss liked the idea of an indoor playground.
“We are going to use the house at the edge of the street, the one
that belonged to your ex’s family.” “Oh,” I said casually as though
I didn’t have it all planned out. “I’m sure they’d want that to happen anyway. They
must have attached a lot of negative emotions to that house given their mother’s illness.”
“That’s true,” he nodded. “She was a nice woman, you know. The only
one who was nice to me in that house.” About a month later, my husband’s
overzealous boss had the house demolished. I had my late best friend’s sister send me
the numbers of my ex and each of his sisters, then I figured out their address, took pictures
of their demolished house, and signed it “I did that!” with my name boldly written on it.
I still feel good when I think about it!
