A FEW LITTLE LIES

Chapter one:
A strange thing happened to me earlier this year. I forgot how to concentrate . Sometimes it happened at school and for a while my teachers shouted at me , and tried to make me listen. But soon they gave up_ I suppose there were too many people to shout at.
At least I managed to concentrate in class sometimes. Occasionally when I wasn't concentrating , it looked as if I was. The real problem came when I needed to study. Every time I sat down With my books , my mind went blank , and I would find my self doodling in the margins, drawing cartoons of hot DJs and celebrities from TV. Or I would start dreaming about my plans of being a superstar. Once or twice , I even fell asleep with my head on the table.
Of course, I thought that studying is boring so at first I didn't care I couldn't do it anymore. But aftra while , I started failing in tests. Mrs. Mabena takes my class for quite a few subjects. One day she called me to see her at break.
'Sindiswa', I have noticed that the marks for my subjects are dropping,' she said , peering at me from behind her thick , old fashioned glasses. There was a pause I said nothing. I just looked at the floor. ' has anything happened to upset you she asked.
What could I say? My aunt had died, but I tried not to think about her too much anymore. Ma didn't speak about her either. So I told Mrs. Mabena I ead fine. Then I carried on failing........ She just seemed to give up on me . My best friend, Mandisa sat next to me, she made surd I could see all her answers. It was as simple as that. Mandisa is a brilliant student, and she knows all her work backwards. She always gets good marks, and she was happy to share some of her brain power with me. It is obvious Mrs. Mabena can't see so well in those thick glasses. That was part one of learning to be dishonest. Part two was telling my mom how well I had done in my history test. I thought perhaps she would be surprised or suspicious, but no I was wrong. Ma was happy when I told her I had 90/per cent.she nearly burst into tears. She gave me a big hug.
When I went to bed that night, I felt like crying. What had I done? I had never told ma a lie before, I felt terribly sorry. I decided I would never cheat again I will study instead, I said to myself. I know I can do well if I try harder. That made me feel better, and I fell asleep.