“I’m losing it! I’m definitely losing my brain right now! Oh goodness, I can’t take any of this any longer!” I ranted as I dashed out of the classroom. I couldn’t stand one more minute of bearing the insults that were being thrown at me by my classmates. My name is Dele and I am 16 years old. I am a guy a normal person will assume to be decent, well-behaved, spiritually inclined and smart, reason being that my parents are senior pastors in our church and I’ve always been among the top ten people with the highest grades in my class since nursery two. People also say I have a good dress sense which is most probably because I’m usually very conscious about whether or not my dressing shows the inner battle I fight every day. Let me rephrase that; ‘inner battles.’ Yeah, sounds more like it. Walking into the gents down the aisle in-between classrooms which seemed to be endless every time I walked past each of them, I bumped into a guy who immediately hit me so hard that I felt my elbow hit the floor hard. The whole of my left arm became numb. I muffled a “you’re obviously blind” under my breath as I stood up from the floor. The impact of the fall had caused a bruise which was immediately followed by little blood trickles. I proceeded to wash my hand in the basin, still cursing repeatedly under my breath. Looking up, I stared into the mirror and whispered, “God, they say You exist, at least, my parents who are pastors do but how come I have never for once felt You around me?” I rinsed my face and waited for a couple of minutes before going back to my classroom. Why all the bad treatment yeah? Okay, let me explain. A few weeks ago, I was in an examination sitting for an exam I didn’t read for, reason being that I was too lazy to read. Well, yes, I earlier stated that Ihave always been among the top ten brightest students in my class but maybe I forgot to tell you that top ten could mean tenth position. I should have also mentioned the fact that we are just eighteen in ss2B of Cortella High School, Gberigbe, Ikorodu, Lagos State. A lot of people were cheating during the examination. Now, I had relied on a friend who was to pass me the answers which were on the page he had torn from a girl’s biology textbook few minutes before the exam began. It happened that the guy became stingy with the answers all of a sudden. I begged him in whispers but Lana intentionally hung his head in a way that it looked as if he was totally oblivious of the fact that I had been calling him. I heard a voice in my head saying, “Dele, just focus on what the teacher explained in the last class.” I was too busy thinking of means by which I could cheat that I couldn’t recognize the small still voice in my head till after the examination. Two minutes to the end of the examination, I had only managed to scribble down few supposed answers which still, didn’t cover up to half of my first page. There was only one thing I could do at that moment; I stood up and shouted, “sir, They are all carrying expos!” Expo is a term Nigerian students use to describe foreign materials brought into the examination hall. The teacher seized all our scripts hence, our Biology continuous assessment test results were all cancelled. This event, over the past few weeks has made my life a living hell in my school. It has been a series of copious insults, bullying and hatred since then. One thing kept and still keeps coming to my mind though, a question per-say; Who spoke to me in the examination hall?
I’ve heard people say a God somewhere speaks to them on regular basis but my question has always been; How will someone who claims to be up there in heaven speak to us here on earth?
To be continued…
YOU ARE READING
RESTORATION
SpiritualConviction, Salvation, Liberation. A teenage boy shares his experiences in high school alongside his personal fears and secret battles. One day, He meets a man in his dream who promises him a better future.
