As I walked into our classroom, JSS 1C, I met another classmate Ms Ijeoma Anicho who had left to look for her elder sister, Ms Chinyere Anicho. School was over and all our classmates but Rachael had left either for their homes or the school dormitory. The school ran a day school as well as a boarding house. When I walked in, Rachael asked for her purse from me. I was confused because I had no idea that she was missing her purse. And all day I had preoccupied my mind with other matters so it would take a walk to the moon to recall what had taken place while I was away from the classroom. I went straight for my desk, which we called a locker. It was a piece of furniture designed to contain books, and other personal effects and allow for the student to write on it. Each girl owned a locker and made sure to secure it with a padlock.
In Rachael's presence, I opened my locker, ensuring that for whatever reason that it was there, it was to be returned to the owner. The purse wasn't in my locker. I looked around the classroom but it wasn't there. I asked her if she has asked the other girls if any of them had found it. She said that she had given it to me and wouldn't know why to ask any other classmate but me. She was sitting on one of the lockers in the room that didn't belong to her. Her red school bag was sitting on another locker behind her. For the record, I wouldn't recall if she actually sat on her locker or not but I didn't think it was her locker. However, the school bag was indeed behind her. I had nothing in my hands. I asked if I could check her school bag for the missing purse. She obliged my request, I walked past her and I looked in to find the purse in the bag. I was angry and demanded to know why she was making a mountain out of an molehill. She shocked me by insisting that I had put the purse in her bag. I asked to know from where I had brought the purse. In no time, Ms Anicho returned and she, her sister, Chinyere, and Rachael left the school premises for their homes in Ogbor Hill. I was really disgusted with the arrogance of a classmate who chose to keep a secret rather than tell the school.
Till date I'm oblivious of how the missing purse got into Rachael Ucha's red school bag. I tried on a few occasions to learn from her why she was adamant on playing the innocent one when she should apologize to me for branding me a thief. First of all, I had no intention of stealing the N40 found in her purse, which was intact when the purse was found in her bag. I was really not sure why it was a difficult task for them to acknowledge who (Rachael or Ijeoma or any other classmate for that matter) had returned the purse to her. The Class seemed more interested in peddling rumours and malicious gossip about me than in discovering the truth each time an incident occurred in the classroom. Worse is that schoolmates who weren't in our classroom carried the tales beyond the school premises to tarnish my image and reputation. I wouldn't know why I would steal from another person. I hardly covet other people's property so how is that ever possible? So, that's that. Rachael might have had her reason(s) but none cut her as responsible in my opinion. Oh! I didn't report the matter to the form mistress nor the guide and counsellor. As an adult, I know that I should have reported the incident to the teachers. But I refrained from having non-academic relationships or interactions with staff and teachers of the school. It wasn't really the type of place to do that. Ovom Girls' High School could pass as a hostile school environment.
Incident 2: I was another day for compound work, possibly on a Thursday. I was given a portion of the school field to cut grass. The girls cut the grass in the field every week. It was a girls only model school so everybody, except the class prefects did some work. I had work to do but I didn't have a cutlass. I decided to wait for my classmates to finish their own portions in order for me to do my own chore.
To be continued.....
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