There I was, seating in my room, thinking of excuses to bunk school. There was this boy who kept on bullying me, threatening me and making fun of me at school. I was always quiet and intelligent, respected by teachers at school. I guess that’s the reason that prompted Jimmy to bully me.

So here I was, thinking of stories to feed my mom with. But the problem was that my mom was one of those very strict parents, she wouldn’t allow me not to go to school unless there was a stable reason for that. I was afraid that if I told my mom about Jimmy she would go to confront him and thus push him to bully me even more.

I decided to go to school, thinking that whatever happened I did not care anymore.

My mother always brought my school money to my room before she left for work, but this time around it looked like she was running late. As I was putting on my school uniform she invaded my room, looking tired and exhausted. Her hair was reaching for the skies like she had been struck by lightning! She looked all messed up.

She quickly launched my school money on top of the mini-table besides my bed and instantly walked towards me.

“Mike, please tie up my shoestrings, I’m running late for work,” she said as she positioned her left foot near me.

I quickly knelt down and knotted her shoestrings. She was busy breathing heavily like someone who had been running for days without stopping.

“See you after work, make sure you wake Glenda up, OK! Love you, bye,” she shouted as she stormed out of my room.

Glenda was my younger sister, we shared both parents but our father was not around. My mom always told me stories about my father, about how he still loved us. We never really knew what happened between them, our father left us at a very young age due to his personal reasons.

We didn’t really know him, we just saw him in pictures. I wondered why he did not call us or come to check up on us. But maybe he found another family and he was happy wherever he was, maybe I would meet him one day and he’d explain everything to me.

***

Tell us: What do you think at school with Jimmy?