Another step in the realm of knowledge

As I left the house to fetch my final sixth grade results I met Matt, the class clown. He was always on my case since the third grade, he would always pull stunts to get me in trouble but he didn't succeed in most cases. "Teacher's pet" he called out and did all those funny faces that resembles a few of domestic animals. I wanted to avoid him at all costs but he kept on nagging until ignoring him was impossible. "Leave me alone, Matt" I pleaded, "Or what?? You're going to run into the teacher's skirt to tell on me?, you honestly should grow up man, you cannot always run to your mom or teachers each time you encounter a problem". I wanted to argue but I remembered how arguments with Matt turned out, I felt discouraged. "I bet you do not keep anything from your mom, do you?", "My mom doesn't know that I stepped on her garden flowers the other day" I protested. "I don't mean that duh! Do you even have a girlfriend?" I couldn't answer that, I was confused; weren't we too young to be having girlfriends?

Before I knew it we were approaching the school, Matt had kept me company for the first time and I couldn't stop thinking about him asking whether I had a girlfriend, that triggered a lot of thoughts and I couldn't help it but wonder how much more was I missing if my mates had romantic partners, he might have been right about one thing, I needed to go out maybe once. He disappeared from me when we got into the school ground, I was worried for a minute until I saw him with his gang across the field making fun of me as usual and calling me names. It would bother me at first but it eventually taught me to embrace who I am after I realized that they were describing me in a not so polite way though.

I saw Connie on the corridors and she waved at me as she came closer to me, she was the only person who was a friend to me since preschool level. We didn't spend much time together because she had her female friends that better understood her than I did. I do not think Connie always liked hanging with me, she'd really get uncomfortable when the bullies came for me and she would fall under some of the insults thrown at my direction. She was the only person who understood how uncomfortable it was for me to chill with other boys or play soccer like most boys did after school. Most of the boys did not read often unless it was for a school project or maybe there was a reward in it, that is what made me so different from other boys. Connie walked with me to the school assembly for the award giving ceremony held before we got our results.

The set-up was really different than the previous years, there was a special award that caught everyone's attention. It seemed pretty cool but not for me obviously maybe it would look perfect fine to Emma, the girl who was doing grade seven at the time, she was very smart she even had national awards echoing that, everyone knew that was hers. I was amongst the best learners in my class and I stood a good chance against the learners in my grade as well, not anything above that though. As we settled in the venue I saw George aggressively starring at me, it was not anything new to me he had always been in an academic competition since the third grade and I only knew about that in the fifth grade but he was no threat honestly. The ceremony started and I got 5 awards, George got 3 and Connie got 2.

All the awards were distributed except the special one and to my surprise the principal gave the platform to a strange man who apparently came from the department of education, the award came with a lot of cool advantages and everyone wished they knew that earlier to prepare themselves academically. Before the man could say who the award belonged to, my eyes were glued to Emma I couldn't miss her reaction for the world. She seemed a little disappointed after the name was revealed, she faced my direction and I quickly turned my eyes off her only to find everyone starring at me, cheering and clapping. This could have only meant one thing; I had won the award and I had to visit the principal's office before going home.

I was told that I had to travel to the department of education to collect my report card but all that didn't matter, I just couldn't wait to let my mom know about this great achievement. A lot of learners came to congratulate me on the award, George came as well. I was flattered when Emma personally came to me too. Part of the the advantages of the award was getting a scholarship to study at a different town in a private school and that would be a blessing to me except that I cannot go anywhere and leave my mom behind, fortunately enough I couldn't take decisions on my own I needed my mom's authority to move and I would then bring the forms the following week.