Chapter Nine

Education is really a scam. A real scam.

Back when I was in highschool I didn't think about it that much, but now I've come to the realization that it is. I mean, how can a science student be learning about laws? What are the art students doing? Some of them would go to law schools, so why aren't they studying all the types of laws? Why should I who wants nothing to do with law be forced to learn about some laws that are sugarcoated as gas laws? You might want to say that gas laws were a science student's thing, but hey, they are laws, laws, and they should be studied by lawyers or aspiring lawyers, not high scholars who want nothing to do with the law.

Like mehn, the educational system is fucked real up.

“ Charles law states that all things being, the volume of a gas increases as the temperature increases, and decreases as the temperature does. It has a mathematical formula of V1/T1 = V2/T2”, Clementina answered the question that Mr Mayor had thrown at us. She was always the serious type that never actually made A’s. Even though she was sure to read everything for the semester before it gets to it's first half, her G.P was always below 3.0. But nevertheless, it never weighed her down. Her confidence was still as strong as ever and she kept being the flamboyant fellow who always answered questions in class.

“ Thank you Clementina, a very good answer right there. Class, we all heard what she said, right?” That was Mr Mayor.

“ Yes sir”, the answer was more of a shrug coming from us. A typical evidence that we were starting to get bored and sleepy just five minutes into the class.

“ I don't need to explain further. The law itself is self explanatory, that with increase in temperature, there is increase in volume, and with decrease in temperature, there is decrease in volume”, he continued, talking like an old fellow in a nursing home. “ Now, we're going to be solving a few simple problems on this to illustrate the law better”, he moved over to the white board and started scribbling with his black marker.

He continued talking but I was totally zoned out by then, forcing my head to stand up and my eyes to at least stay open while I slept. It was hardly possible to achieve that, but with the risk of going into detention I really had to do the impossible, and so I did. Beautifully slept throughout the class with my head still and my eyes open. If you ask me how I did it, I can't tell, but I definitely did it.

“ Sleeping again?” Esther said after the class, and I came back to my senses to realize that Mr Mayor had already left the classroom.

“ He left already?” I asked, yawning and stretching a bit.

“ No. He's still here. Right underneath your nose”, she said, sounding sarcastic. “ Why the hell do you always sleep in class?”

“ I can't help it Es. I can't”, I said in an unserious manner.

“ At least his is better”, Matilda chipped in, “ even though he sleeps in class, he still makes better grades than 98% of the whole class who all stay awake during class, staring at the teacher like a television”.

“ What do you mean?” I asked, feeling pride creeping in. “ Don't say that, it's not true”, I was sure that there was a smile on my face.

“ It's true nigga”, she retorted, “ you be here deceiving all of us with the facade that you sleep in class but you burn your midnight candles everyday reading and studying”.

“ That may even be why he sleeps so much in class. He probably doesn't get enough sleep at night while reading”, Esther supported the motion.

“ What? No, no, that's not the case”, I tried to defend myself.

“ There's no need to lie Collins. We all know you. You're definitely a chameleon, a deceiver”, Matilda said, laughing as we all joined her in the laughter.

“ But still, you should find a solution to this class-causing sleepiness”, Esther said, sounding a little bit concerned, “ you know you could actually do better if you didn't sleep much in class. Who knows, you might even surpass Mary and be the Valedictorian”.

“ I'll try, okay? I will”, I said, knowing fully well that that was basically impossible. I had already come to terms with my fate - sleeping during class. “ I wouldn't have slept in this class, it's just that Mr Mayor was so fucking boring”.

“ That's a lie dude. That's a fat lie”, Matilda said.

“ What do you mean? Okay. Tell me that you didn't also feel sleepy during his class”.

“ Well, his class is actually boring I'd say”, Esther said, sounding supportive.

“ Thank you babe. His class is fucking boring, just like him”, I said and we all erupted in laughter.

“ But still, even when he isn't the one in class, Collins, you still fall asleep”, Matilda said, seriously trying to win the case.

“ Ehn, sometimes”, I said.

“ It's not sometimes. It's all the time”, she strongly affirmed and Esther was just there, laughing.

“ Okay, okay. I agree. But then come to think of it, why the hell should a teacher stay with in class, teaching for more than thirty minutes? Why?” I was trying to divert their attention from myself.

“ To impact more knowledge in you I suppose”, Esther said, sounding sarcastic.

“ That's rubbish. No matter the amount of time it is they spend in class, if the students don't have spare time to study on their own, then they must've accomplished nothing, and what most of them come in here and do is to read out what is already written in the textbooks. Like, did anyone tell them that we can't read the content in the textbooks ourselves?” I was trying to be so convincing.

“ That still does not justify the fact that you sleep during classes”, Matilda said, still trying to see that I atone for the offense with a jail sentence.

“ I know, okay? I know, but that's not the point I'm trying to make here. See, let's start a revolution, or rather a rebellion. The goal should be that the normal two hour teaching period should be changed to just thirty minutes”.

“ Are you alright?” Matilda asked.

“ Of course. Look, it's a great idea, and I guarantee you that the cumulative students CGPA will rise if such a law is introduced”.

Esther placed her hand to my neck with the back of my palm; a common way of checking one's body temperature.

“ He's not alright, right?” Matilda asked.

“ He's not”, Esther said, retreating her hand from my neck and shaking her head in pretentious sadness. “ And I think that his problem is cerebral malaria”.

“ I said it. Collins, you should visit the hospital, who knows if this is also a contributing to the fact that you sleep all the time in class like someone suffering from a sleeping sickness”, Matilda said, sounding playfully serious.

“ No, like Aurora in Sleeping Beauty”, Esther chipped in and we all started laughing.

“ He's gonna need a princess to give him a true love kiss”, Matilda added and the outburst increased as we laughed ourselves to scorn. I was pretty sure that we were disturbing the entire classroom but no one seemed to care, and so we continued, besides, I needed that therapeutic laughter to feel alive again after everything with Nuel.

“ Would everyone quite down this instant!”

We heard a wolf scream. It was definitely a wolf, even it's voice forced everyone in the classroom into immediate silence. Only when we turned to the door did we realize that the owner of the wolf voice was actually a human after all; a human that was technically no different from a wolf.