Refined

My schoolmates always see me as the neatest. The very day we moved to a junior high school was the day I knew how clean I was. My class teacher had to call everyone and give us some pieces of advice. He advised us to always be the neatest in the school. He proceeded to say we should always make our class neat and must always clean up every corner of our class.

We all agreed, but the majority of us proved to be neat students who do not do any work at home. It was just as if my class teacher were speaking through one ear while the other ear was taking the words out. The following morning, the students in the class dressed so nicely, as well as myself. We were so stubborn and did not want to listen to simple instructions.

We all stay in the dirty classroom without sweeping it. Any teacher who was coming to our class would not observe, as we were able to pick up the white papers from the floor. When it was the end of the week, our class teacher came to the class just to check up on us. He was so furious after seeing the class as dirty as a pig house. He talked to the whole of us once again as the final warning.

“I will not come to your class to talk to you just like this ever again. He said, What I will do to you all is in my mind.

We all apologize for not listening to him.

Liliana Drew
Two days later, no one bothered to sweep the class. After waiting for some minutes, I took it upon myself to sweep the classroom and clean up the desks as well as the cobwebs. As I was sweeping the class after cleaning the cobwebs, David, my classmate, was seated in his seat. He was so stubborn. I asked him to give me space just to sweep his position, but he bluntly refused. It became an argument, and he then poured the bundle of dirt from his locker. I was mad after seeing this, but I was unable to say a word just because of the fear of my class teacher. After a few minutes, students gathered, and they began to hail David. This gave him the courage to say some sort of rubbish.

After a few minutes of separation, my class teacher arrived and began to ask, “What's the problem?” No one was ready to tell the truth, as our class teacher asked. After waiting to hear from us, he wanted to say a word that everyone would suffer from, so I decided to tell him what had happened.

“David, can you please testify to what Abigail just said? Did she speak the truth?"

“A kind of," David responded.

“Apologize to Abigail right now. She had taken pains to make the class look neat, except for your seating position. You need to apologize to her right now, as our class teacher ordered.

David is someone who is so adamant and would not apologize no matter what. “I don't apologize to ladies.” He said.

If you are not ready to apologize, then I have to punish you, my class teacher said.

“I will accept any form of punishment, but I would not forgive myself if I apologized to Abigail," he repeated.

Our class teacher told him to sweep the class for two weeks. He swept for two days and got tired. It's the third day, and I saw the way he was behaving. It was just as if he were not sick. I decided to collect the broom from him and help him sweep the classroom. I also clean the cobwebs and mob the floor. Although I had to help him, no one would be able to report what I had done to our class teacher. And also, it was early in the morning when just three of us were at school.

He was still stubborn, but I had the mind to help people. I had to come to school very early in the morning the next day and help him clean the classroom. As I was cleaning the students' desks, I heard from behind, “I apologize for what I had done to you, and thank you for helping me out.” I was not sure who had spoken those words. I pretended just as if I did not hear what David had said. He drew closer to me and said, “Did you hear what I said?” I replied to her, “What did you say? I did not hear what you said."

“I said I apologize for what I did to you, and thanks for helping me.” I wanted to remind him of what he said about not apologizing to a female, but I just decided to let go of it and answered, “You are welcome," with too many smiles on my face.

When we had a full class, they all saw David and me talking to each other, which surprised them. The next morning, I went to school early as usual and swept the class. As I was sweeping, my class teacher came around surprisingly. It was unusual for him to come to school as early as that. He met me cleaning the desks.

“I thought he was going to end his punishment today. Why are you helping him?” The question weighed my thoughts, but immediately one of my classmates who also came to school early freed me from my worries: “They are now best friends.”.

I thought he would deal with me for helping David, but thank goodness he let me be.

“Did he apologize to you?” my class teacher asked.

“Yes sir?” I answered. He asked David to discontinue the punishment. David was so happy. This was how we all started sweeping the class without complaining, and others joined as this served as a lesson to them all.