The following day was Monday, and it was the first academic day of the term. All the students were neatly dressed in their class uniforms and were waiting near the assembly hall for the commencement of the first assembly of the term. The assembly hall was opposite to the school examination hall with similar structure of building.
All the students were busy engaged telling stories of their holiday. When the assembly hall was opened, all the students entered and arranged themselves according to their class. When Sadik got to where his class was, his class members were quietly looking at him."Here come the best football player and the most outstanding player in Royal Secondary School" eulogized Sarah and they started clapping for him."He's not that good, perhaps it was luck that favoured him" James rebuked."Well, we are all going to see at the end of this term's examination if it really was luck that favoured him like you said" Sarah responded. Sadik went close to Sarah and sat down."Thank you Sarah for standing up for me" Sadik said."Oh don't mention it" Sarah assured."I'm sorry about what happened yesterday, I wasn't on my right mind" Sarah pleaded."Is okay, I'm glad I was not the reason behind your anger" Sadik said.
When Sadik turned and looked at the side of SS2 D, he noticed Fatima and her friends were absent. He suddenly saw her friends coming and Fatima was behind them talking with the head boy. They were both smiling as they talked. Sadik felt he was being stabbed with a knife through his heart. He experienced a similar pain he felt before when he saw them together at front of the administration building. Suddenly, the whole world became silent to him. Even though he was surrounded with many people around him, he couldn't hear a thing they were saying.
After all the students had arranged themselves, the teachers walked in and the assembly started. The head boy walked to the stage of the assembly hall and asked for two students to come and say the opening prayer, a Muslim and a Christian. After the prayers were said, the head boy ordered the Band club to play for the national anthem and the school anthem. All the students stood up and sang along with the trumpet blown from the band club, and the band music matches with the national anthem and school anthem.
After the national anthem and the school anthem, the principal climbed up the stage of the assembly hall."Good morning members of staff, good morning boys and girls" the principal greeted."Good morning sir" the students shouted."I'm standing here with a pleasure to welcome all of you back from your holiday and I hope it was a pleasant one. Our final year students will be engaged in their external examination by the end of this term, we pray that they all have a good result" the principal announced."Amen" all the final year students shouted louder than others."The school will be closed for a mid-term break by the end of the sixth week of this term, the final year students should be informed that they are excluded from this break because they will be preparing for their external examinination" the principal proclaimed and the final year students started murmuring among themselves like they wish to object what the principal had said."Silence please" the principal said referring to the final year students before he continued."And also, there will be an inter-house sport competition that will be held three weeks from now" and the students who were interested in sports started shouting with joy."Students who are excellent in sport should show us their best on that day" the principal continued."I wish all of you a very good and a successful term" the principal concluded.
While the assembly was going on, Sadik tried his best not to look at Fatima due to the fact that he saw her happy with the head boy."I must stop here, I don't stand a chance" Sadik tried to fight his heart. But after some few minutes, he felt a strong urge pulling him to look at her. He tried resisting it up to the point where he couldn't. Unconsciously, he turned looking at her place. To his surprise, she was already looking at his place when he turned, and she quickly looked away when he caught her. Sadik wondered if she was just looking around and they coincidentally made an eye contact or she really was looking at him. When he turned again, their eyes met again and this happened about three times, and this brought Sadik to the conclusion that it wasn't really the coincidence he thought. Suddenly, the sadness he had transformed into happiness. Throughout the principal's speech, if Sadik had at all picked any word, it will be when he was mentioning the mid-term break. Sarah who was sitting next to him was unaware of what was going on.
After the assembly, all the students started heading to their respective classes. Sadik walked with Sarah to their class. When they entered the class, all the boys that seemed to have hated him were beginning to like him with the exception of James. Sadik went to his usual seat and sat at the back of the class. When their physics teacher Mr Jalo came in, the whole class stood up and greeted him and he asked them to take their seats."In our last class the previous term, I defined wave in this class, can any of you recall what I said about it?" Mr Jalo asked, the whole class remained silent."You there on the last seat, can you define wave for us?" The teacher asked pointing at Sadik."Wave is a disturbance which transfers energy from one point to another through a medium with the average position of the particles of the medium remaining constant". Sadik answered standing."That's marvellous" the Teacher said excitedly."Please clap for him" he added.
Sadik started enjoying his stay in the class because almost every teacher that came in praised him for his performance unlike the previous term when most of them thought he doesn't deserve to be in the school.