By Wajiha Wahab

Sunshine blinded me momentarily, and I woke up excitedly. I had planned to colour the school’s dull, lifeless and hospital-like walls, along with four of my naughty friends.

So that morning mum did not have to call me down repeatedly and I wasn’t indolent at all. I got out of my bed and got ready in less than ten minutes! Yes, nobody would believe that it was the same guy who took more than half an hour to get ready for school.

I rushed down, gobbled up my breakfast, picked up my bag and paints, told mum that I was going to school and ran off. My school was just a five-minute walk away and I normally went to school at a tortoise’s pace. But today was unusual, I ran like a cheetah. Okay, now I am exaggerating, but believe me I was quite fast!

What we studied in class I don’t remember, my concern was the fun we were going to have after the classes! During the recess, my friends and I divided the school into sections that we would be painting.

Moiz and I got the bathroom. We high-fived, pranced all the way, as we were at the safest place in school and nobody would know about it.

We drew on the doors of the toilet. Then I painted on the walls, while Moiz drew on the sink.

“Yes, this is how a boys’ bathroom should look like, especially when Halloween is coming up,” I said with satisfaction.

Moiz and I were admiring our work, and were giving the final touches when the door banged open with a cursed thud. It was Ahmed and Hamza — the duo of prefects who had earned fame amongst the students by terrorising them and eating their lunch.

Moiz and I exchanged worried glances and started pleading with Ahmed and Hamza to let us go. We begged and persuaded them, we cried crocodile tears.

Just then Moiz got an idea, “Musab (that’s me!) and I will take you to Subway, if you let us go.”

As expected, they agreed. We were elated to escape with this bargain but what we didn’t realise was that the bathroom door was still open and Ms Sarah, our headmistress, was on round. She saw the scene in the bathroom and looked at me, then Moiz and then the prefects. I knew we were in big trouble.

To cut the long story short, the prefects were detained, along with us. Yes, I had learnt a lesson, let the school be boring and dull the way it is.

The ending doesn’t matter much, but yes, it was an experience we would remember for life!