Writers 
I think most of the boys in my class like me because they usually do what I say. I make sure they do. But there is one boy! Honestly, I have never met a boy as rude and bad-tempered as he was before. And nasty, too. After all, it is his fault I am in this mess.
I have known for a long time that Sam was bad-tempered and rude because every time I said, "Don't sit there, that is my seat," or "Give me some of your nice food," he would say, "No!" I would argue with him, but I have given that up in case it ended in a fight. He is stronger than I am and a bully.
The odd thing about it was that some of the other boys would take his side against me. Not many, and not for long, either. "No, you are right, they are not as big as I am. How did you guess that?"
Never mind, let me tell you the rest of the story. I have felt as angry as this in all my life or had done by. Truly, I am being persecuted, all because of him. I feel as though I could walk out of this school and never come back. If I did that, that would show him!
I have been with him in the same class since our first day here. We have been in the same class for three years. It seems a long time. So by the end of this year, we shall have been in the same class since the beginning. The other day I could stand it no longer. I really could not. Since the beginning of that morning he had been at his worst. I had to tell him to behave himself several times that morning.
Every time I put my hand up to answer a question he put his up before mine, and even when I had my hand up first, he was the one who was being given the chance to answer, as though I was not there. As usual, I was being ignored. You know, he is one of those boys who bully other boys, but are always nice and polite to the teachers, so they like him, of course.
At break, I took him firmly to one side and told him to behave properly in class or I would tell the Principal. I made it quite clear he had better lose his temper. Honestly, I had never seen anything like it before! He started yelling at me, saying that he had had enough of my bullying. My bullying! He said his life was being made miserable by me, and what was more, my bullying had affected the lives of all the boys who tried to stand up to me. And why did I act as though I had every right to order everyone about and keep all the teacher's attention for myself? I could not believe my ears. I never put myself forward never!
It seemed as if he was never going to stop and when he did, I was so surprised that I did not answer him back or do anything. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. Since the start of his attack on me, a crowd had gathered round us in the compound, fascinated by all his lies about me. But the worst was to come. He said he was not going to wait for me to go to the Principal in case I never did. "I am going now and you had better come with me."
When we got there, I tried to defend myself. I began to tell the Principal what a terribly rude, bad-tempered boy Sam was. I had hardly started when I was told to keep quiet. It seemed the Principal had been hearing a lot of lies about me from the teachers and said he was surprised no one had complained before, as they should have done. "May I give you some advice which you had better follow?" he said to me. "Stop your bullying at once in case you get into really serious trouble." He spoke to Sam as if he admired him. "May I congratulate you? I am delighted that at last one of the boys for whom Lawal has been making life difficult has had enough courage to stand up to him. I wish more boys would do the same. Can you imagine it!" Then he turned to me again. "Remember, you are being watched and I shall be watching you myself very carefully in future in case you misbehave again. In fact, from now on you are somebody whom I shall be paying a great deal of attention." And he said it very unpleasantly.
"So you see the mess I am in. The Principal will have talked to the teachers and Sam will have told our class what the Principal said. They will have talked about it and the whole school will be laughing at me. And it will not be easy to make the boys in my class do what I say, as they used to do, and you know whose fault it is.
"Mine? May I ask whose side are you on? Sam's? You think he is a nice, good-tempered fellow, do you? Everyone in the school does! I should like to know why. I just cannot believe it! It is so unfair."
