part 55: (nicholas)

**”Bismillahir rahmaanir raheem”
-in the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful-**

Nick was never exposed to this type of thing. He lived a very sheltered life of luxury. And he was happy that way. Not knowing and not watching people do these things.

He pulled out his phone and pretended to be very busy doing something when actually he was just trying to pass level 28 of soda crush saga.

Suddenly something was hovering between him and his phone.

It was a cigarette..

He looked at it for a few seconds and then looked up at john who was offering it to him.

John waited for a response..

“Err.. Nnn.. No thanks.. I’m cool” nick replied.

“Oh come on! Don’t be a spoilt rich kid.. Don’t tell me you’ve never smoked before in your life…?” John asked in disbelief.

Nick wasn’t sure how to respond. Should he speak the truth and say that he’s never smoked before in his life? But then they’ll think that he’s a total loser and then he’ll be left alone with no friends again in this new school where he didn’t know anyone or anything.

In his previous school it was perfectly fine to be alone as it was a private school and there weren’t that many kids. And besides, school hours were short and there wasn’t much time for socialising anyway.

But this school was huge. And there were so many people. And there were 2 breaks and lots of extra time for socialising. He’d be totally lost if he didn’t have kevin and company as company…

So nick decided to go with the flow and lie… His first biggest mistake.

What he didn’t realise is that one lie leads to many more.

“Ofcourse I have.. What do you think of me?” Nick replied acting offended.

He pulled the cigarette out of johns hand and put it to his mouth.

He had watched people doing this on TV. It couldn’t be that difficult. They won’t even know that he’s lying.

Well it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that a cigarette needs to be puffed. And so nick took his first puff and began coughing like crazy.

The others started laughing….

“And you say that its not your first time? Yeah! And my name is matilda….”

And they all roared with laughter again.

Nick felt embarrassed.. He had to think of something to say to cover up his stupidity.
“I’m coming down with a cough.. That’s all…” And he coughed some more.

He was so embarrassed. But he forced himself to take another puff and another one, all the while trying to hold his cough in and show them how cool he is.

He was so busy trying to act all macho that he didn’t realise that they all had suddenly disappeared around the corner and before he could fathom what was actually going on, he heard a voice coming from a short distance on the other side of where he stood.

Could this day get any worse?

It was a teacher who heard some noises and decided to pop his head to see what was going on only to find lonely old nick at the back of the school holding a lit cigarette in one hand and his cellphone in the other.

Oh boy! This meant trouble…..

It was only the beginning of the year and nick was already called into the principals office.

The principal was a chubby old white man with a curly moustache who looked rather cheeky.

He sat at his desk tapping his fingers on his office table while nick sat across him on the other side of the table waiting for tasha and/or tom to arrive and the teacher who had caught him was standing beside him with his arms crossed.

Tasha would be so angry at him. The secretary had already called her and asked her to urgently come in to school.

“Mr abed… You are new to this school and you were probably not taught the rules of the school. Smoking on school premises is totally forbidden and is punishable by expulsion.”

Nick continued staring at the floor beneath him wishing that the floor could just swallow him alive.

“However.. Since you are new, we will not expel you…. YET… But should we ever catch you again, you will most definitely be expelled. For now though… Your punishment is that you will clean the mens room for one month everyday after school starting from tomorrow.. DO you understand me?” The principal banged his hand on the table for emphasis which shook poor nick out of his school socks.

Posted by silent living…