“I’ve got the crayons here!” I squealed, my skin quivering with excitement. After handing some crayons to Timothy, we started to draw on the toilet mirror and the cubicle doors. We drew absolutely everything we could think of, including mean stuff about our Maths teacher, Mr Lim. He had punished us in front of our class for incomplete homework! All my classmates were making fun of me. I clenched my teeth and gritted my teeth at the thought of it.

“I hate Mr Lim!” I hollered at the top of my voice, venting my frustration. Timothy gave me a thumbs-up and grinned widely at me.

Suddenly, the toilet door swung open. I gasped in horror when I saw two school prefects. Frightening thoughts raced through my mind as I began to panic. My face turned ashen pale and my knees were clacking back and forth.

Surprisingly, Timothy was not the least bit frightened.

He snarled in defiance, “Hey, what’re you doing here? Get out now!” The prefects did not utter a single word. Instead, they scribbled something on their notepads. From the corner of my eye, I saw Tim sweating profusely. He was trying to hide his fear.

The prefects told us solemnly, “You two have to follow us to see Mr Lim.”

I choked at the thought of Mr Lim. I thought to myself angrily, “Why must these two prefects come now?We were having a whale of a time in the toilet! They have ruined our plan!” Tim started to protest, but the prefects merely ignored him. Reluctantly, we followed them to the teacher’s lounge, preparing to face the music.

Mr Lim shook his head sadly when he heard what we had done.

He sighed, “Alright boys, you have to clean up the toilets. Just look at the mess you’ve made!” My jaw dropped wide open, showing every single tooth I had in my humongous mouth. That was the last thing I had wanted to do! We were given a bucket of soapy water and sponges to clean up what we had drawn. I had learnt it the hard way : Never vandalize or prepare to pay the price.