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One thing is to face the crowd as the first speaker, and another thing is to have the confidence to face the crowd. I had tried my best to remain who I am just to escape the presentation, but then I was almost forced to do it if not for my tactics. 

During my secondary school days, there was a process for choosing prefects. This process was the best when it comes to some smart students, but to someone like me, I don't see it as the best method. 

I had hated facing the crowd before now and had hated becoming a prefect. I was so good when it came to my educational background. My accounting, my economics, and my commerce, I was the best. All my teachers had known right from the day I got changed from being who I was to a bookworm. I was initially not the bookworm type until my parents forced me to be one. The very day I failed all my papers, my parents had to take me to the school and hand me over to my class teacher, who walloped me to the last level. 

I cried like a baby, and after that day, all the teachers began to speak some sense into my memory. These words got stuck in my brain, and I changed from who I was to a better student. 

This alone made me gain energy to read and to even read more than the best student in my school. After some points, my results were on fire. I came up topping my class, and even my result was the best in the history of the school. This made me gain ground when I got to my final class. I was choosing to become perfect, but then I had to face the crowd and defend the post I wished for. 

I'm the shy type, but then it was a must for every one of my mates to make a presentation no matter what. This has been the culture of my school. I tried to escape this presentation, but then it was not easy. 

Two days later, my class teacher came to our class with a small wrapped paper with seemingly some items inside of it. We were not expecting him at that moment, but his visit looked strange and somehow scary. Some minutes later, when he was done with his words of advice, he brought out the paper with no one knowing what was in it. He unfolded the paper, and it was small wrapped papers that looked as if we were going to select numbers. 

He said we will be called according to the number we picked. I was scared of not picking the first five. I had always been the shy type, and I just wanted to see others carrying out their presentation before mine came up. 

We started picking, and I waited until they all picked theirs. I was the last to pick a number among those who picked. I did not see anyone announce number one as his number. I finally picked mine and unfolded it. What I was afraid of was what I picked. 

The presentation was going to take place the next day. I was scared thinking of a way out just to shift my presentation time to the last. The day came, and I decided to feign as if I were sick. My mom had to wake me early but saw my situation. She decided to call my class teacher and told him I would not be able to come to school that day. 

I was happy to escape that presentation, but I never knew that another thing I feared most awaited me. My mom said I should get ready. "Where are we going to?" I asked. 
She said she was taking me to the clinic. I never wanted to take injections and at the same time hated taking drugs. I only take it forcefully. "How can I take injections when I was medically balanced?" I asked myself. 

My mom got ready, and I told her I was not going. “Mum, I'm better. I don't think I have to go to the clinic. I was unhappy for staying at home after being happy once. I had escaped one to face another. 

My mom had to take me to the clinic, and the nurse did not bother carrying out tests, instead injecting me, claiming I had a fever. I cried out until the water in me dried up. 

When I got to the school two days later, I thought they had completed the presentation and had picked the prefects, not knowing that they did not carry out the presentation that day as a result of an impromptu meeting between the teachers and the principal. 

I had no choice other than to present, even though I was not prepared. At last, I was still the best among those who got prepared ahead of me. So, I was selected as the Head Girl.