“Did you revise for the test”, was the only question Jason had heard all morning. Mr. Smithson had threatened Jason with a cause for concern, if he failed to achieve at least a ‘C’ in the Biology test. And of course, Jason hadn’t revised at all the night before. He searched high and low in his brain for an excuse that would get him out of the test, but to no avail. He quickly sat down at the back of his form room and began flicking through the paged of his textbook, trying to learn as much as he could. He only managed to get through 4 of the required 8 pages before the bell rang to commence the first lesson.
He took his seat at the back of the room, and began to imagine the lecture he was going to receive after school. “You’re not trying hard enough”; “You never spend any time doing homework”. If only parents could understand what it was like to be a kid today. He wished his father could still be there to stick up for him, but that was no longer possible. The test papers were handed out, along with an answer sheet. Jason knew he was going to fail miserably. He flicked through the paper and realised that he was going to have to guess the answer to nearly every question. The thought of the remote kept flashing through his head, although he couldn’t think of a possible use for it in this situation.
With ten minutes of the allowed time to go, a thought hit him, but he wasn’t quite sure if it would work. If he paused time when there were only a few minutes left, then he would be able to check the answers on the class swot’s paper. The only problem would be the teacher would no that he was never capable of gaining full marks without cheating for certain. He was going to have to be careful and deliberately write some of the wrong answers down.
When there was only two minutes left he punched in the pause key in and watched everyone freeze. He walked over to the girl’s paper, collected it and returned to his seat. He finished copying all the questions apart from the last one, which he left blank. This was sure to work. He pressed play on the remote and handed in his test paper with a sly grin on his face.
Jason was right. He watched Mr. Smithson mark the papers and watched his baffled expression as he saw him marking his. He carefully watched the movements that his pen made. He reckoned to himself that the teacher had written ‘Superb, Pass’. The test papers where handed out shortly afterwards, and Jason hoped he was right. No sooner the paper had landed on his desk, he turned it over without looking at it to check his mark, except there was no mark. Where there should have been a mark there was ‘See Me Please’, written in bold red ink. A wave of fear swept over him and a rush of heat went to his head. What could have possibly been wrong? He had been so careful in making sure he didn’t do too well. Had Mr. Smithson realised?
“Hey, this isn’t mine”, came the disappointed shout from the guy sat next to the class swot. “Someone else has mine”, he continued. Jason turned his paper over, only to realise that the test he had didn’t belong to him either. Mr. Smithson had obviously handed out the wrong sheets to them. They swapped papers back, and Jason snatched the paper from his hand, and read his breathed his mark out in a sigh of relief. A ‘B-‘ was the best mark he could have hoped for. Not too good, but not too bad either. He was safe of a cause for concern without causing too much suspicion. I turned out that the kid, who sat next to the swot, had copied her answers word for word.
* * * * *
The air was thick of exhaust fumes, but Jason didn’t notice as he walked home proudly clutching his remote. He didn’t notice the raised manhole, protruding out of the ground in front of him. He didn’t even notice the car hurtling down the street way over speed limit. He stubbed his foot on the manhole as he turned to cross the road. The remote flew out of his hands into the path of the oncoming car. He didn’t stop to think as he jumped into the street to grab the remote. He bent down and grabbed it, and looked up, only to find himself looking into the grill of a sleek sports car. The screech of tyres ringed through the air and the whole street turned to look. He fumbled with the remote trying to find the pause button. He pressed random keys and the car suddenly bolted towards him as he pressed the fast forward key.
“Sssssssshhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiii-”, came the cry from a bystander. The car stopped with Jason’s nose pressed firmly into the mucky grill. The engine smelt strongly of oil, but Jason didn’t care. He climbed to his feet and suddenly the world fell into darkness. He couldn’t see a thing apart from a tiny flashing red light, coming from the remote. Upon closer inspection, Jason could just about make out the words ‘Battery Low’.