“Wilson Matthew” Bod shouting in his exceptionally posh English voice.
“Here”.
“Heinz Scott. Scott Heinz, wake up you stupid boy” said Bod as he continued with the detention register.
“Agghh… Yes Sir, of course Sir”.
“Don’t test me today boy, your GCSE papers have just arrived. Ahh! Now here’s a surprise, O’Flynn, Seamus O’Flynn”.
“Yes Sir”.
“Why are you here boy?”
“I was late to school Sir”.
“What’s you excuse, abducted by aliens, or maybe you helped an old lady cross the street?”
“Ahh, how sweet” followed by the usual snigger of Matthew.
“Shut up Scott I heard that”.
“Sir it was the 23 bus. It was late again sir; you know what the buses are like around here. All that traffic and all, Sir”.
“O.K as most of you know in my detentions you do not sit around doing nothing. Today you will be participating in several activities. Matthews you will be restacking those books for the fourth consecutive time, you know how I want them, Scott you will be, err, taking down that board over there and replacing it with these posters that the year sevens have done. Seamus as you might have noticed the GCSE’s have arrived for your exams on Monday, there in those brown boxes in the corner. I want you to count every box and make sure that there are thirty in three of the boxes and one box where there should only be twelve. O.K that’s it. What is it you’re waiting for? Christmas; get started the lot of you”.
So we all got to work, well almost all of us, anyway. Bod just put down his head and he fell straight to sleep, after he took his pills. He says that they’re for medical reasons, but others say that they’re too colourful to be legal. But then again nobody could blame him really; this school is kind of depressing. See everyone in my school had this theory, during World War II this old school was bombed. All the teachers’ deny it but you could understand why. The white wallpaper was peeling (well what was left of it), there were cracks in the walls and well, you just had this general feeling that people had died in here.
So I walked up to the brown boxes with the GCSE’s in and started counting. I was surprised I was being made to do this, as the box was plastered in “TOP SECRET” stickers, I didn’t mind though it was easy compared to some of my other detentions, which involved taking chewing gum of the bottoms of tables and picking rubbish off the school field. I started counting the papers. 1...2...3...4...5. Very, very boring. By the time I had finished counting the first box Matthew and Scott had already given up and were both asleep in the corner. Scott’s long blonde hair was obviously in the way as he kept choking on it every time a lock went into his mouth, Matthew on the other hand just seemed to grunt continuously for the sake of annoying everyone else in the room.
I had just finished the third box when I realised that it was quarter past four according to my watch (I had just bought this new watch which I was very proud of, it was gold and silver) which meant that there were only ten minutes left. By now Matthew and Bod were snoring in time while Scott had taken to gurgling. He had managed to cover his whole face in saliva. I realised that there were only 12 papers to count so I got started. 1…2…3…4…9…10…11…12 that was the end of that or was it, there was still one more paper in the box 13. It was a miracle my chance to cheat in life, (about bloody time and all I’ve never had the chance before).
So I took it, stuck it in my bag and legged it, well tried to anyway I’m not one of the best athletes in the U.K.
In the end I got home in double quick time even without taking the bus. Once I got home I found out that most of my family from Ireland were there. I didn’t recognise most of them so my Mum stood behind me and whispered their names. They all kept on going on about how they all had high hopes for me. So when I got the chance, I went up to my room, and had second thoughts about the paper.
I realised that if I took the paper I would probably get an A* which would be excellent. I also realised that if I used the paper I would only be cheating myself. I decided to take it back but thought about what would happen if the teachers knew that I had taken a GCSE paper. So I came to the final decision not to use it and to burn it, then I thought that some use might as well come out of this anyway and I did want “Return to the Matrix” on PC, it was the best game ever created.
The next month when I received my results I was quite surprised. I got a B for English, more than I expected, and a mysterious £50. I also found out that Matthew and Scott both got A’s unexpected by everyone, except me of course.