Harry's Proudest Accomplishment

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Harry placed his pen on the table beside his manuscript. The piece was complete. Hours of frustration, triumph, and tears had come together in the embodiment of perfection. He breathed in deeply, filling his lungs and mind with cold oxygen. His English class stretched on for another thirty minutes; he had plenty of time to sunbathe in his pride. Around him, the others continued writing. Most of them looked decapitated, with their heads down, staring at the paper they were raping. Pens were busy scraping across paper as the teacher made her rounds across the room, stopping every now and then to pat the head of a particular student who seemed hardest at work. Harry leaned further back in his chair. 2

It wasn’t long before the clean, polished shoes of his teacher peeked out from under his desk. He raised his head and met the thin, pale face of the old woman he called teacher. In a sudden, fluid movement she snatched the paper and ripped it down the middle, clenching her yellow teeth as she did so. She tossed the paper aside and walked slowly to the front of the room, her heels drowning the sound of surprised gasps and utterances from the students who stared one eye at her and one eye at Harry’s ruined paper lying in ribbons on the floor. 3

“Boy and girls, I hope you understand that this writing period is NOT an option. If I catch anyone else lolly-gagging around in class, your paper’s fate will be the same as Mr. Harry Oswald’s here.” She turned to Harry and smiled a smile closest only to the smile a lunatic would give to a victim he was getting ready to bring a knife down upon. Harry only picked up the broken shards of his proudest accomplishment, unable to speak. 4

The teacher then proceeded to Charlie Parson’s desk. Charlie Parson was easily the dumbest, laziest kid in the class, and everyone knew it. The old woman reached into her pocket and brought out a red sticker with the words: “Super Job!” imprinted on its face, and placed it on the top right of Charlie’s paper. Charlie’s face lit up like an Edison bulb. 5

“Charlie here is being given this sticker because of his hard work and dedication to following the rules. There was not one time that I saw him ever stop writing or lolly-gag around. Perhaps it would benefit the rest of the class to follow in Charlie’s example” The class filled with soft chuckles. Charlie was thinking of the reactions his parents would make when he showed them his new, shiny sticker. He was surely gonna get a buck tonight, he betted it. 6

As the class settled down and the teacher retired to her desk in the back of the room, the rest of the students picked up their pens and resumed their class work. Each young mind in the class was filled with envy at Charlie Parson’s sticker. Each young mind just figured that they were not stupid or lazy enough to get a sticker. Little Harry Oswald looked at the florid, chubby Charlie Parson squirming and smiling stupidly in his little plastic seat. Harry turned his gaze to the broken shards of paper littering the floor. 7