"...After a while, the bread clip board started to become a great source of rivalry in our classroom. Kids were doing good deeds deliberately, just so they could get a new bread clip. They were asking for "extra-credit" homework so they could get even MORE bread clips. Things were getting too aggressive for my tastes, but almost everybody else seemed to enjoy the competition.
We had all sworn to be honest about the whole bread clip board thing, and believe it or not, we were all pretty honest (even me). But I knew there had to be a loophole somewhere. I had sworn to be honest when giving myself bread clips... and I had sworn to be honest about not switching anybody else's bread clips around... but nobody said anything about not tipping the board over.
So one day during recess, it was too cold to go outside, so we had an "in-the-classroom" recess. Everybody was just hanging around talking and stuff, while I was quietly making my way over to the bread clip board. I scoped out the area very carefully, just to make sure nobody was watching. Then with a flick of my finger, I nudged the bread clip board away from the wall upon which it was leaning. The board began to tip forward. Quickly (but not too quickly) I walked away from the board as it began falling to the floor. I had gotten about two and a half steps away when a giant CRASH! filled the classroom air.
Everything stopped. All the kids turned to see what had happened. I turned, too, looking as surprised as I could. It couldn't have been more perfect. The bread clip board was face down on the floor. Bread clips were scattered everywhere. What had once been an intricate accounting of our grandiose moral and academic achievements had suddenly been reduced to a board with nails on it, surrounded by a bunch of little colored plastic thingies.
"Oh, NO!" I shouted, "Look what just happened... all by itself... accidentally... with no outside interference from anyone!"
About half of the kids in the class cheered. Some kids seemed annoyed. But Michael was mortified. All his dreams of annihilating his peers had been crushed... all his A's and "good deeds" were for naught. He dashed over to the board and lifted it up. But alas, every one of the bread clips had fallen off.
"I REMEMBER," Michael shouted, "I---I had three gold bread clips, two blue ones, and four white ones!" He leaned the board back up against the wall and began frantically replacing his clips. But unfortunately for Michael, nobody else had memorized their exact number of bread clips at that moment. We could only speculate...
"I think I had four gold ones," I said.
"Me too," said another kid.
"I had seven!" said somebody else.
"NO YOU DIDN'T!!!" screamed Michael, his eyes welling up with tears. "I WAS THE WINNER!!! I BEAT ALL OF YOU!!! NOBODY EVEN CAME CLOSE TO MY SCORE!!! I HATE YOU ALL!!!"
Over the next few days, Michael tried his best to "right" the terrible wrong which had befallen him. He put himself in charge of redistributing the bread clips, but nobody was happy with his decisions. Soon kids began taking it upon themselves to arrange the bread clips to suit their own likings, and before long, chaos broke out. Kids were arguing and fighting so much that within a week, our teacher took the bread clip board outside and tossed it in the dumpster.
And that was it. It was over. Kids stopped doing good deeds, and gave up on trying to get "A's". Everybody calmed down and returned to normal... except for Michael.
Michael was so distraught over the whole incident, that he accidentally missed a mistake while grading one of his own quizzes. He put his usual "A+", and "100%" on the top of the paper, but when he got it back the next day, the "A+" had been crossed out and changed to an "A". The "100%" had been crossed out and changed to a "96%".
Michael had made a mistake. Michael was in shock. Michael--- was devastated.
It was the proudest moment of my life.
I'm not sure what ever became of Michael Sneedman. Perhaps he's still sitting at that very same desk, staring in disbelief at his "A", and wondering where it all went so terribly, terribly wrong. Thinking back on it, I kinda feel bad that my one small act of defiance sparked such moral and academic anarchy in our classroom. But then I think about that 96%, and I feel it was all worth it!" — Dav Pilkey
