Mr. Cheater and Ms.Valedictorian (20,000 words, English)

On Stage

The Greenvale High Seniors are now assembled in the school gym. They can see their old school principal, their Physics teacher and Senior level coordinator, Sir Bert Gomez and Ms.V, their stress inducing Calculus teacher conferring on stage. The rest of the faculty is also there on stage but they just let the three educators discuss whatever matter they’re discussing.

Most of the seniors think that they are there to listen to announcements about their graduation, it being only a couple of weeks away. They think that maybe they will be given some information regarding the schedule of practices, what not to do, what not to wear and of course all the detailed information of the actual graduation, like the schedule of the baccalaureate mass and the commencement exercises.

However, the longer their principal and the two teachers talk onstage amongst themselves, the quieter the gym becomes. The Greenvale High seniors look intently upon Ms.V. She is holding out a laptop to the principal, pointing out something on screen. The two other figures with her seem to be shaking their heads. They are clearly looking at something bad. The loud noise in the gym drops to a low hum of whispers.

“What are they looking at?”

“Why are we really here?”

“What could it be?”

The low whispers transform into loud chirping as if a group of birds just got trapped in a cage with a very hungry cat.

Finally, the aged Principal Hidalgo gets up from his seat and is escorted to the mic by his lovely personal nurse and secretary, Ms. Heidi.

 “Thank you Heidi,” Principal Hidalgo thanks his secretary with a smile.

All eyes are now on the old bald principal with the bushy white beard on stage. Principal Hidalgo is already 75 years old. He should’ve retired a few years back but the owners of the school can’t find it in their hearts to let him go, so they gave him tenure. Everyday Principal Hidalgo still makes the rounds to all the classrooms in Greenvale High assisted by his personal nurse and secretary Ms. Heidi. Principal Hidalgo isn’t as spry as he used to be but rumor has it that Ms.Heidi is the reason why he is as energetic as he is now.

The room falls silent as the wizened principal clears his throat and begins to speak.

“Urhem. Greenvale High School seniors,” his coarse voice fills the large gym. “You’re all expelled.”

The Greenvale High Seniors utter a collective questioning groan. The students drop their jaws at the announcement. The shock has rendered them unable to speak. The Senior Level Coordinator quickly runs to Principal Hidalgo and whispers something in his ear.

“I see,” the old principal nods back at Sir Bert and once again speaks into the mic. “Ah, Sir Bert Gomez has informed me that you are NOT expelled— just suspended. Sorry for the mix up,” the principal flashes a brief smile before exiting the stage with his lovely secretary leaving Sir Bert with the mic.

The Greenvale High seniors are left with their mouths still agape. They know that their principal has always been a man of few words but this is way too cruel. They look expectantly at Sir Bert Gomez, their Senior level coordinator, for clarification. Before Sir Bert could bring light to the principal’s announcement, Ms. Valenzuela, the bitter-tempered spinster has already commandeered the mic and is now asking the Audio Video technicians to hook up her laptop to the projector.

She wears a wicked look akin to those of witches when they have a grand scheme to ensnare their innocent young victims.

Ms. V gestures to the AV technicians and the big incriminating selfie of one Mr. Clifford Perez gets projected on the giant screen on stage. The picture has the boy posing with a bunch of what appears to be cheat sheets with the hashtags #Cheating #Graduation #Ohyeah #Win. Clifford slinks down on his chair as groans and shouts fill the gym.