How Awesome is Josh Oaks?

3. The Escape

Chapter Three: The Escape

My world stopped turning for a few seconds. What? Me? I did the task! What do they want? OH NO. I don’t want to run naked. If my father discovers this, I’m dead meat. I gulped and cleared my throat.

“I did the task. I shoplifted Don Quixote. You must be mistaken,” I said clearly.

They laughed at me. What now? They think that I’m lying? Yeah. Well I didn’t shoplift the book but I got it. I did the task technically. What do they want?

“You could go to the bookstore and check if you want,” I added.

They laughed at me again.

“Oliver!”

“Ye-yes?” Michael said.

“What was your task?”

“My task was to buy three 1.5 liter bottles of Coke with the fifty dollars you gave me.”

“What does his task have to do with mine?” I said suddenly.

“You don’t understand, do you?” the vice president (I think) said.

I didn’t reply. Instead, I shook my head slightly.

“Your task was easier than Oliver’s task.”

“Huh? But—“

“The nearest bookstore is the St. Louis bookstore. And where did you go? You went to the bookstore outside the school.”

St. Louis has a bookstore? Strike one.

“There’s more. In the bookstore inside the school, you don’t need to buy a book. You just get the book you like to get and then leave. The price of the book will be deducted from your tuition fee. In short, you’re “shoplifting”. Jesus Christ, Oaks, you didn’t even thought about that? You should’ve been smarter.”

I thought you were smarter than that. I thought you were smarter than that. I thought you were smarter than that. I thought you were smarter than that. I thought you were smarter than that. I thought you were smarter than that.

So that’s what Michael means when he said that. Why didn’t I check if the school has a bookstore?

“So… Take your clothes off and do the initiation already.”

My mind isn’t functioning well. My sight went blurry.

“No. That’s injustice,” somebody said loudly. Michael. I looked at him.

“Why is that so?” the student body president asked.

“He technically did the task. He shoplifted the Don Quixote right? It’s not his fault if he didn’t know that there was a bookstore inside the school. If you think about it, he deserves to have an additional point because he really shoplifted. That’s never an easy task.”

Again, I did not shoplift. Just go back to Chapter 2 if you missed what happened.

“But the nearest bookstore is the bookstore of St. Louis. He missed that,” the vice president said.

“But that is not the point! The main idea is to shoplift Don Quixote not the bookstore! I mean, come on! Can’t you see how big his effort was?!” he pointed at me. “You should at least give him a chance! Yes, he did not get the book in the bookstore of St. Louis but so what? It’s still a bookstore!”

He stopped yelling because he was out of breath. Who told him to defend me? What a weirdo. I can handle myself. Plus yelling at the face of the student body’s president? That is so impolite.