Maddox Academy: Grievous Beginnings - Wattys 2022 Shortlister

Chapter Seventeen - The Metaphor of Roman Emperors

Parents Day sent the school into a flurry of activity.

The weekend after the exams, most of the school opted to go down to the village and buy a new outfit or an accessory to show their parents on their arrival. Katie and Jo had both decided to go along but since I had no money other than my telephone fund, I had no reason to join them. Instead, I spent the weekend with my presentation notes spread around me, trying to narrow them down to my project piece. By Friday, I wasn't any closer to an answer.

On Friday afternoon, I sat on the floor of the fourth-year dormitory with my paper spread around me. A single sunbeam travelled through the window above my head, but it missed my papers and hit a spot on the floor a short distance away. I pressed my back against the wall and looked around at the collection of notes. My notes spanned from Roman inventions to the mythology they had borrowed from the Greeks. Almost every aspect of Ancient Rome sat in front of me, but none of it helped.

Katie had tried to offer some assistance, but even she became overwhelmed by the number of notes and areas that I had written about. Unless a miracle happened, I didn't think I would ever narrow it down.

"What are you doing?" Emma asked, walking to the bed beside mine and throwing her school bag on top."

"Trying to narrow down my options for the project presentation," I said.

"These are all your notes? A bit over the top, don't you think?"

"And that's the problem. Too many notes, nothing coherent enough. Almost every element of Roman history is here."

"Close your eyes and pick one. Works for me."

"You think so?"

She shrugged. "Worth a try. Don't let Victoria catch you sitting like that, you know how much she hates untidiness."

"I might leave it here to spite her."

Emma smiled and shook her head, pulling something from her bag and then leaving me alone in the room once again. Out of all the girls in fourth-year, Emma was the only one who had spoken to me. She didn't seem to follow Victoria as intensely as the other girls did and I had caught her rolling her eyes a couple of times, but she never spoke against her. No one did. Still, it was nice to know that not everyone in the room disliked me, and she had a point.

I pressed my back against the wall and looked around at the piles of notes that covered the floor. Perhaps I had been putting too much pressure on myself to narrow down my choices when it may have been as simple as closing my eyes and choosing one without knowing what it was. Dad had explained the idea of Occam's Razor to be me and it could be applied to my current predicament. Sometimes the simplest answer was the right one.

Outside, the birds tweeted in the trees and I could hear the light notes of conversation from the girls out on the grounds. I took a breath and closed my eyes, steading my hands on my knees. The noises continued as I waved my right hand over the paper, slowly lowering it and placing it on top of one of the stacks. After opening my eyes, I gathered up the stack of paper and placed it on my lap, flicking through the notes.

"Rome's worst emperors, not a bad choice," I muttered, thumbing through the stack.

My notes on Rome's emperors had been written after the first pool incident with Victoria. I thought she needed teaching a lesson on what happened to someone who let power go to their head and used it for malicious intent. Many of Rome's leaders used their power for terrible means and it didn't end well for them, both in their lifetime and in the way they were presented in history. I doubted she would listen to the point of my presentation, but it would be fun to talk about something related to her without it being obvious.