Ring. Ring. Ring.
The school bell went off, indicating the end of the tiresome school day, all of the students in the classroom leapt from their chairs and hurried towards the exit except for the two punished students.
Finnegan watched his classmates leave happily through the doors whilst he remained seated in misery. He had vowed to ignore his so called best friend until Grey had the decency to apologise.
He ignored Grey for the entire school lessons; he never looked or spoke a simple word to Grey. It was really easy during the lessons and was working until he had finally glanced at Grey in the empty classroom.
Grey’s face was plastered on his desk, his eyes were closed and there was a faint stain of drool on his chin.
Finnegan really disliked his childhood friend more at this moment than any other moment in his entire life, he could not believe that his best friend would insist he share in this punishment and casually fall asleep in the process! Finnegan huffed in annoyance loud enough for Grey’s sleeping face to hear but Grey’s ears were deaf to the huffing sound.
Finnegan huffed again but louder, waiting for Grey to open his eyes and eventually apologise but Grey did not, his head was still as an unapologetic drooling stone.
“Grey!” Finnegan shouted out, breaking his vow of silence. “Grey!”
Grey wiped his drool from his chin, his eyes still shut in darkness.
“Oh, Finnegan,” Grey yawned his friend’s name out. “Has Mrs Wretchered come yet?” He wiped his eyes, then his chin, smearing some of the unknown drool on his hand.
“No, she hasn’t,” replied Finnegan, upset.
“That’s good. I wonder how long she’ll be, it’s troublesome to wait such a long time until dinner,” said Grey, taking no heed to the upset tone of Finnegan. “If she doesn’t arrive in five minutes, it’s a universal rule that she is not coming and we are free to leave under no obligations.”
“What about the universal rule of friendship?” Finnegan stammered out. “Have we not been friends since we were four years old?” He could not hold back his anger. “We have a universal rule, you and me! How could you let me take some of the punishment?”
Grey eyed the upset Finnegan. “Of course, we have a universal rule of friendship!” he confirmed, far too casually. “We should endure trials and tribulations together! You betrayed me first, Finnegan. You did not say anything to Mrs Wretchered as she punished my innocent soul. You shunned me! Did you really want to leave me alone and suffer this after school punishment I had no idea of? Mrs Wretchered could have eaten me alive and there would be no witnesses.”
Finnegan paused, thinking on Grey’s statements. “That may be true but Grey, our universal friendship rule includes taking sacrifices for a friend. In this case you should have never included me! I should not be here with you in this empty classroom, waiting to witness Mrs Wretchered eat you.”
“Hold on a minute, Fyn,” said Grey. “Why do you think she’ll eat me? Since you are with me, she might start with you and I would be the one witnessing you being eaten.” Grey nodded his head as if that would be the conclusion.
“What?” Finnegan let out. “I don’t think Mrs Wretchered would eat me first. She chose you first to see her afterschool!” he reasoned. “It’s only logical that she eats you first. There is that saying first come –”
“First served,” Mrs Wretchered finished Finnegan’s sentence as she entered the room. “For the record of the lack of your thirteen-year-old minds, I would never eat horrendous students as yourselves. Now, keep quiet and sit still!”
Finnegan and Grey did as she demanded; they straightened their backs in their seats.
“Now, this is your punishment,” Mrs Wretchered said sternly. “You shall for the entire school year clean the school grounds, after all your school lessons.”
“What?” They both exclaimed.
“You will clean out the entire north and east block of the school grounds.”
“But that’s 4 hectares!”
“That’s impressive Grey Ethel, I am glad you know the size of the north and east combined. Now you understand how much you have to clean. Ensure that every speck of rubbish is picked up on all the school grounds of the north and the east, all classrooms are clean, the chairs neatly packed underneath the desks and the blackboards wiped to perfection.”
“That could take the whole night and day!” Finnegan moaned miserably whilst Grey slouched his head thinking on this new punishment.
“Then you best get started,” Mrs Wretchered advised.
The north block of the school consisted of a smooth white stoned, seven storey building, it was long and linear and within the rather large building were compressed classrooms for the different grades. The linear building eventually arched and connected into the east block, attached to this large authorative building was several path ways leading to the gardens and the sport yards.
Currently, Grey and Finnegan swept the autumn leaves off the grass in the gardens.
“Why does the school have oak, elm and willow trees?” complained Finnegan as he raked the brown leaves together in a bundle. “These types of trees are not evergreen trees and what of the gardener?”
“The gardener is probably clearing out the south and west block of the school,” Grey answered, his rake made a scrapping sound as he moved it to and fro. “This isn’t so bad, Fyn.”
Grey stopped sweeping and looked up at the branches of the oak trees, a breeze swept pass the trees, trembling the brown-reddish leaves attached to the branches and they casually fell to the ground. Grey watched them fall to the ground thinking how peaceful it would be to be a leaf floating in the gust of the wind and then lying still on the ground.
“Wouldn’t that be nice?” Grey murmured to himself but Finnegan had heard him.
“What would be nice?” Finnegan asked, sweeping the leaves aggressively.
“To become a leaf and have no worries. Oh, how simple the life of an autumn leaf.”
“A leaf? You mean these brown leaves that are causing us heartache and pain? Grey, I think you have gone mad. I hate these leaves they only cause more worry,” complained Finnegan, sweeping the leaves more aggressively together but then a breeze stepped in and blew his bundle of leaves away scattering them all over the grass. “Argghh!” he groaned, letting go of his rake and trying to stop the wind. “I hate these leaves!”
“You should have piled them into the black plastic instead of the ground,” said Grey, looking at Finnegan who was on the ground huddling his bundle of leaves, protecting them against the breeze.
“Don’t you have magic powers?” asked Finnegan. “Hasn’t your father taught you anything?”
Grey shook his head. “My father said I will learn at school when I am of Mage age. When I am thirteen... but I haven’t learnt a thing at school, except how to sweep autumn leaves,” said Grey, dismally.
“What about your mother? She’s also high on the ranks of Mages. Isn’t she the second powerful Mage? Your father is the first and your mother is the second. She must have taught you something!” Finnegan complained, he was desperate for all these leaves to immediately be stacked neatly in the black plastics. “I can’t handle this anymore Grey, I want to go home. You should be able to summon your magic automatically, you are meant to be the most powerful Mage of the future!”
“My mother hasn’t taught me anything either,” said Grey, annoyed at Finnegan’s whining. He swept the rest of his leaves into the black plastic. “I am meant to be the most powerful Mage of the future, everyone keeps saying that, the entire Mage race have high expectations of me! It’s rather tedious thinking about it. Being the only son of the Mage of the century is troublesome, he expects me to rank within the top ten highest academic students of all the sixty schools of HanaDhulRhys.”
“Which you always are, although all you do is sleep in class. How do you even manage? You were number ten in all last year subjects, geography, math, biology.” Finnegan tried to name the rest of the subjects but he couldn’t remember them. “How do you manage? You must be using magic! You just haven’t told me!”
Grey sighed. “It’s more troublesome to hear my father complain and all our Mage relatives complain than to study and be tenth. I don’t think I can handle the annoying voice of my father’s complaints, he won’t stop complaining. Do you remember the test we wrote in second grade? I got a zero because I slept during the test and that’s when I learnt how bothersome my father could be. He complained about the test every day for the rest of the year, his complaints seeped into my dreams and turned into nightmares. I could not even enjoy sleep! He played his magic mind games with me. It was strenuous and so much more trouble than getting a decent mark.”
“What?” asked Finnegan, trying to understand his best friend. “So you intentionally study because your father’s complaints are more difficult to deal with?”
“Exactly. Luckily, I don’t have to be number one,” said Grey, tying his fourth and final black plastic bag. “You know Finnegan, I’d rather live a simple life. A life of an autumn leaf.” He carried his last plastic bag and began to walk to the entrance of the school hall.
“Grey, hold up!” Finnegan cried out, rushing to place his leaves in his own plastic.
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