A trophy, a boy, and a thief
A scream suddenly echoed in the hallways of the school that day. A bunch of boys ran to investigate the source of the scream. James, one of the boys, had a really bad feeling about the situation. Once they got closer to the source of the sound, the trophy room, they heard a woman’s voice yelling:
- Where is it? Where in the world is it?
The boys were horrified to find out that the trophy to the debate competition had vanished, seemingly, into thin air. The principal, having learnt about the robbery, announced for all the students to remain in their classes until further instructions were given.
James was ordered by a teacher to gather all the members of the school debate team since they were the ones responsible for safeguarding the trophy. Out of the blue, a thought came to James’ mind «I, for one, will solve this mystery».
James went straight to the principal’s office, knocked on the door and asked for permission to enter. Without second thought, he suggested his plan to the worried principal:
- I would like to ask for permission to investigate the matter, but I have one condition, nobody and I mean nobody shall know. Only you and I.
The principal agreed with Jame’s conditions and gave his approval to the matter. James thanked the principal and quickly gathered all of his team members to the trophy room just as the teacher ordered him.
As the teacher sat down, she said: “As you all know somebody stole the trophy so I will now ask you some questions to hopefully uncover the culprit”.
“Does anybody have any idea of what could have possibly happened?”.
Everyone denied being connected with the burglary, but James realised that Mark, the first of the two team leaders, was clearly holding something back based on his expressions. Virginia, the second one of the two captains, raised her hand and asked: “ Was there any evidence left in the crime scene?”. James found her suspicious but everyone else, including the teacher, seemed to have no doubt about her innocence.
All of a sudden, a notification came to the teachers’ phone,
“ It is the principal, he says that he has the CCTV footage of the night of the trophy’s disappearance.”.
Mark started looking around nervously and then excused himself to go to the bathroom. Upon him leaving, the room fell in deep silence.
At that point, everybody turned their suspicions against Mark, but James thought that the culprit would probably be more careful with their behavior.
Breaking the silence, the teacher said: “The principal texted me and informed me that the person in the footage was clearly a female student.”
“That leaves us with only two suspects, Those being Maria and Virginia, in this room.”
“Then, I believe I can speak for everyone when I say that Mark, despite not being the culprit, clearly knows something.”, said Virginia.
After that ordeal, everybody waited impatiently for Mark to return. As Mark was suspiciously absent for way too long, James offered to go out looking for him. As James entered the bathroom, he found Mark crying: “How will I ever confess my love for her now? .How could I betray her and expect her to love me?”
‘’What is going on Mark?’’ said James after walking into the bathroom and hearing Mark sobbing.
‘’If something is bothering you, you can always share it with the rest of us you know!’’, continued James.
‘’No! You would not understand even if I told you!’’ said Mark with a trembling voice.
‘’Even if I don’t understand, I believe I can still help you’’, responded James with a calm voice.
Mark tried to run out of the bathroom but James blocked Mark’s way with his hand.
‘’At least try to help us by doing the right thing’’, said James with a reassuring smile.
The boys went back to the classroom with James taking the lead.
‘’So, Mark! What happened? Is everything alright?’’, asked the teacher.
Mark takes a deep breath and exclaims: «Virginia…. She is the one who stole the trophy. I saw her hiding it in her locker!»
Virginia tried to deny the allegations against her but due to the previous situation with Mark leaving the classroom out of the blue, nobody could dismiss Mark’s claims. Virginia said in a frustrated voice: – Fine … I’ll take you to my locker.
After the trophy was found, Virginia explained her reasoning behind it: – After our last practice, I thought that our team had absolutely no chance of winning the upcoming debate competition and I didn’t want to get humiliated in font of my parents and my friends. It was just a desperate attempt to prevent that. I knew from the very beginning that what I was doing was wrong, but I wanted to avoid getting kicked out of the team.
After Virginia’s confession, everyone was left with a feeling of denial and betrayal. The principal was called and thanked James for his assistance. He gave Virginia a three-day suspension and demanded her getting kicked out of the team.
‘’Stop!’’ screamed everyone.
James started talking: ‘’I believe that I speak for everyone when I say that while Virginia should definitely be punished for what she did, I think that kicking her out of the team would be a bit too harsh! ‘’
‘’I think we could just demote her from the second captain’s position,’’ suggested Mark.
‘’Then, who will take her place?’’ asked the principal.
‘’James!!’’ shouted everybody.
And thus, James was not only given the honour of becoming the second captain of the debate team but he was also rewarded with a special trophy for helping solve this mystery.
As for the competition, James’ team won and went on to achieve many more victories. At the end of the school year, Mark found the courage to ask Virginia out and she accepted his invitation. Needless to say, everybody got their happy ending.
Ζαχόπουλος Παναγιώτης
Μπασδέκης Ορέστης
Σχίζας Νικόλαος-Δαμιανός
Τασσόπουλος Δημήτρης
