Not Having Fun

023

I hold hands with Jemima as we come inside. We're in Year 2 now, so we're allowed to walk to school and home by ourselves. Chris can't walk us anymore anyway, now that he's at the high school. "Y'alright guys?" Mum nods to us. "Get your homework done and then you can go and play. Jemima, did your parents say you could come over?"

"Yes Miss Sally,"

"It's just Sally," Mum says with a wink.

We kneel at the table and start our homework. "What did you put for number five?" I lean over and look at Jemima's notebook. I copy her answer, because why not? We're friends and it's just like helping one another with our homework. That's not cheating!

I finish quickly, because I just write what she does. "Can we go and play now?" I ask when we're done, while packing everything back in our folders.

"Alright, go over to the park but stay where I can see you," Mum chuckles. "You know what your Dad's like. He'll have a fit if you aren't in view of the house,"

Jemima and I giggle and we cross the road to the park. That's where we play for the rest of the night, until her parents come to collect her.

The next day at school, we hand in our homework. Mrs Lammond marks it while we do our morning maths work. Tuesday is maths morning, Wednesday is writing morning and so on. We do one thing for the morning of every day. That's why Tuesday's my least favourite day.

"Max, Jemima," Mrs Lammond looks up after she finishes marking the homework. "Come outside with me please,"

Uh oh, that means we're in trouble! We go outside to the corridor. I hate these corridors, they're dark. I shift on my feet, scared of Mrs Lammond. I remember Dad telling me about her belting him. I know she's not allowed to anymore, but what if she belts me?! 

"Now, you both did quite well on your homework. You both got some right answers," she looks between us and we both shift nervously. "And you both got some wrong answers as well. You both got the same right answers and wrong answers,"

She crosses her arms over her chest. It doesn't make much of a difference since she always looks angry anyway.

"Jemima helped me with my homework," I tell her. "We did it together and she helped me," It's true! That is true - her answers helped me.

"So she wrote down her answers, and how did she help you get yours?" she shows us a question we both got wrong. "How did you get 17 for that?"

Jemima starts to answer, but Mrs Lammond stops her. "No, I want Max to tell me how you helped him get seventeen,"

We both freeze and look at one another. "I'm sorry!" I say quickly. "I didn't know it was cheating!"

She sighs. "Max, your last teacher told me you had problems with homework. I hoped your father would've fixed them,"

I look at the floor and play with my hands. "I really didn't mean to cheat, I thought it was just helping me,"

"You need to do your own homework, you know that. You learned that in Year 1,"

I don't know what to say, so I don't say anything.

"You've got no excuses? Alright then, you can stay in at lunchtime and do the homework again, without cheating this time,"

"Owwwww," I groan. I won't get to play outside! That's the only good part of school.

"And you can have a note sent home,"

"What?!"

"That's right. And if it isn't brought back and signed by tomorrow morning, we'll have to phone your parents. You're a big Year 2 now and you can't be missing your homework,"