「故事·听力」I Rebelled At School Bans But It Went Too Far

I Rebelled At School Bans But It Went Too Far

This is Amanda. Some time ago, she was a student at an ordinary school. Like most people, she was subject to many different school bans on normal things, like talking during lunch or wearing colourful clothes. Here’s a life hack that she used to cheat the rules. Make sure you’re sitting comfortably! This is an amusing story about a senior-year prank that came about unintentionally. So, here we go!

It was Amanda’s senior school year, and she started it with a number of ideas on how she could guarantee that she and her friends would be remembered forever at their school. Of course, it would have to be something spectacular! Amanda and her friends discussed a whole number of options, from simple water bombs to some spectacular ideas like recreating a beach inside the school grounds, or organizing cockroach races with actual bookmaking and jockeys.

However, their dreams soon came crashing down against harsh reality. The school principal was trying to prevent a senior-year prank, since the class before them had taken things a little too far. So they basically told the students not to do a traditional prank, and that anyone who did would be in a lot of trouble.

Now Amanda and her friends were being told they wouldn’t be allowed to remember it for something special. Obviously, there was no chance of them passing over the occasion. Suddenly, one of them came up with an idea. “What if we do an ‘anti-prank’”? The idea floated around the school halls, and soon everyone knew what they were going to do. So, for several days every senior was meant to bring a potentially threatening item to school for a prank, but then do nothing with it. They also consulted the seniors from previous years and decided that on the first day they would all bring... A BANANA. Because, why not?

The week started and on the Monday the entire senior class brought a banana with them to every class. This was a reference to a previous prank – when the students had covered the entirety of the school’s entrance hall in banana peels, making it impossible to walk cross. There were about 500 people due to graduate in Amanda’s year. So there were HUNDREDS of bananas being carried through the halls! The school staff lost their patience very quickly, and soon an announcement rang out: “All bananas need to be eaten or thrown away or they will be confiscated.” So when the afternoon came, all the bananas had been taken away. They could just picture the school administration freaking out over the situation - “What are we going to do now with all these bananas?”

The next day they paid a tribute to another hilarious prank of the past, when the seniors had hired a group of mariachi who chased the principal around the school all day, accompanying his every word with cheerful tunes. So now, everyone came to school in Mexican hats and some students even turned up with guitars – but didn’t play them. They’d only been enjoying themselves for an hour when they heard the inevitable announcement: wearing hats inside the school was forbidden, and later that day all the hats were confiscated. You can imagine just how overflowing the school storage rooms were with 500 hats!

But the students had already taken things too far along to abandon their plans at that point. The following day saw a ratcheting up of the tension. Somebody had the idea that each student should bring a two-litre bottle of water to class.  So that’s what they did, and to no one's surprise again there was an announcement that the school staff would gather up all the water bottles for fear of what the students were going to do with them. Amanda and her friends spotted a pale librarian running towards the library to lock it up before any students got in. But this time, they decided to resist to the bitter end. People were feeling resentful now, and didn’t want to give up their precious water. But alas, most of the bottles were confiscated. This was the last straw!

So the students started sharing the news on social media. Dozens of tweets and shares were reaching local news stations, and then even spreading around the whole country. The situation at the school was mentioned on lots of daytime shows and news broadcasts, all reporting that for unknown reasons a school was “confiscating all water bottles and not allowing students to drink water.” You get the picture. Before the end of the day, two news reporters were already at our school. The story went viral without the students even making too much of an effort! Now, that was really satisfying. And they would have positive recollections of that last school year for the rest of their lives!