Don’t Drink And Reminisce

(I’m 16 and in my last year of secondary school. I come from a pretty small town, so my parents know our school’s principal and a few of my teachers. I had a knee surgery a few weeks prior to this. I have to do physiotherapy in the morning, which means I often arrive late at my first class, which is mathematics, about half the time. The math teacher is a pretty funny and eccentric man, and this is a well-known fact around the school. One day I get called to the principal’s office. Note that I’ve always been a straight-A student and rarely missed class.)

Principal: “So, [My Name], I have been informed that you’ve been absent to your maths class this Monday.”

Me: “What? I was there. It must be a mistake.”

Principal: “That’s not what the attendance sheet shows.”

Me: “Well, I’ve been late because of my physiotherapy, but I went to class after that. Maybe that’s the reason why I’ve been put as absent.”

Principal: “Your teacher left a note saying you were seen at a bar that morning. [Student Council President] even wrote that you looked like you were drunk.”

Me: “Are you serious? Come on, obviously [Maths Teacher]  has made a joke and [Student Council president] helped him along. Why would I be drunk at a bar at eight in the morning? That’s ridiculous!”

Principal: *laughing* “Well, that’s what I thought too at first, but I had to ask the question. You see, one morning about 30 years ago, your father and I decided to go to a bar instead of going to school, and we got ourselves pretty wasted. Sometimes the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree… Anyway, you can go back to class now.”

(And that’s how I learned that I was a better student than my father, or my school’s principal, for that matter.)