The only way John could pass the exam was by cheating. There was still a week for his exams to start, but he didn’t have the thoughts to study in the first place.

His parents had died when he was 4 in a crucial accident and he had to live with his father’s sister, Aunt Martha, who was jealous of his father and in turn didn’t like John too. John was very good at football and practiced it day and night. Once, while he was practicing football at his house, the purple vase, which was Aunt Martha’s favourite, broke into pieces. From that time, he was grounded from playing football for his entire life. The exams had approached and John was lucky as it was only a reading exam, not a writing one.

‘He was skating on thin ice-that’s all I can say’. He started to recite the poem to Mr. Andrew, the English teacher as soon as possible cause, he had a match starting just in 10 minutes. He finished reciting the poem just as the bell rang. He raced down the corridor down to the field, and made it on time. It was the finals of inter school football match. And, John’s team won and made it to the State Level competition. But the problem was, Aunt Martha had grounded him. For in the first place, John never informed her about it as she would disagree to send him to competitions. Now, he had to confess to her or, he won’t make it to the state level. His friends wanted him to participate cause he was the best goalie in the town. So, the decision was his to make; either to make his state proud or stay at his house due to his Aunt.

Gathering all his courage, John went to the competition without informing his Aunt. And alas, they had won the match. On his way back home, he was shivering with fear that Aunt Martha would scold him a lot. To his surprise, Aunt Martha had hugged him when he had entered the house. “Aren’t you angry on me ?”, asked John, who was confused. “I am not angry on you at all. Vases can be replaced, but, a broken heart can’t, that too of my precious child.” Half happy and half confused, John went to bed after a scrumptious dinner. On the way to his room, hearing the headlines in the television . “Our state’s football team wins in the Under-10 title against Michigan. The main cause of this victory was the agile goalkeeper, John Matthew. The precious child of our state, the child with wings.”

~~ Shreshta Manikandan~~

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