Letting herself down

I heard tale the other day of a Headmaster’s son who, many years after leaving the sixth form, still holds one of the school’s athletics records.

But what of another Headmaster’s daughter, who doesn’t hold the record? Clear favourite; by far the best runner the school had ever seen. The record smashed in the semi-final – but only runs on the actual Sports Day counted for the history books. The high expectations. The parents watching; her father proud.

And her trailing in a miserable third.

He’d discuss it with her later. “It’s not that you lost,” he’d say. “Anyone can have a bad day.” But he’d take out a printout, and read from it to her. “But when I see from your browsing history that you were online until three in the morning on the day of the race, and had been up to similar hours on both of the previous nights, then it’s less a case of back luck than of poor self-discipline.”

She’d look ashamed, downcast. “I’m sorry, father. I let you down.”

“You let yourself down, more importantly. So go to my study and fetch the top cane from the rack. I need to make sure you really have learnt your lesson…”

One thought on “Letting herself down

  • 30 September, 2014 at 11:19 pm
    Permalink

    Hot. But if my father had looked at my browser history when I was in the sixth form, we would have had more serious matters to discuss than the time…

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *