Open Grounded

[Angelo Dela Cruz]

It was an awful, awful break. Angelo had missed his mum, but he hadn't quite expected the tongue-lashing and the dreaded slipper to greet him when he'd gotten home. Honestly, the only reason Angelo thought his mum had gone with the slipper was because she missed him too. Probably. Unfortunately, his legs nor his hands didn't exactly get the memo. "Alam mo!!! Grounded ako buong bakasyon!" Angelo said way, way too loudly as he plopped beside Aaron at the Ravenclaw table the morning after sorting, his head dropping onto the table. "Mama was so so soooooooo mad!" his complaints coming out muffled by the table. He really didn't think his grades warranted being grounded for two whole months. He wasn't allowed out without his mother and he wasn't allowed to use his phone or his laptop! Only the TV! There was only so much TV one could watch! "/WAT ARE DEES GRADES ANG-HE-LO?/" he exclaimed in imitation of his mother as he sat up, one hand gesturing towards the other as if he was gesturing at a held piece of paper. "AN O?! WAT IS AN O? WHY WOULD YOU GET O? AND E?! AND ONLY ONE A?! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH MONEY WE SPENT SENDING YOU TO SCHOOL?!" He'd tried explaining to his mother that an O was the highest grade of course and that went about as expected. "/WHY WOOD AN O BE HIGHER DAN AN A HA? WHAT KIND OF SCHOOL IS DAT? DID DAY DO THERE ABC?/" His accent had come out full-blown but then again, his mother had an even thicker accent than he did so perhaps it was just to be accurate really. He had such an awful break.​

* You know!!! I was grounded for the whole vacation
* What are these grades Angelo?
* Why would an O be higher than an A huh? What kind of school is that? Did they do their ABC?

 

[Aaron Dela Cruz]

“If your mum tells mine, I’m screwed.” Unlike Angelo who had such an awful break, Aaron by contrast had been given almost a completely complaint free break. Since he’d never in his life gotten an A, except at this school, and it worked out well for him, because he had to do hardly any work, and he still got what his parents thought were excellent grades. He honestly couldn’t say why Angelo was trying so hard when clearly his mother thought the same thing. A’s were the best and anything below that was terrible. He snorted, patting his friend on the back in commiseration. “Cheer up Buboy, you can go and get a letter from the Head of House, maybe he tell your mum that the results are correct… although then you have to explain your A, so maybe not?” He wasn’t sure which class the A was for, he was getting all A’s so it was all the same to him either way.​