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Contemporary Fiction High School

"Oh, no!" Unfortunately for student M, he was growing up too fast. It was a fateful morning in time, some when. Mock exams, he was totally unprepared. He had not really been listening to his noble teachers, whatever they said.

This morning, it was English, his worst. All he was really dreaming of was full on Nike casual wear, and expensive joggers, plus a brand new Adidas sports bag. That was if he ever escaped from school long enough to play his favorite sport again.

Times were tough for seventeen year old lads. Not quite men, all he and his cohorts in his classes ever talked about was their thirst for heavy binge drinking. They all hoped to finish this education game for summer, and snog delightful significant mates of their gender preference.

Hey, student M was going to be a leader of tomorrow's society. He could shape his own future planning. Who had told him that? Whatever the teacher said, but first this dreadful English exam.

"I must not panic!" He told himself, as he joined the mock exam charade. He opened the English exam paper, reading nervously. "Too easy!" he told himself, still forced to hand write his responses.

"Yes," he read, "Martin Luther King Jnr. had a dream." Student M had half heard about this great visionary on history's stage. Now, what was the question?

Question 1 : Write your own personal goals.

Student M could handle this. He began, "My personal goals are to get good gifts for Christmas, never hand write again. I wish to work in Information Technology, make heaps of money, retire when I am forty, and never work again. Then I can buy my own gold Maserati, and a yacht. Might get married and have kids, might be a gigolo."

Question 2: What are your goals for your nation?

Student M paused to consider this curly one. Indeed, why waste his grey matter? After all, he was a leader already, what the teacher said. He wrote, "My personal goals for my nation is for no children to be living under torture by school teachers, forced to answer dumb questions."

That covered that. Then he read on, this was a real trick question. Student M always looked for the trick questions on any exam, he was conditioned. He could handle this one too.

Question 3: What are your goals and dreams for your world, Planet Earth?

"I must not panic!" Student M thought, trying to look as intelligent as anyone else, scribbling away. They were the nerds, it was their teen cultural background to come top in each subject. He had half been listening to teachers talking about stuff like this.

So he wrote, "My personal goals for the future of my Planet Earth is to barrack for peace and inclusion, and all that. What the teachers said. Oh yeah, also freedom from climate change. Who wrote these questions? I also barrack for freedom for all teens. Starting right now."

Student M threw down his pen. This was only a mock exam, after all. His biggest problem was doing any English. Then he left the building, never to complete the rest of his mock English exam. His other subjects were his best, not reading such nonsense. And all that.

His teachers monitoring the exam did not stop him, they had a designated exam response to students. Student M made it home, then faked a stomach ache for his loving parents. Now he was slightly panicking. He would never get a college entrance unless he could fluke a good grade in English.

In his defense, student M was good at his chosen future path, IT. He was fully prepared to soon be integrating with robots in his classroom, future workplace, and any home in which he dwelt. A great idea entered his brain. No one really knows where thoughts form, but student M was having original ideas.

He did possess excellent hand/eye co-ordination. He was a really hi-tech savvy young one, born in his time and place. He was gifted at coding, and a brilliant whiz kid at programming.

"What are you doing now, Matthew?" his mother called, staring at her phone. "You are very quiet." Quiet boys are a red flag indicator for yummy mummies to panic. She opened her student's son's bedroom door, gazing amazed at a robot who was identical to student M.

Student M was used to his mother, so he just reassured her, " This is for my coding exam. I am aiming for A. You and dad always tell me to Aim High." You might say student M had an answer for everything.

He did indeed wing good results in the rest of his mock exams, and tried not to panic when he definitely failed his English. "What the teacher said," is really not an acceptable response, no A today.

"Whatever, I can only improve, " he told his parents. The end of the year rolled around, summer delights beckoned. Student M sent his body double robot to the final exams, coded to achieve top results in all subjects. Save wasting his brain on such juvenile competitions.

Too easy. Student M, thanks to his inventive creation, topped his state. "It was okay," he told his parents, as he gained entrance to their dream of tertiary education, his future was his oyster. But he was on a roll. His university career was so short lived.

Student M looked around his college classes, all those young adults hooked on striving to beat each other, to get ahead in the game of life. So he went home one weekend, and commenced his brilliant career. He designed a shape shifting prototype of a body double exam robot, and advertised it on his secret website, at a reasonable price.

No, after failing most of secondary English, student M no longer felt the need to join in the education game. No educator was ever going to make young people feel like failures again. And no more they did.

No individual student ever had to panic at exam time again. The solution was so simple. Student M was soon fully engaged in his very profitable business, providing all students with straight A body doubles, coded for each ambition and subject.

Shh! This was all very hush hush. Single handed, student M had overturned the entire education system. No one except robots ever learnt much of anything anymore. No examiner could tell the difference between the robots and their humans. Every generation will always blame the one before, naturally. The educators had empowered young people to code the future of integrating with robots.

But, hey, goal setting is very in. Student M did retire very wealthy, by his fortieth birthday. He was still a very eligible bachelor, a prize catch, a gigolo at last. He by then owned several very flash sports cars, a string of race horses, a Lear Jet, and his own giant yacht. He was excessively relaxed about his secrets. Yeah, he still barracked for peace and inclusion in his world, what the teachers said. He was a classic Nike generation success story. A leader in his field, what they said. And all that. No one panic, no one had ever gotten to him. Yet.

November 07, 2023 18:01

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3 comments

Mary Black Rose
19:38 Nov 16, 2023

Hey! Thanks for commenting on my story! This made me smile. I loved the Pink Floyd/Issac Isamov theme going on here and how he beat the system. I'm always down for a rebel story! Great ending! Loved it!

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Michelle Oliver
09:55 Nov 16, 2023

Hey Julie, love meeting another Aussie on this site. Which part of this great country are you from? His story was so interesting and with the rise of A.I. It’s quite conceivable. I would have wished to have a robot me do all my exams too, and perhaps a robot me could write these reports and enter student grades for me too. I enjoyed your student voice here, the answers to the exam questions tickled me, because I could really envisage children answering like this. I thought it interesting that he referred to himself though out as student ...

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Mary Bendickson
04:56 Nov 12, 2023

Such realism😉

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