The aftermath of the Sacking of the 2012 Summer Spirit Assembly was predictable, by Grincher standards.

  His classroom was packed with everyone who was involved in the sacking. Every desk was occupied. Every inch of carpet was occupied. Even the trapdoor was occupied. Everyone was writing Grincher-esque detention sentences over and over again. Mr. Grincher was about to bail his prisoners in order to prepare his bags for Spain. His wounds were visible-a long, ugly, brown bandage crossed his forehead.

  “Keep writing and do not stop! If you do stop, even for one second, I will keep you all forever!!! I MEAN IT!!!! Bastard children,” he muttered to himself. BOOM!

  ….

  Mr. Grincher unlocked his white bicycle at the bike rack, hopped on, and rode off into the distance. However, what he was entirely oblivious to was that his prisoners were scaling down the wall and then the branches and the trunk of a large oak tree to the ground. And they were led by none other than Calvin Garcia.

  ………

  I returned home full of happy spirits. But once I entered Unit 1107, I noticed that something was terribly wrong. Someone was inside with me.

  “Hello?” I called out. The white walls were unresponsive.

  “Calvin Garcia,” spoke a stern male voice. I spun around. My dad was standing in front of my bedroom, blocking the doorway.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Dad, uh, aren’t you supposed to be at work?”

  “I was but I decided to come home early.” The sentence after that confirmed my worst fears. “After your English teacher, Mr. Grincher called me about you cheating on a test and inciting a school riot.” His mention of that name made me much more inclined to entertain the notion of teacher-beating. “I am very disappointed in you son. You have just degraded yourself to such levels of imbecility.”

  “Dad, it’s not my fault Mr. Grincher is cruel and evil! He penalized me for just looking at the window after a bird killed itself on it. And then he masterminded with Veronica and the other popular girls to kick me out of the Spirit Assembly. I had no choice! And the riot was started by Mr. Mojo, not me!” In reality, I had hired Mr. Mojo to pull the whole thing off just minutes before I was to perform. So yeah, I was responsible for the mayhem.

  “I don’t care,” my dad snapped. “You did extreme wrong. And for that, you will be grounded for the entire summer. No visiting Jordan, Andy, Ethan, or any other troublemaker to pull off another one of your stupid, nasty pranks. You’re done.” My heart was crushed to pieces at his sentencing. Like a prisoner who earnestly dreads the time he will be serving, I pleaded and pleaded and pleaded. But he was unmovable. “I can’t let you get away with this anymore. You will spend your summer thinking about what you’ve done. If you remain on good behavior throughout these three months, I will let you hang out with your friends in September.”

  My heart brightened a little. There was hope after all. Thus, I ventured my cautious probe to test Dad’s receptiveness to a less egregious suggestion.

  “Dad, does-does that mean I can play video games?”

  “No,” came with a crushing blow. “Now go to your room.”

  “What will I do without my games?”

  “Nothing.” His voice was the epitome of stone-cold unemotionality. I slunk away to my new prison, feeling more nihilistic than ever. If God heard my prayers, he would remove me on the spot. The torment was too much to bear.