Born a Crime

period before break was assembly.
The pupils would come together in
the assembly hall, each grade seated
row by row, and the teachers and
the prefects would get up onstage
and go over the business of what
was happening in the school—
announcements, awards, that sort
of thing. The names of the kids with
detention were announced at every
assembly, and I was always one of
them. Always. Every single day. It
was a running joke. The prefect
would say, “Detentions for today...”
and I would stand up automatically.
It was like the Oscars and I was
Meryl Streep. There was one time I