Let’s be honest. Not a lot of kids like going to school. In fact some kids have tried their best efforts not to go to school at all. The most popular way not to go to school is to pretend that you are sick, ill or worse…dying, with whatever illness you could think of.
However if you’re smart enough, you’ll be sure not to pretend you’re ill not to go to school. This is a lesson that was learned by Tyler Hill.
Tyler was your typical 12 year old. He loves video games and hates school. School go in his way of playing games. He didn’t want to learn about maths of english, all he wanted to learn was how to beat his friends at Mario Kart.
On one weekend after a long school week for tyler, he made one of his rare trips out of the house to visit his best friend Louis. Who much like Tyler hates school but loves video games. They both sat on Louis’s bedroom floor, looking up at his TV screen, racing each other in what was their 50th race that day.
“YAS!” Louis cheers. “First again. I didn’t even use my favourite character”.
“Alright alright. Don’t rub it in” says Tyler jokingly annoyed.
“Oh I’m sorry I can’t hear the losers all the way down there”
“Down where?”
“On the losers chair!. I’m high on top of my throne of victory!”
“Hey I got second place. Don’t I get anything for coming second?” Tyler asks.
“No. Because you’re the first loser!” Louis points out. The two boys share a hysterics of laughter as they continue racing each other.
“I don’t get it Ty. You were great at this game. You were better than me for a long time” says Louis.
“Oh it’s the schools fault for not giving me the time to play” Tyler says still annoyed with school.
Now though Louis and Tyler were best friends, they both went to separate schools. But they grew up together on the same street. And as much to Tyler’s surprise, Louis actually liked school.
“Hey I know your school is awful but that doesn’t excuse the fact that you suck at this game,” says Louis Jokingly.
“Sure it does. 6 hours of school work. And to make matters worse my teachers give me homework. Its as if they don’t want me to play video games at all.” Tyler says as his car gets over taken by Louis again.
“You could always practice on weekends. Then I would have no one to beat- I mean play with” says Louis.
The end of another race draws near. Tyler and Louis are now edging closer and closer to the finish line and one of them getting first place. Just before Tyler can even cross the finish line and get first, he’s hit by a red shell that sends him crashing off the course and into a wall. Leaving Louis to get first place. Once again.
“HA HA! Defeated again. Pretty soon Nintendo will be calling this game Louis Kart.”
In a frustrated rage, Tyler stand up and throws his controller to the floor.
“That’s it! Next week I’m not going to school at all!” Tyler says adamantly. “I’m not going to turn up. I’m going to use that time to get back to my brilliance at this game, sit on your high and mighty throne and balance will be restored!”
“Ok…” says Louis. “But you can’t just not go to school for a week. It’s not like you’re sick or something.”
And just like that, an idea went off in Tylers head. An idea so good it’s the perfect excuse to not be in school for a week, month. Maybe even forever.
“Or maybe I’m sick with the world’s worst cold!” says Tyler, as though he has discovered the best idea ever. “I’ll tell my dad that I’m dying of a cold and he will have me miss school until I get better”
Tyler loved his dad. But his dad is a massive germaphobe. He is afraid of getting ill. Tyler knows that this would be the perfect reason for him not to go to school.
“But you’ve never missed a day of school in your life. Even when you had hay fever you still turned up with big red eyes and sneezing non stop.” Louis says pointing out the flaw in Tylers plan.
“Yeah but this time. This isn’t hay fever. This is a serious disease!” says Tyler as he gets more and more confident with the idea of faking being ill.
On his way home, Tyler began to practice his best ill look, Ill sounding voice maybe i should have an ill walk he thought to himself. All he had to do was convince his dad that he was seriously ill. He gets to the front door of his. “Showtime”
As he walks through the door and into the living room of the house where his dad was watching TV, he begins to put on the best ill performance of his life.
“Dad….I don’t feel so good.” he says though he sounded like talking was hard for him to do.
“Oh no,” his dad immediately starts panicking. “What’s wrong son?” he asks from a distance, hoping not to catch what his son has got.
“I’ve got a frog in my throat, my nose won’t stop running, my forehead is on fire. I think I’m on death’s door.” says Tyler while thinking he maybe should have taken up drama at his school.
“Oh no this sounds serious. I knew we should have just homed schooled you rather than sending you to school with other ill disgusting kids that would get you sick!” says Tyler’s dad. Who was now panicking for himself rather than Tyler.
“Ok. Tomorrow you won’t go to school. You will stay in the house until you get better!” Tyler’s dad instructs. The plan worked brilliantly.
“Are you sure? But what about my classes?” Tyler says innocently and convincingly, as he lies to his dad.
“The school will understand son.Your health comes first. Now head upstairs and try and get some rest. Sleep will do you some good.”
“Ok..Night dad.” Tyler turns and makes his way upstairs to his room. The only thought that went through his head at the point was a confident “Nailed it” as he grins all the way up the stairs.
The next morning he found he wasn’t woken up early for school by his dad. He had a much longer sleep than usual. It was as if he was waking up on the weekend. He made his way from his bedroom to the living room and kitchen, and found he was in the house all by himself.
Man. I should have done this a long time ago. Tyler thinks to himself. He grabs himself a large box of cheerios and a bowl with a spoon from the cupboard, a whole bottle of milk from the fridge and makes his way back to his room.
This was perfect. Now Tyler had all the time in the world to practice Mario KArt and finally get back to being good at the game and be better than Louis. He wrapped himself in his duvet, sat cross legged on his bed with his bowl of cheerios on his legs and began to play his game.
After his first hour, Tyler began to get back to how good he was before. Coming first after 10 races and remembering the turns, he’s back to his usual brilliance of the game. Just as he goes to pour himself another bowl of cereal, the house phone begins to ring.
What do I do? He thinks. If I answer it and it’s my dad he’ll find out I’m faking and I’m back to school instantly. The phone kept ringing.
Eventually the ringing telephone got annoying. So Tyler made his way downstairs and answered the phone.
“Hello?” says Tyler dropping his ill sounding voice.
“Tyler. It’s your dad”
Normally a parent when a child is ill would stay at home and look after their child. Not Tyler’s dad. He went to work hoping not to be in the same room as Tyler. Not because he didn’t love him. He was just afraid of getting what Tyler had.
“OH!” Tyler quickly went back to faking being ill. “Oh hi dad. Is everything ok?”
“Yeah son. I’m fine. Just checking in to see if how your feeling now. Any better?
“Oh no dad. I think I’m getting worse” Tyler pretends to cough violently down the phone. “I woke up with that,this morning”
“That’s not so good” his dad says reassuringly. “But don’t panic. Because I’ve called a doctor and he should be-”
Tyler’s eyes widened in shock “What?!”
“I’ve called a doctor, he should be round at the house for half 10”
Tyler looked at the clock in the living room and noticed he had 10 seconds before he arrived. He starts sweating now like he is genuinely ill. And then Tyler remembered that just like his dad being afraid of getting ill. Tyler is afraid of the doctors.
No kid like going to the school. But no kid likes going to the doctors. Especially Tyler. Doctors scared Tyler ever since he got an injection to stop him from getting seriously sick. The kind of sick was faking so well. But the injection hurt him and left a massive bruise like a bullseye on his arm he’s never went back to the doctors since….But now he couldn’t run. The doctor was coming to him.
“Tyler?…Tyler are you still there?” his dad says over the phone
“Yeah dad I-”
Three hard thunderous knocks at the door blare through the house and down the telephone. “Ahh that must be them” says Tyler’s dad.
“Now be nice Tyler. He’s gonna help you. I’ll see you when I come home. Ta ta.” His dad hangs up the telephone.
As Tyler puts the phone down in dread, the door continues to shake like an earthquake from the doctor still knocking full force on the front door. Tyler makes his way to the door slowly and more nervous on the way. He unlocks the door and begins to open it.
Gradually trying to catch a glimpse of the doctor. Only catching his long white doctors coat which has stains of red, splattered in patches all over it.
Tyler opens the door to find his doctor eclipsing the sun into darkness in front of him. With his massive round head with strands of thin long hair clinging on like spiders web. Wearing round glasses with one eye bigger than the other.
Standing straight though eclipsing the sun behind him thanks to his massive hunchback and carrying a suitcase filled with Tyler could only imagine as his worst fears.
“Hello Tyler” The doctor said with a smile and a voice that sounds as rough and gravely. As though he hasn’t had a glass of water for years.
“My name is Dr. Igor Mortis. I’ve been told that you have the world’s worst cold and you are seriously unwell. Mind if I come in?” Dr. Mortis says sounding more menacing than charming. Tyler stood in the doorway, dread and pale with fright as he let Dr. Mortis into the house.
“Listen…I don’t want to waste your time. But I’m actually feeling a lot better.” Tyler says in his normal and convincing voice.
“That’s not what your symptoms think boy”
“…My…Symptoms?” asks Tyler nervously.
“Of course boy. It says here..” Dr. Mortis reaches into the inside of his white coat, pulling out bandages and plasters that are covered in dried blood and puss. Until he finds a piece of paper with red and green stains all over it. Dr Mortis fixes his glasses and looks at the list.
“…You have a frog in your throat, your nose can’t stop running, your forehead is on fire and you are on death’s door. Does that sound familiar to you boy?” Dr. Mortis folds up the paper and puts it back into his pocket.
Tyler stood shocked at how Dr. Mortis had heard what he had said the night before.
“Yes…that was last night…And I slept it off and now I feel a lot better.” says tyler trying to sound more confident.
“Are you sure?” Dr. Mortis raises his eyebrow over his massive eye looking at Tyler. “Because it sounds to me like a frog in your throat is still there.”
“Yes I’m sure I don’t have a-” Tyler stopped. He had lost his voice and worst of all he was running out of breath.
His breath is getting thinner and thinner and his throat is swelling up like a balloon with too much air that is about to burst. He starts panicking, grabbing at his neck and falling all over the living room table, not knowing what is happening to him.
He tries to scream. But all that comes out of his mouth was a loud “RIBBIT!”.
“AH HA! There it is!” says Dr. Mortis. He places his suitcase on the table in the living room. He reaches into his suitcase and pulls out a rubber glove. Which looks like it’s been worn more than once with hole burst all over it.
Tyler falls to the floor, his face has went from pale to blue. Dr.Mortis picks Tyler up by the top of his head as he continues to choke. He stares at Dr. Mortis in fear.
“Open wide” says Dr. Mortis.
Dr. Mortis puts his hand all they down Tylers throat. Reaching around and searching for something. Tyler still couldn’t scream or bite or anything. All he could do was stand as Dr.Mortis had his hand down Tyler’s throat.
Then Dr.Mortis pulls his hand out the throat rapidly. “Just like pulling off a plaster”
Tyler falls back on the floor. Coughing as he catches his breath back again. “ I’ve got me a biggun. Never had one this size before” says Dr.Mortis.
Tyler looks to see that Dr.Mortis was holding a massive bullfrog in his hand. “Where did you get that?” says Tyler using his new breath to speak in fear.
“Where do you think lad?! From your throat!. It’s amazing what you can find in there sometimes”. Dr.Mortis then pulls out a jar filled with water from his suitcase and puts the bull frog in it. “Now about your running nose” Says Dr. Mortis moving swiftly along. “It hasn’t started bleeding has it?”
Tyler is now panicking about what will happen to his nose.
“No. Just a lot of runny snot.”
Dr.Mortis begins looking at his nose. “You know, some extreme cases of runny noses can of course cause nose bleeding like waterfalls.”
Tyler gulped in fear “Well my nose has been fine.” He spoke too soon.
Tyler then felt a warm trail run down from his nose. He tapped it with his finger and saw that it was blood. Then the trail turned into a flow then a nightmarish stream.
Blood became firing out of his nose from both nostrils like a fireman’s hose. It sprayed all over the floor and all over the ceiling. Tyler tried to put a hand over the flow of blood coming from his nose but it sprayed all over himself and Dr.Mortis.
“Oh dear. Hang on boy” says Dr.Mortis. He opens his suitcase again and reaches in to pull out a spanner.
“NO. DON’T COME NEAR ME WITH THAT! DON’T COME NEAR ME!” Tyler screams through the blood waterfall from his nose.
“Relax boy. This won’t hurt. Plus I’m a trained mechanic as well.”
Tyler continues to scream as Dr.Mortis clamps the spanner on Tyler’s nose, closing off his nostrils. Dr. Mortis begins to shift it left and right back and forth. Eventually Dr. Mortis pulls the spanner off Tyler’s nose.
In Tyler’s amazement. The blood stopped flowing out of his nose. He looks all over his living room and sees the whole room is now covered in red from Tyler’s nose blood.
“Think you’ll need to get a cleaner in here lad. Now whats next? Ah yes your forehead” says Dr.Mortis
“No. Stop” Tyler shouts. “My forehead is fine”
“Is it? Cos you said it was on fire” Says Dr. Mortis. Tyler started to feel his forehead with the back of his hand.
“Yes. My forehead is fine.”
“You know your head is the place that carries the most heat. You wouldn’t want your head to overheat and explode or anything like that…Would you?”
Tyler starts sweating more and more. Til he was soaking wet. Almost as if he stepped into a shower and stepped back out again
“No I don’t. I know my head won’t explode. Sure you can pull a frog out my throat and my nose bleed but I know for a fact that my head won’t-” Tyler passes out.
He wakes up to find himself find himself in complete darkness. Not sure whether he’s even awake at all. He can’t see his hands in front of him. But yet he feels awake. He feels a ground beneath him that he is lying on.
He pushes himself up off the floor and still can’t see anything. “Hello?” says Tyler as his voice carries through the darkness and echoes as though he is talking into a tunnel. He’s standing all by himself in the darkness, when a bright light shines right on to him.
“Ahh You are awake.” The last thing Tyler ever wanted to hear in the dark was the voice of Dr.Igor Mortis. The closer the light gets, its starts to gradually get smaller and smaller. Tyler looks to see that Dr. Mortis was using a little white pocket torch.
“What happened?,where am I?” asked Tyler confused. Dr. Mortis put the torch back into his pocket.
“I have some rather upsetting news for you dear boy. Your head exploded”
“What?” says Tyler stunned.
“Your forehead was on fire. And the heat that it carried through your head made it blow up. And sadly no one whose head has exploded has ever lived to tell the tale.”
“No. But my forehead was fine. You did this. You have done all of this to me for the whole day!” Tyler screams at Dr.Mortis with tears streaming down his face.
“Unfortunately I tried to stop your illnesses. But these illnesses are the worst I have ever had to deal with. But now you and only you must deal with your last symptom”
Tyler is now trembling in fear and in sadness. From behind a massive black door appears with no handle and large silver metallic zero on the front of it.
“Well…It’s time lad” says Dr.Mortis grimmly.
“Time for what?” asked Tyler in fear.
“You must go through Death’s door.” The door opens out to Tyler. Opening up from the other side is a pile of sick looking people. Covered in boils and sores and bruises. With stains of red and green and brown covering their hands and faces. All stretching out their hands in desperation towards Tyler moaning and groaning their voices called out “Help us. Help us”
Tyler starts backing away from the door. Dr. Mortis picks up Tyler from his collar.
“Sorry lad it happens to us all”.
In one last attempt to free himself from death’s door, Tyler confesses to everything. “Wait please. I’m not actually ill. I’M NOT ACTUALLY ILL! I WAS FAKING SO I DIDN’T HAVE TO GO TO SCHOOL” It was his last attempt to save himself as he screams out loud.
Dr.Mortis throws Tyler through the door. The door slowly closes on Dr.Mortis as Tyler starts getting surrounded by the sick survivors of deaths door. Tyler looks to Dr.Mortis one last time as he says before the closes on him forever “Get well soon”. Tyler screams as the door shuts into complete darkness.
Tyler wakes up. Wrapped in his duvet holding a controller on his bed. Did that just happen? He thinks to himself. He leaves his bedroom and wanders around the house to find that the living room is completely fine. No trace of blood from Tyler’s nose was anywhere.
Yeah. Nothing hap– He thought too soon again.
Dr.Mortis appears from behind him and pushes him against a wall. Dr. Mortis then pulls out a syringe with a large needle attached to it. The kind you see old ladies knit with.
“Wait Wait please!” Tyler screams again as Dr.Mortis moves the syringe in front of Tyler’s face. Without touching him, Tyler sees the syringe fill up with a strange white milky looking stuff.
Dr. Mortis lets him down off the wall and takes the needle of the syringe.
“Knew I forgot something” Dr Mortis says to himself.
“What is that?” asks Tyler
“It’ what made you ill”
“But I wasn’t-”
“I know” Dr Mortis cutting off Tyler. “But this is a white lie. A white lie grows when kids like you start to think that they can do whatever they want without being honest. The only way to cure a white lie is to scare it out of your system. If this like took over you, you wouldn’t be the same Tyler anymore. A white lie is more sickening than the cold. Good day lad”
Tyler stood at Dr. Mortis left his house. When his dad came home he told his dad the truth. And the very next day. Tyler was back at school again. He would rather be at school. Than home sick with Dr Igor Mortis.