#by /u/Mercent_

[prorevenge]

Friend tries to get me fired, but I turn the tables...

Hey everyone, this is my first post so take it easy on me please! I've tried to keep the story concise, but it's not a strong point of mine so, this is a very long post... Sorry!

TL;DR is at the bottom :)

Context:

I'm a Year 9 student (British schooling system) and go to a very good school. This is a massive privilege to have, and I'm massively thankful for it. Our school has a magazine which we print and distribute to teachers, students and parents, and it is very popular! I am fortunate enough to be the Assistant Editor of the magazine (I basically format and check the magazine, while making sure everyone in the committee is doing well) and it's hard work. As part of this role, I have to teach and mentor the new students and get them used to the new system.

Being in the committee is like having a job, so balancing it with school is tough, and lots of newbies drop out very quick when they begin to realise that they can't handle the work load. I enjoy teaching the new guys, as it's mostly people who love writing as much as I do and it really gives us a connection that does stick around. However, last year, I had a very bad 'mentoree', whom I dislike to this very day...

Cast:

Me - Take a guess WI - Very cool and kind teacher and head editor of the mag AM - Arsehole mentoree BF - One of my best friends

Now, I knew AM before he joined the committee; we were friends, we'd been into town with each other a bit, and we were good mates, so I was excited to be mentoring him. The way mentoring works is that there are 7 tasks to complete and have checked by your mentor, leading up to a big review six weeks after one first joins. The tasks are fairly easy; learn how to Photoshop pictures for the photographers and learning the formatting of the articles to make my life easier :). Now, I teach the mentorees in a way which means that I set them a task (e.g. Task 1) and it has a deadline which I will take in the work, check it, and give feedback on. It works well, and I have always done the mentoring this way.

When I set the first task for AM, I was really confident in his ability. Because we were (and still are) at a really good school, I genuinely believed that he would do it and I'd have no problems. However, as you've probably guessed, I was very wrong. When it was time for his first task to be checked, this happened:

Me: Where's the work, AM?

AM: I wasn't able to do it, Mercent_...

Me: Why? It was a fairly simple task. If you had any problems, I told you to ask me about them.

AM: Well, the thing is... [AM takes a massive breath and I expect the worst] my dad just got in a really bad car accident and I've been at the hospital the past few days.

I was shocked. This guy's dad was in intensive care, and I was ready to give him a hard time for not doing some work. I immediately apologised and almost had a panic attack. I gave him an extra week to do his work. I was a terrible person. I went home and sobbed about how mean I was ready to be. I came in the next day and avoided him as much as possible. At this point, I didn't even suspect at thing. When it came to his second task (and the first task as well) being checked, I was nervous but prepared:

Me: How did you find the work?

AM: I couldn't finish either of them.

At this point, I was just pissed. He'd told me privately that he wasn't in the hospital as much anymore, so I was confused.

Me: Come on, this is starting to get silly. Your review is soon, and you haven't even started the tasks!

AM: Mercent_ it's because my cat got put down. It was really old, and I've had it since birth, so I was really attached to it.

This really made me upset. I have two cats, and I love them to pieces; I couldn't even imagine their death. So I told AM I was sorry, but he needed to either get the work done or take an official break and leave the committee briefly (this gets put on a report which is kept by WI, and it's about the bad things a person in the committee had done). This back and forth of "Work?" "Nope, and here's why..." went on until literally the day before his review. I had sat down with him and spoke to him about how he had not done any of the work and had 6+ hours of work to do for the next day. He was really apologetic, but I had become totally immune to his shenanigans by this point; he'd really ticked me off. By this point, I didn't know if he was lying or not, but I had my suspicions.

Then his review came around; I was terrified. You see, as his mentor, if he does badly, I get in trouble for not doing my job well enough. I am a massive goody-two-shoes. I've never had a detention, and I was petrified of getting one as my parents would not approve. AM, WI and I sit down and when WI asks to see the work, AM says he hasn't got any of it. Before I can interrupt and explain the situation, AM goes on to say that he had handed in all of the work but I had said that none of it was good enough, and threw it all out before the review. WI gave me a death stare. I was crapping bricks.

In my first year of being in the committee, I had lied to WI about doing some work. This had been put on my report and I got screamed at for 15 minutes straight. He said I had delayed printing by over a week, and I was incompetent, etc. (we moved past it and now we enjoy each other's company very much!) and essentially if I made any mistakes, I was getting fired. I looked at AM, shocked about what he'd said, and stuttered to WI the actually situation, and all the lies he'd told me. WI didn't believe me, as not so long ago... I. Had. Lied.

I then made it my absolute mission to prove everything he had told me and WI wrong, but there was one problem; I didn't arrange anything over a traceable source; I hadn't emailed him or texted him, other than on Snapchat, but that deletes messages after being read. It looked like I was going to get fired, and I only had a few days to prove my innocence before I was gone.

​

The Plan (finally!)

That evening, I went into town with some friends (AM wasn't present) and I sat down with BF. She was texting AM on iMessage (a key detail), so I told her what happened about the committee and AM. She was shocked, and believed me over AM. This is when a plan was hatched.

Firstly, I needed evidence, and BF gave me exactly what I needed. She took AM into town on a 'date' as he liked her. She then began a conversation about she heard I was being nominated for an award about my writing for the school magazine (this was actually true, I won an award for England's Young Journalist of the Year and Best Featured Article about my transgender sister #humblebrag). BF then set her phone to record the ENTIRE CONVERSATION! This included AM admitting to screw me over so he could eventually take my position as Assistant Editor. BF then sent this to me, and I stored it on my computer in sweet revenge.

I sent the voice message to WI and he, too, was shocked. He apologised profusely to me and I told him that I didn't want him to fire AM yet and then told him my plan. He was worried, but on board because of what he did to me. I met with AM the next day, to 'apologise' for being too harsh about his tasks, and beg for him to retract his statement about me. He obviously said no. As protocol states, I had to give other members my ongoing articles, and I gave AM my award-winning transgender article and said that I had changed so it was talking about a different girl rather than my sister. However, I actually changed it to make it horribly trans-phobic. Like disgustingly trans-phobic. He thanked me, and left.

The next few weeks, I didn't show up to any meetings and made it seem like I had actually been kicked out, but I stayed aware of the situation in the committee and kept up to date on my articles. Because this was the kind of person he was, AM didn't even read the article I had sent him before he handed it in, so WI received a heavily transphobic and sexist article which AM wrote, supposedly. WI called AM into his room and AM was screamed at for writing such a horrible article, and then played the voice tape back for him so he knew that he'd been caught. The headteacher of the school found out about the article AM had wrote and AM was put in isolation (you get taught on your own in a separate room, where you spend lunch and break, etc.) for a week! He was also fired from the committee immediately, and got a mark on his permanent record.

​

TL;DR - Friend tried to get me in trouble, admitted to it on recording, then got in trouble himself for a while.

​

I hope you enjoyed the story, and if you read the entire thing, you're truly a trooper, cheers! If you've got any burning questions about the post and any intricate details or feedback for me, comment it please! Cheers lads and ladies :)

(source) story by (/u/Mercent_)