For the most part, punishments only work if the person receiving them reacts the way you expect.

So, what would you do if a school tried to make an example out of you by burying you in busywork? Would you give the defiance they’re expecting?

Or would you do everything just as you should and show them they’re wrong about you?

In the following story, one high school student finds himself in this situation and opts for the latter.

Here’s the full scoop.

My First and Last High School Detention Experience

There was one time I got annoyed with the preppy kids in high school being jerks to everyone. So I went to this store at the mall with my older sister, bought a can of “fart spray” (basically canned sulfur), and took it to school.

I found all their lockers and sprayed them all down with the stuff.

Needless to say, I got 7 days of in-school detention, but when my mom was called to the school, the principal made me wait in the hallway so she could talk with my mom, and I overheard the principal laughing hysterically through the door.

They gave him work, so he started on it.

Detention was brutal, but I was determined to accept it and take it on. Ha! The detention lady wasn’t ready for my stubbornness. She gave me all of my classwork for all my classes from all my teachers for the next full month. There was one problem, though.

They messed up. They locked a medicated kid with ADHD in a room with books and classwork. I hyper-focused my way through it and got all of the classwork done in like 2 days.

The detention lady was extremely upset by this. Especially because I just calmly approached her, unaffected by the entire situation, and just asked her for more work. She said that I did it all.

The teacher thought she got him.

Then she got mad, slammed one of those giant pink Webster dictionaries onto my desk, and gave me a fresh blank spiral notebook and three pencils. Next, she said, “I want you to write every word and its first definition in this dictionary.”

And then gave me an evil grin. For like .5 seconds, I was shocked, but then I realized, this is my chance.

I smiled at her and just asked her, “Am I allowed to get up and sharpen my pencil on my own, or do I have to ask your permission every time?” She said that was fine.

Finished, he turned the notebooks in.

3.5 days and one extra spiral notebook later, I had done it.

My arms were blackened by graphite, but I was completely satisfied because I got to see that shocked look on her face. She was in complete and total despair. She took my spiral notebooks, and it was in that moment that I knew what I had to do.

She wouldn’t be able to resist it if I asked because she so desperately wanted to discipline me. I smugly asked her as she took the notebooks away, “Aren’t you going to check my work?”

Wow! He was just asking for more.

Let’s see how the folks over at Reddit feel about what happened here.

This must’ve hurt their hand.

Here was a smart idea.

Apparently, this reader is ambidextrous.

For this person, the story is fake.

Now, that’s dedication!

Hooray for him for proving them wrong!

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.