Forgiveness

In my middle school years, my best friend and I were always up to no good.
We played pranks on people at school.
We had fun doing them; it was exciting and they were all harmless small mischiefs, and we never got caught by our teachers either (all my classmates knew that we were the pranksters though).

One day though, we pulled a (then seemingly harmless) practical joke, which turned out to be really terrible.
I did not see how serious it was at first, and neither did our prank victim.
But when the teachers saw it, they were absolutely horrified, and started a search for who was responsible.
My classmates (rightfully) put the blame on the prankster duo, but my friend ‘betrayed’ me and I was about to become the only culprit.

The headmaster’s interrogation started.
Out of fear of punishment, I then passed the blame over to an imaginary figure from the ‘Swedish side’ of the school.
I lied, desperate to convince the headmaster of my innocence, and I managed to fool her, or so I though. I was let off without any punishment or blame.

But my headmaster had seen right through my lie, and had decided to believe that lie, and believe in me. I soon realised this, that I was forgiven, and cried at how foolish I had been.

My prankster friend came to apologise many times before my ‘revelation’, but I did not forgive him.
I felt betrayed and angry.
But when I discovered that I had been forgiven by the headmaster, I forgave my friend too, and we swore that day that no more pranks would be done (although that promise was broken pretty soon).