Personal Narrative: A Day At The Super Bowl Party

There was more than one champion on the day of Super Bowl XLVII. When I was in 8th grade, my family hosted a Super Bowl party. My family and our guests had a Super Bowl pool. Two dollars were collected from each guest and the winner, my friend Conor, left that night with $40. This enjoyable night sparked my interest in gambling on sports.
A month or so later, my classmates and I created another betting pool for March Madness and the Stanley Cup playoffs. We placed our names in a hat and that determined the order for whom got to pick their teams in what order. After everyone drafted their teams for both bets, we decided that each participant had to pay $5. The next day I collected the cash and our selections were written down on a piece of paper. While we were writing down the team names a teacher grabbed the paper away and realized that we were betting, so she gave the paper to the principal and we were all called down to her office. One person went into the office at a time, while the rest had to remain outside her office. We all agreed to deny that money was collected, even though the paperwork indicated that $5 was collected from each participant. Mrs. Augello, our
principal, interrogated each student. I was the last to be questioned. When I told her that there was no money involved, she replied by saying that she knew I had the money in a green folder in my locker.
I realized that someone has already told her the details, but I still thought it was best if I kept to my story. After about 30 minutes of Mrs. Augello screaming at me, I kept replying by saying that we did not collect any money. Each time I denied collecting money she kept getting angrier. She said if I did not apologize for collecting the money that she was going to call Chaminade and tell them to not accept me. I stupidly replied that I would bet her $5 that I would still be going to Chaminade by next year. That was not my brightest moment. She realized I was not going to apologize. She did not find the money in my locker therefore I believed that proved that no money was ever collected. After an hour and a half, she finally realized that she was getting nowhere and sent me back to class.
The next day the principal sent a letter to the parents of every kid involved in the betting scandal.
None of the parents thought the incident was a big deal, especially since the school sent another letter that same day advertising their annual casino night. The morning after, we were called down to her office again to receive our punishment. She eventually decided our punishment would be to go to church on Sunday and hand out right o life flyers at end of the mass. A couple of days later one of the students discovered that along with the letter that the principal sent to the parents was a photocopy of the sheet of paper that was used to record the bets. We decided to use the photocopy and continue the bets. This time we were much more secretive about the bet and did not get caught a second
time.
Unfortunately, I did not win either bet. I will always remember this moment because Mrs. Augello had the nerve to send a letter to our parents, which stated how Our Lady of Victory, my elementary school, had a zero gambling policy, but then sent another letter for the parents to promoting Casino Night. The lesson learned from this story is to not gamble on school property.