It started so innocently. It was Thursday afternoon – one day to go – and Mr Meredith was giving us a quiz about Australian history. Most of the class were feeling dozy; it was very hot outside and the air conditioning was having difficulty coping. Maybe that had something to do with it. But Mr M had made us all stand up while he asked us a series of questions that had true or false answers. Things like, ‘The Great Barrier Reef was officially declared dead in 2030. True or false?’ If we thought it was true, then we linked our fingers together and put our hands on our heads. If we thought false, then we put our hands on our hips. Whoever got the question wrong would sit down and the winners would stay standing. Then we’d be asked another question until there was only one left – the winner, who Mr Meredith said would get a totally underwhelming prize. He said it was based on a very old game called ‘Heads or Tails’, but no one in the class really cared about that, or the quiz. I went out in the second round, which wasn’t a problem. I could sit down and drift off somewhere in my own head.

It got to where there were only three left – Daniel, Charlotte (of course) and Aiden. I suspect Daniel got there by watching what Charlotte did – a pretty sound strategy and one that must have occurred to Mr M because with only three left he got them to stand facing away from each other.

Daniel lost in the next round, which left two. I should’ve told Aiden to sit down as well. Charlotte never makes mistakes.

‘Wonderful,’ said Mr Meredith. ‘Are you excited at our finalists? Slugging it out for the main prize.’

No, we all thought. Well, I thought, and I imagine my thoughts weren’t too different from those around the room.

‘Here we go. Maybe the final question, we will see. True or false? The highest temperature ever recorded in Australia was 59.8 degrees Celsius in Oodnadatta in South Australia.’

Charlotte immediately put her hands on her head. Aiden waited a few seconds and then put his hands on his hips. We had a winner. My money was on Charlotte. Obviously.

‘The answer is …’ Mr M tried to keep the suspense going, but probably realised there was no suspense to start with, so he gave up. ‘That is true, so Charlotte is the winner. Well done, Charlotte. You have won —’

‘That’s wrong,’ said Aiden.

That stopped everyone. For a moment we were all frozen. Charlotte beaming at her triumph, Aiden still with his hands on his hips and the rest of us just blank.

‘I assure you it’s not,’ said Mr Meredith. ‘I looked all this up last night to make sure, Aiden. I’m sorry, but that’s the correct answer.’