The Lost Hour

The teacher clapped her hands, “Ok class, we have one hour left before end of bell, and we need to make it count as tests begin tomorrow”

A hand went up in the front row.

“Yes Kathy?”

“I still don’t get how the blue is bigger than the purple!”

“The blue is bigger than the purple because it shows the population growth in Australia.  There has been a greater population growth in Victoria which is the blue compared to WA which is the purple.  Now for those that can’t see at the back, I’ll read the colours out again.  Red is NSW, Green is SA and Gold is Qld…. Yes Kathy?’

Kathy had raised her hand again, “I can see that, but WA takes up half of Australia!  Why doesn’t that have the biggest piece?  Why does Vic, the smallest state take up half a pie chart?  I don’t get it!”

“I don’t know Kathy, going by a recent Census, it shows Victoria appears to be the more popular State meaning that more people visit there and choose to stay, now if you look in your textbooks… what’s going on back there?”

Three boys were hunched over by the back corner, their attention focused more on something hidden from view to the front of the classroom.

Carol, a chubby girl also in the back put her hand up, “They’re toasting marshmallows miss, they’ve got a whole couple packets, maybe the rest of us can share with them?”

Her eyes opened wide, “They’re what?!?” She rushed to the back of the class just in time to see the boys accidentally knock the metal bin over, the contained flames now spread to the surrounding bags at a rate to fast to control.

The teacher ushered out the class and within minutes, fire trucks were arriving and the rest of the school was evacuated.

By the time the firefighters had gotten the flames under control, which had consumed most of the demountable, the bell announced end of school for another day.

The Principal approached the teacher with a concerned look on his face, “bad day Sarah?”

Sarah sighed.  “Let’s just say that’s one hour of my life I won’t be able to get back.”

Sarah and the Principal started to head back to write up a report about the fire.  “Did you find out how they managed to start the fire?”

Sarah handed something to the Principal, “During evacuation, I confiscated this from one of the boys… it was lighter fluid.”