All Comments on 'Painting the Classroom'

He dodged a bullet!

5

Unreliable narrator, you sly dog ;-)

Having the narrator say that he "acted stunned" maybe was a little too heavy handed of a reveal. Perhaps just having him note that the Head's wife wasn't in the plan would have been just enough of a clue that the narrator set it all up, while still leaving it somewhat ambiguous (maybe 60/40 odds that he did it). But it's your story and a nice one at that, overall, a really nice job, very enjoyable!

Clever bugger.

Too much left unsaid for a top score. The prose was also a little stilted with lots of simple, single thought sentences strung together in places. Most of your stories don't suffer that flaw, so maybe you rushed the final edits? 3.7*

Good short story. Bad diy skills but he knew there was something going on.

I was enjoying another tongue in cheek story but you kind of let it go towards the end and let the story down. Doris and the Head had to go lie down after their exertions from painting. Sent the MC to get milk etc. He seemed clueless throughout.

The MC could not have messed up the junction box but blamed it on the Head doing the work could he? If so you should have added that as one thing he lied about at the end. You were too involved trying to be cadgy to be clear.

Very different

But enjoyable

Though often economical with words, you are generally brilliant. This was just a touch too sparse.

Short and to the point, good job.

@Boyd Percy

He had a vasectomy. What whistling bullet? There was shooting, in general, in the air. I wonder if Doris knew about her pregnancy and his sterility?

I don't know what I feel about this...

I feel the story was a bit disjointed.

I thought he was good at DIY then he was inept.

If the headmaster and Doris were screwing, they were exhausted of just twenty minutes of action??

Was this a deliberate plan of the MC to murder the headmaster and Doris, using his "ineptness" as an alibi to set-up the stove and burn them in?

Finally, the handyman tutorial I've been looking for on this site.

If a screw had breached the insulation and made contact with a hot wire it would have tripped the breaker. You also don't remove the switches, etc, before painting. You remove the cover plate and put painters tape over the receptacle or switch. You're as bad at telling the story as you are at DIY.

I understand but there is no real closure

Great short story with a happy ending. Well not for the Headmaster and Doris but they were cheaters and cheaters should never win! Thanks for writing. 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A good story, roughly written.

For a story told in the first person it has a curiously detached, third person tone to it.

I know of two couples where the "innocents" swapped spouses!

A clever story. Was the reference to Fahrenheit 451 a clue? 5*.

@Mac_Lapu

> Was this a deliberate plan of the MC to murder the headmaster and Doris, using his "ineptness" as an alibi to set-up the stove and burn them in?

That was my take.

A nice story. AAA++

Cheating couple get terminal justice. Happy ending for everyone. Very good story.

Oh yes!

Funny the fucking that goes on among staff in the school system is crazy. I know people in a lot , multiple schools and there is fucking going on in all of them . Also note it’s more the married ones than the single ones . Today as we write this my coworker little cousin at 26 got the gym teacher health class got job In September. By October he was banging the married office secretary and a 54 year old teacher that’s been married for 30 years and has kids older than him. He jokes at a minimum he gets a blow job every day . He’s talked both into anal and his goal is to get them to do a threesome with him but doesn’t want to scare them off by telling one he’s fucking both. He said they both have a slight submissive personality and he’s in complete control of them . He even talks in the teacher ear says he’s gonna try to hook up with her daughter also to see if she loves it up the ass as well . He said in the empty room he uses them in he has her bring a banana he gets her on her knees then walks her crawling by her hair across the room talking shit the whole time then while she blows him uses the banana on herself. He always tells the kiss hubby hello when you get home. He said it’s amazing how easy it is and others are fucking each other as well . It’s not confirmed but assistant principal apparently is getting fucked by the older back janitor. He’s almost 70 and she is mid 30’s. Sick shit .

Funny, I actually disagree with many comments. I really enjoyed that the story left "accident vs. deliberate" unclear. This makes the story more interesting and engages the reader - while keeping the IMPORTANT fact (karmic justice for all guilty and innocent parties) as an established fact. Personally, I enjoy "deus ex machina"/karmic BTB just as much, if not more, than BTBs acted out by protagonist. Easy 5 stars, and honestly, even more is warranted due to Happily Ever After for main character. Thank you author.

For what it's worth, my personal interpretation is that the fire was planned by MC. My reason is the last paragraph's wording: "That wasn't in the plan" (referring to ending in asshole's widow's bed) - which to me implies that there WAS a plan, just the happy end with the widow wasn't part of it.

/

An argument against the plan is the fact that it would have hinged on BOTH the cheating people deciding to join MC in the project on a weekend - instead of letting him work in the school while they had a sex session out if it.

Wow, the writer made the MC dumber than a door nail, a real clutz. Didn't think too much of this one. 3*

I loved the way you wrote this in such a deadpan way, you made it seem at first that the MC was dumb, but at the end I'm not so sure.

Nice plot

Bare bone, and mostly narrative driven. Denouement is iffy. Three stars. Could have been a better story if longer.

JPB NOT BOB