Every day Oscar would do everything his way. Oscar would eat what he wanted, play the games he wanted whenever he liked and sleep whenever he wanted. If his mother asked him to clean up after himself or to come down for dinner, he would shout ‘later!’ and continue with whatever he was doing.

One day, Oscar came home late from school after playing out with his best friends in the park.

‘I’m home!’ He yawned into the hallway. He was exhausted after playing all afternoon.

‘Hi, honey!’ Oscar’s mother called back.

Oscar went off to do the next thing that was on his daily list. He grabbed an armful of snacks from the cupboard and then played video games until the sun had set. The room around him started to grow extremely dark. The only light came from the TV, which gave off a racket.

‘Oh, come on!’ Oscar slapped the controller down on the sofa. He grabbed a handful of crisps. Half of them crumbled to pieces before they had even reached his mouth.

‘Give me a chance here!” He exclaimed to his friends in the game. They responded with loud grumbles.

‘Oscar!’ his mother shouted from the kitchen.

He didn’t respond.

‘Guys come over here!’ he shouted at the screen.

‘Oscar!’ his mother repeated.

She had shouted louder this time, and she sounded a little tired.

‘Yeah?!’ Oscar whipped off his headset.

‘Dinner’s ready!’

Oscar rolled his eyes as he popped his headset back on and settled himself on the sofa.

‘Later!’ he called back.

Later came, and Oscar’s mother walked into his room. She carried a plate of food for his dinner. She stopped suddenly just inside the door.

‘Oscar, can you clean up this mess?’

The more Oscar had eaten, the more crumbs had scattered around him. He was surrounded by leftover wrappers and empty packages collected on the sofa.

Oscar frowned at his mother.

‘Later!’ he shouted, over the noise of the video game.

His mother let out a sigh as she began to clean up the mess.

The next day, Oscar came home angry and frustrated because he had struggled with a test at school. He decided to treat himself to some cake.

Just as Oscar was about to take the first bite, his mother called him from the other room. He sighed, dropped his cake and stropped off to talk to his mother.

She looked stern. Her arms were folded. The envelope Oscar had just brought home was ripped open, and a letter was in her hand.

‘Oscar, we need to talk about something that happened in school.’

She pointed for him to sit next to her.

Oscar gulped and sat down. He thought he knew what was coming.

‘Oscar, I’ve read this letter from your teacher. She says you’ve been cheating on your tests and copying your friend’s work.’

Oscar grew angry all of a sudden. He only copied because he didn’t understand any of it.