The System

Eunice looked about her, her eyes like slits. It was the reading period, where everyone was supposed to be studying or doing their homework under the watchful eyes of the duty teacher. But Eunice didn't care a bit about her homework nor her studying; she had already done those before hand.

Actually that was a lie. Eunice cared a lot about studying, it's just that it was the studying of The System as described in the horse betting pamphlet ``Winning Ways''. It was a habit that she had picked up from Keith, the notorious senior student who spent most of his time and money on the races every weekend. He was the one who recommended Eunice to read ``Winning Ways'' to learn of The System one day when he learnt that Eunice was as avid of a gambler as he was.

Of course gambling was disallowed. In fact, if anyone caught Eunice with ``Winning Ways'', she had a high chance of meeting the head teacher and a pretty good chance of severe penalties. Gambling was just one of the many vices explicitly banned by the school board. Keith was special. In addition to the power of The System (or so he claimed), his father was also a prominent contributor to the school itself. All this just meant that for all purposes, Keith was untouchable.

Eunice started over from the first page. It was going to be the third read through of the book since the time she got it from Keith. Much of The System had been committed to memory, but Eunice wanted to increase the chances of winning from less than unlikely to the elevated level of near imminent. The System had charts and betting suggestions depending on the odds offered by the bookies that, according to The System, could be gamed relatively easily should the reasoning behind odds were learnt before hand.

But one section stood out strongly. The System relied on the infusion of heavy capital, and it was something that Keith had ready access to. Eunice was, unfortunately, not as well off to begin with. She silently cussed, which incurred the curious glance of the duty teacher. Feigning ignorance, Eunice continued to mouth random words, as though reading the textbook in front of her under her breath.

(Based on an exercise generated by WriteThis - 05-May-2014 21:17:27)