I Am the Wussiest Criminal Ever

After I got the ticket for possessing live fish I was required to go to the juvenile court for the third time in my life and for the third fishing related crime. I got dressed up really pretty and my mother and I made our way into the courthouse to fill out some paperwork and wait. I could tell from how the other kids looked that I was probably the only one there on an extra credit related offense. Many were in detention jumpers and some were handcuffed. Oh, the shame of it! There is literally no more wussy reason to have to be involved in the justice system then my crime, at that moment I wanted so badly to have some serious street-cred worthy bad-A crime, but no dice – not even fake fuzzy mirror dice. It was one of those courts like traffic court where they have everyone sit in the audience and here everyone else's crimes and plea's and then have their turn. There were assaulters, thieves, burglars and drug users in the queue ahead of me. I was wracked with self-conscious nerves as I waited for my turn to say my crime, the most silly crime of the day and have to plead guilty to it. My name was called and I walked to the place where the accused stand, front and center in front of a matronly looking judge who was reading my charges off a court document she had in front of her. She asked if I knew why I was there and I said I had been catching bluegill and keeping them in a bucket to take to the ponds at my high school for extra credit. She asked if I had known it was illegal to keep caught fish alive in a bucket, I said no. She asked if My teacher who offered the assignment as extra credit knew, I said I presumed not. She asked if I had thrown the fish back, and I told her that the officer had told me it was okay for me to keep them to take to school. She gave a pretty dramatic eye roll and wrote something on the paper. She told me that she got more tickets from that wildlife officer than from all of the others combined and that he was sometimes overzealous in his application of the law. She asked me to do her a favor, she didn't want to punish me for trying to get extra credit but if she dismissed the case entirely she would have to do lots more paperwork but if I would agree to plead guilty she would reduce the fine to 25 cents and we could go on with our lives. It sounded good to me so I made the deal and was relieved the fine was not the 75 dollar one that had been listed in the bail letter I received. I was wrongly convicted by I am at heart a pragmatist and a quick, and more importantly cheep, resolution was more important to me than fighting the good fight.