Book Eighteen

Under Sixteen

2029

A photograph from the back of a classroom on a rainy day: a very tall, thin old teacher in a tweed coat and a striped scarf stands smiling at the front beside a cardboard box and a clean whiteboard, a plaster bust of Benjamin Franklin in a rain hat sits on the windowsill above buckets catching drips, and the whole class has turned in their seats, grinning, towards one fair-haired boy who looks straight ahead, while a man in the foreground writes on a clipboard. Crown on the Potomac Under Sixteen Book Eighteen 2029

Tuesday 6 February 2029. Frederick is fifteen and has been King for fourteen weeks, with his mother as Regent until May, and he has not done the history reading, on the minority of the sovereign, because he is living it. It is inspection day. Mr Ferrante is off sick, and his classes go to Mr Pettigrew, seventy-eight, recalled from retirement and from his son's farm in the Dakotas, who has not read a newspaper since the autumn and asks the boy in the H's to carry his box. The class decides, without anybody saying so, not to tell him.

Under Sixteen is one day, from breakfast to the car park: an answer written on a whiteboard in capitals with the King's school name after it, an inspector from Virginia who approves of it and marks the boy in the H's down five times for inattention, a photograph that reaches a radio phone-in by lunch, a Prime Minister on hold to the school office for eleven minutes, four words in gold, and an old man who finds out, at the last, who told him.

Each chapter opens with a short extract from the Universal Register, the encyclopedia of the world the book is set in. The extracts are quoted from the Register as it stands; the chapters show what happened in the rooms it was not in.

Begin reading: Chapter One, Inspection Day → Characters

Part One: Morning (Tuesday 6 February 2029, breakfast to break)

  1. 1 Inspection Day Frederick. 12 min.
  2. 2 The Roll Frederick. 12 min.
  3. 3 The Board Frederick. 12 min.
  4. 4 Inattentive Frederick. 11 min.
  5. 5 Break Frederick. 11 min.

Part Two: Midday (Tuesday 6 February 2029, third period to gym)

  1. 6 Flame Test Frederick. 12 min.
  2. 7 Ser y Estar Frederick. 11 min.
  3. 8 The Phone-In Frederick. 11 min.
  4. 9 Sides Frederick. 12 min.

Part Three: Afternoon (Tuesday 6 February 2029, sixth period to the car park)

  1. 10 On Hold Frederick. 14 min.
  2. 11 Feel Something Frederick. 13 min.
  3. 12 One Line Frederick. 10 min.
  4. 13 Seventh Period Frederick. 13 min.
  5. 14 The Minority of Henry VI Frederick. 11 min.
  6. 15 Report Frederick. 11 min.
  7. 16 Then You Should Know Better Frederick. 9 min.