The microphone was live

Text C: an original fiction extract.

Jaya had tested the assembly microphone twice. She knew where the switch was, which cable belonged to it and how far the reader should stand from the screen. Her teacher had asked her to manage the sound because she usually noticed a problem before the audience did. By the final rehearsal, she had begun enjoying how much the room depended on a small movement of her hand.

The last reader was Lewis, who had written a piece about his dog growing old. He practised quietly while pupils rearranged the chairs. Jaya stood beside the mixing desk with her friend Niamh and listened to the first paragraph. It described the dog waiting beside the garden gate, then forgetting why it had stood up. Niamh said it was sad. Jaya said it was rather sentimental, and that Lewis always wrote as though everything ordinary needed a violin behind it.

Her voice came back from the hall speakers.

For one second, she thought another person had repeated her. Then she saw the light on the desk microphone. She had used it to ask the readers to move closer during the sound check and had not switched it off. Across the room, Lewis stopped turning a page. Several pupils looked towards the desk; others became unusually busy with their chairs.

Jaya switched the microphone off. She wanted to explain the equipment immediately, as though the red light had invented the sentence. Niamh looked at her and said nothing. The teacher asked everybody to take a short break. Lewis folded his pages and walked into the corridor without waiting for anyone else.

Jaya followed him. She began by saying that she had not meant him to hear. He asked whether that was the part she was sorry about. She stared at the edge of his folded paper. Until then, she had been concentrating on how private words had escaped. He was asking about the words themselves.

She said the comment had been unkind and that she had tried to sound clever in front of Niamh. She did not pretend that she now loved every line of the piece. Lewis said she was allowed not to like it. What he disliked was discovering that rehearsing in front of the team meant supplying material for their jokes. Then he asked for some time alone.

Back in the hall, the teacher checked whether Lewis still wanted to read. Jaya was not included in that conversation. When the rehearsal resumed, he took his place. She set the sound level as carefully as she had before, without adding a special introduction or telling the audience how brave he was. The story belonged to him, not to her attempt to repair the morning.

Afterwards, she asked the teacher to let her acknowledge the remark to the pupils who had heard it. She kept the explanation short and did not blame a faulty switch. Lewis packed his pages while she spoke. Later, she marked a clear position for the desk microphone's off setting. It was a useful precaution, but she knew it was not the change he had asked for.

You are Jaya. Write a letter to a friend describing what happened during rehearsal and reflecting on your responsibility.

In your response:

• describe your role, the remark and how it was broadcast
• explain Lewis’s reaction and how your understanding of the problem changed
• evaluate your attempts to respond and what still needs to change

Base your response on Text C, developing its ideas in your own words. Write about 250 to 300 words. Up to 10 marks are available for reading and up to 10 marks for writing.