“Yo! You think you got a good grade on the test?”
“I think so, I hope I got an A+, or at least an A,” Jimster replies to his best friend.
“Nice, good to aim high.”
“Alright class, I am now returning tests,” the teacher announced.
Jimster and his friend wish each other good luck and wait for their papers. Jimster closes his eyes, and imagines his future A+. He could almost reach out and grab it!
Jimster then opened his eyes to hear his teacher talking while passing back tests to students in his class. As the teacher gave Jimster his test, the classroom became quiet and slowly faded to white. All he could see was his paper in his hands.
Suddenly, he didn’t have as much confidence in his grade as he did earlier. His breathing was in time with his heartbeat, and his hands were shaking.
“Why are my hands….?!”
His paper was growing! It was getting heavier and heavier. He couldn’t hold it any longer and dropped the paper on the…floor? It was hard to tell as everything around Jimster was just white space, he was even standing now. Then his paper - which was way bigger and taller than him - began to stand on legs, with his grade facing away from Jimster. Jimster cautiously looked up in fear and started to quaver. As his paper started to turn around, Jimster saw a glimpse of the red marker of his grade.
“NO!” Jimster screamed as he turned around and fled from his paper. What Jimster didn’t expect as he was running was to feel the ground shaking. His paper was running right behind him! Jimster continued to run faster but it didn’t sound like the distance was changing at all. He refused to look at his grade as he did not want to see the horrible letter. Jimster was losing energy.
His face was pale, he was thirsty, he needed food.
Was he dying?
With that, he fell over on his face. His heart beat faster. Jimster slowly started to get up and the first thing he saw was…his reflection in a mirror with a huge F on his forehead. His eyes started to widen, waterfalls cascaded from his eyes, his lungs felt like bursting, his heartbeat was LOUD.
“Hello, Jim. Are you okay?”
His heart relaxed.
Jimster looked up to meet his teacher’s gaze.
“Oh, yeah, I’m okay.”
“Great, just let me know if you have any questions about your test tomorrow. Class is about to be over. Also, don’t worry about the grade, we’re doing corrections tomorrow so you have a chance to improve.”
“...Okay,” Jimster said quietly.
His teacher nodded and walked away to his desk. Everyone was getting ready to leave class. Jimster took a couple breaths, and faced his paper, grade still unknown but changeable.
Jimster first packs his bag and then looks at his grade. He sighs calmly and smiles, before leaving the classroom, moving on to the next part of his day.