By My Side - Sam/Aomaris Fanfiction

31) Exam Stress

FYI: I don't go to nor have I ever been to an American High School. I do not know how their final exams work when it comes to Seniors. Because I am British, the writing in this part is based on how the final exams (GCSEs) are worked here in England, taken at the age of 16. Please forgive that this may not be accurate in the slightest as to how final exams are run in America.

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There was a reason I hated school. The futility. So many of the lessons we were taught would not help anyone in the real world. So much time and information were wasted on a large group of teenagers who were likely to never, ever go into something requiring advanced maths as an adult. Sat in my room on my bed, staring uselessly at the maths textbook in front of me, I sighed. I stared some more. Nothing. I had no motivation, no reason to be focusing on this pointless subject except that I wouldn't graduate without it. I groaned loudly and grabbed a pillow, slamming my head into it repeatedly. I didn't hear the door open and Sam walked in, stopping short when he spotted my weak attempt at beating knowledge into myself.

"Studying's going well, then?" He said. I could hear the amused smirk in his voice and threw the pillow at him, catching him in the face.
"Why do I have to be learning this shit?" I growled. "Why can't I be learning interesting stuff? Like, you guys could be telling me about the demon world. Or I could be with Mr Sawyer, learning how to be more descriptive in my writing. Why do I have to learn this BULLSHIT?!?!" I snapped irritably. Sam hung by the still-open door, slightly afraid of another pillow attack.
"I mean, they don't know what everyone wants to be when they're done with school. They don't know that people won't do some shit to do with math." He reasoned. I slammed my textbook closed and glared at it.
"Well, they should. Because 99% of the entire grade have more chance of making it to the fucking Abyssal Plains and back than they do of working at a MOTHERFUCKING MCDONALD'S!!!" I yelled.

"You're not the only one who's stressed, you know, Nix!!" Mika shouted from the hallway.
"Fuck off, Mika! At least you get decent fucking grades in maths!" I retorted. My sister didn't answer and I growled to myself. Sam approached me and patted my head awkwardly, clearly unsure of how to comfort me in this situation. I sighed and flopped back onto the bed, sending my notebook flying. I didn't bother to pick it up.
"Jesus fucking Christ... I'm so glad I'm not an Anderson anymore. Dad would be screaming more than I am..." Sam chuckled at that.
"That's the spirit. You just gotta see the positive." I stared at him.
"Since when have you been Mr Happy-go-Lucky? That's Matthew's job."
"Hey, I'm trying to be supportive here. If you don't want it, I'll just go support Mika instead..." He teased me. I glared at him, trying and failing to look intimidating.
"Don't you fucking dare." Sam laughed again, sending a shiver down my spine at the sound. He sat on the bed beside me and pulled me into his lap. I rested my forehead against his chest and sighed, closing my eyes.
"It's not fair. I have to deal with all the stress of Tenebris fucking with my mind, and then as soon as that's over I'm forced into this torture because, for some stupid reason, these finals will dictate my entire life."

It had been a fair few days since we'd met Tenebris. Sure enough to what she'd said, she'd been gone for two days now, searching high and low for Eris, the devil that spent all of her time with Malix when he was alive. The incubi never complained about her presence nor her lack of presence, and she got on fairly well with all of them now that she didn't have a vendetta against me or Sam. 
"I'm so fucking close to dropping out," I muttered. "I mean, technically I don't need to graduate high school to be a successful author. Then I can just live out my days knowing that I gave school the middle finger and said 'Fuck you, I don't need your bullshit classes.'" I rolled away from Sam and knocked a different book off of the bed, again not bothering to pick it up.
"You know, I only came up here to tell you that dinner's ready," Sam said to me. I sat up instantly.
"Well, why the fuck didn't you say that?" I shot downstairs like a bullet where the others were already eating.