Don't Forget

Chapter 3

「My pov」
I couldn't sleep, I kept tossing and thinking about certain questions that I thought I got wrong and what happened earlier. Before I knew it, it was time to get up. I felt close to dead, and I really needed to find who won. All day I had anxiety until it came the hour, I was going to find out. I rushed to my Japanese class and I sat down and waited, as patiently as I could, to hear the results. Everyone started flooding in and my friend poked my back, I turned and she gave me a promising smile, telling me it was going to be okay. This made me rest a little. My teacher began, "Well I shall start this class off with the results from my contest, thank you to everyone that entered," he started. I could feel the room growing heavier with every passing second. "Hurry hurry hurry," my knees were even more uncontrollable than yesterday, but I didn't bother calming down now. He listed everyone from 10th place to 4th. Now the top 3. My name hasn't been called yet. "In third it's.." The teacher began "not me not me," I said to myself, "... it's Michael, good job getting a close to perfect score," my teacher smiled. My stomach was doing circles by now. "The second best score with only one wrong, goes to..." I put my face in my hands. I heard my big competition grunt from across the room. It was her! She got second! "PLEASE PLEASE," I was pleading to myself. "Now number one in the school for Japanese with a perfect score, and winning all year in True Cross Academy is..." my teacher's eyes were flashing. I wanted to cry from this tension. "Madison! Good job!" my teacher announced. Everyone turned to look at me, their mouths wide open. Me, the rebellious teenager that was known for being a failure, won. I smiled and my friend slapped my back lightly from behind. I was so proud of myself. It felt as if all my problems faded at that moment. Everyone clapped for me and I couldn't wait to start at True Cross, starting this week! My teacher told me that I was leaving in the next 3 days.

I rushed home that day to tell my mom the good news, she yelled at me for being cocky but I could only laugh at her. I immediately started to pack, my teacher told me my plane was in 3 days and he apologized for the rush. I didn't mind because I was happy to leave my drunk mother behind. I started to pack everything. One year is a lot of clothes. I had a few black suitcases full of clothes and one with bedroom stuff. I was so ready to leave, anywhere but here. I was standing in the center of my childhood room, it suddenly grew bare, the walls were stripped of their flashy anime posters and my floor was clean. My old mattress was naked with no sheets. Suddenly my stomach started to ache. I wasn't sad, I was just so happy. I thought I couldn't do it, but I aced it. I actually slept good that night with a spare blanket.
••3 days later••
That day I said goodbye to my teachers I didn't give two cents about, and some pointless friends that didn't give two cents about me. Except two people, my Japanese teacher and Jori.
"So your leaving huh?" She said trying to smile, but she looked so sad. I hugged her. Still hugging I said, "don't worry I will talk to you," I said trying to help her feel better. She released from the hug, "I hope you don't change while you're there," she said with a little laugh. I punched her arm, "Don't worry about that," I said. "Well, have a good year," she said. "Yeah you too.." I said back. I went to turn to my Japanese class when suddenly I felt her arms around me again. "Sorry I'm just going to miss you," she said. I flattened her slightly messy hair. "I'll..miss you too," I said finally. She turned and walked away to her next class, I watched her until she disappeared around a corner. So I turned the other way to meet with my Japanese teacher, since he was driving me to the airport. Once I got there, he was already ready with my documents needed for the flight. I walked up to him, he was writing something on a slip of paper. "Ready?" he said excitedly. "Mm-hmm," was all I could get out through my mouth.