Mr. H

One

Sprinting across the last parking lot, trying to avoid all the cars coming and going, Tiffany made her way to class to take the last of the semester's finals. As she made it in time with only two minutes to spare, she found an empty seat and tried to regain her composure. Chastising herself, once again, for staying out so late last night.

Grabbing a Diet Coke out of her backpack she took a huge gulp, knowing it wasn't the best choice to drink, but it was all she could find in the tiny fridge back at the dorm. She then began to dig around in all the little pockets for some sort of pain relief for the throbbing in her head. Which she knew she deserved for drinking so much, plus it was made ten times worse from sprinting across half the campus.

Finally she found a Goody's powder. It looked old and was crumpled up. No telling how long it had been down in the bottom of the bag, but she didn't care. She flicked it all to the bottom of the slender little pack, opened it up and poured it in, hurrying to chug what was left of the Diet Coke to wash it down.

The professor still hadn't arrived, so she took a few minutes to gather herself. It was then she looked down at her choice of clothing. Ughhh, she thought, I look disgusting. Observing the stained Lynyrd Skynyrd shirt with small tears, a pair of daisy dukes, and her trusty old Chacos. She was sure neither item was clean, because it was all she was able to find scattered on the floor of their room while tripping over bodies on the floor. Cursing and still tripping over God knows how many beer bottles while she made her way to the bathroom to brush her teeth, wash her face, and slather more deodorant on top of yesterday's application of the anti-sweat spread.

She made a quick look around to see if anyone was paying attention to her, and thankfully everyone near her was looking though their bags or chatting each other up. She lifted the collar of the shirt to give it a quick sniff. Eeeeew, she scoffed, it smelled like an ashtray. She dug around in her bag to try to find something to attempt to mask the odor and found some VS lotion. Smeared some on her hands and gave the shirt a once over, praying she didn't smell like a back-room-of-the-bar whore.

A few seconds later, the professor, Ms. Sturgeon, appeared, demanding everyone to simmer down. It was down to business as the final exam was handed out to each student. "This is a lengthy exam, I hope each of you prepared accordingly. The time limit is 90 minutes. When you finish, please bring your exam up to my desk and leave promptly without any chatter." The professor turned the timer to 90 minutes and announced, "you may now begin."

After what seemed like an eternity, actually only sixty minutes, Tiffany completed each question of the final, gathered her bag, and delivered her final down to the professor. Handing it to her nervously, she nodded and was about to turn and leave before Ms. Sturgeon grabbed her hand. "I'm quite certain you have done excellent, I'll have the grades posted by Monday. Have a good weekend Miss O'Malley," she whispered. Tiffany reluctantly nodded, not sure of her statement, and left to head back to the dorm to pack up for the summer.

As she walked at a leisurely pace back to the mess waiting for her at the dorm, she started to recall the events of the prior night to relive the nonsense.

***

She was never really the party girl, but when her best friends wouldn't cease to stop begging, she gave in. "Alright!!! Fuck it, I'll go!!! But I have to be back home by midnight and get some sleep! I've come this far and ain't gonna flunk my last final 'cause you two horny asses are wanting to go out and get hammered and screwed! Y'all just can't wait one more day till I'm finished up, you have to start the nonsense now?!"

Claire huffed "Ohhhh Tiffany, stop being such a stick in the mud! You never go out! All you ever do is study, work, sleep, workout, and go to class! You try so damn hard to be perfect at everything! Hell, you ARE perfect!!! That's when Courtney just had to throw gas on the fire, "yeah, I think we'll just call you Mary Fuckin' Poppins!" Then the two instigators started cackling like two hens in the coup.

Tiffany just shook her head. "There's nothing wrong with striving for perfection. I want to be the best there is at everything I do. I want to be healthy and take care of myself. I want to be the best student with the highest grades. After graduation I plan on being the best nurse money can buy. But the thing I want most is to make my dad proud. I hope he's looking down on me and smiling. Knowing I didn't half ass anything. Seeing that I've made something of myself without taking short cuts, not being subpar, not getting knocked up, not getting arrested, and never depending on anyone, especially a man, to support me."

The two cackling hens hushed up, knowing they'd struck a sensitive spot, and apologized for being so judgemental about her and her choices. Both almost chimed in unison, "Tiff, we're sorry, we just want you to lighten up a little and have some fun. Please just go with us tonight?"

"I just said I'd go, you fucking heathens!" Tiffany hissed out. "But I ain't being your momma or your keeper. You get drunk and sloppy, that's on you. You end up getting video taped while choking on some douchebag's cock for the whole world to see, that's on you. You end up getting fucked over a toilet, that's on you. Remember, you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes."

We know, we know!!! Claire squealed with excitement as she bolted to the makeshift closet throwing out skimpy outfits for the three of them to wear. "I'll do all our hair and makeup! We are gonna be the hottest trio of femme fatales this town has ever seen!" Courtney belted out as she crawled across her bed toward the vanity like a spider thinking about the new web she's about to weave.

As Tiffany watched her two friends scurrying in excitement, she had a gut feeling she might regret giving in to go out and end up playing damage control come morning.