The Final Mark

Chapter 10

     Within a week Mai was released from the hospital. She walked out the doors back into her home of Aomori. The lack of sunlight in the hospital made the outside world a little uneasy on her eyes.

     Mai walked the streets of the city on her way home. She stopped a look at everything on the way. The route was familiar, but everything had a new meaning. Everything shined brightly as if it had never been there before.

     It wasn’t too much later before Mai arrived back at her house. Her arrival was a big one. Her whole family was so happy for her to be home; to be safe and sound once again. It was around 1 in the afternoon when she arrived home, so that sat down for a meal. To honor Mai’s arrival her parents made Mai’s favorite dish for lunch: sushi. Mai was very excited when she saw the plates come out.

     Not too long into lunch Mai felt a tap on her shoulder, she turned around to see Aiko there. Mai stood up and embraced Aiko with a hug. Though Mai had seen her almost every day, Mai never felt like she was with her. It was all studying and work. They weren’t being them in the hospital, but now they could be once more.

     The day pressed on and Mai had retreated to her room after dinner to work on school work. She may have just gotten home, but, unfortunately for her, it was a Sunday; school was the next day. She signed and opened her texts books and dug into the readings.

     “It’s good to be home,” said Mai with a smile. Her eyes flowed back and forth with the words on the page. Her legs slowly kicked up and down as she lay on her bed. “I missed it a lot.”

     Mai returned to school the next day. She went with Aiko to school, however. She arrived in school and people turned to see her. Mai looked around at all the people.

     “They noticed I was gone,” asked Mai softly. Her voice was gently and quiet as if to hide it from everyone else.

     Aiko turned to Mai, “of course they did.” Mai continued looking around. “Don’t worry about it though.”

     “It’s so weird to be back,” Mai said nervously. Aiko picked up on this.

     “Everything is the way it was,” Aiko said. “Life goes on.”

     “You have a good day Aiko.” The two stopped in the hall and hugged each other goodbye before their paths spilt.

     “You too,” said Aiko. “Remember to study hard.”

     “I always do.”

     Aiko smiled.

     Mai smiled back.

     They turned and went on their separate paths through school. Mai casted her attention to the school itself again. She looked around and the familiar surroundings. The walls, the floor, the many room doors, all of them were familiar, but the seemed so new.

     Mai entered her first class and sat at her desk. She was halfway through unpacking her books that she realized she was the only one in the room.

     Mai shrugged, “more peace and quiet for me.” That quiet didn’t last long.

     After about three minutes did the classroom start to fill up. The people were very loud and obnoxious. They had months before they took their tests or they were going to fail anyway so they wouldn’t try. Mai had a test this month. She needed quiet: badly.

    Every class was like this. Every day was like this. Everyone was like this.

     “The people at school are so annoying,” screamed Mai.

     “I know dear,” said Mai’s mother, “but you have to look past them.”

     “I need quiet,” said Mai. “I need peace. I need to be relaxed. I can’t work and study with that much noise.”

     “Just try your best and everything will work out. You seem to be doing good with your studying.”

     “Not good enough,” Mai muttered to herself.

     “You are doing good enough,” said Mai’s mother sternly. “Don’t be so harsh on yourself. Did you take your medicine today?”

     “Yes mom,” said Mai.  She said it like it was a drilled response.

     “Good. Now get back to your work.” Mai’s mom walked out of the room. Mai sighed.

     “Here goes nothing,” she said to herself.

     Day in and day out Mai studied hard. She studied at school, at home, and anywhere she could bring her textbook. She started attending extra study classes on Saturday’s to try and get more studying time in. All for these tests.

     It was about a week out from the first testing day. Mai was getting better. Her knowledge has been increasing as well as her confidence. Everything finally seemed to be piecing itself together for Mai.

     Mai was almost excited for this. She couldn’t explain why. Was it that she could finally get it over with? Maybe, but who knows. The feelings that were inside of her were hard to explain. She didn’t quite understand them herself.

     Mai went to sleep that night uneasy. She didn’t know why, but something did not seem right. Everything was going smoothly so far, but something was out of place and Mai could not put her finger on it. It took her a while to fall asleep and her thoughts kept her up. She had no idea what was wrong. It bugged her.

     She eventually gave up and thought that it couldn’t be too important. It’s not like everything was just going to fall apart right? Mai shuddered at that thought, but then shook it away. She just kept telling herself that it couldn’t be that bad and that everything will be alright in the end. It must be. She closed her eyes and slowly fell asleep.

     As Mai rested her mom came in a set a white envelope on her nightstand.

     With only a few days left Mai had received a letter in the Mai. Her mom had given it to her yesterday, but she had no time to look at it. She looked at the front of the envelope. The paper was crisp and white. It was from the college who was providing her test. Mai started to get nervous. This was the college she really wanted to go to. This was the one special place for her.

     Mai slowly opened the letter. Her finger glided through the seal slowly as if it were something precious and of value. She slowly opened the envelope and took out the piece of paper which resided inside.

     Mai looked at it uneasily, she had no clue what was on this paper; no idea of what to expect. Her hands carefully started to unfold the paper. Mai closed her eyes.

     When Mai had unfolded the paper she slowly opened her eyes and the words came in to view. When Mai finally was what was written her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. She couldn’t believe this. She just couldn’t. She dropped the paper and ran from the room leaving it behind. The sound of her crying echoed softly through the house.

     The paper rested on the floor and moved a little with the wind. This innocent piece of paper just broke Mai’s heart.

     On the paper there were only two words. Two words written in crisp black ink

     “TEST CANCELLED”