(REWRITING) What Not To Do

1- Do Not Procrastinate

Jade in the media box, played by India Eisley.

~ ~ ~

"It all happened just this morning. As I do every morning, I awoke before the sun so that I would have time to stop at the animal shelter in town to volunteer. I had just finished changing the bandages on an injured German Shepard puppy when suddenly a masked vigilante swept through the building, unlocking every cage and freeing the animals!

"Of course the shelter staff and I had to gather every animal, for they would not be safe roaming the streets alone. By the time we were finished, I raced straight over here, stopping only to grab you a fresh pastry from the bakery.

"Unfortunately, just two blocks away, I crossed paths with a very sick old man living on the streets. I decided then that this man surely needed the pastry to live another day, so I gave it to him. After that, I rushed here.

"So, you see, it would be inhumane to submit me to further mental stimulation and would cause unduly stress on myself."

I took a deep breath once I was finished speaking and looked up into the eyes of the decider of my fate. He stared at me with an all-too-familiar expression. At last, he opened his mouth to speak.

"That's a nice story, but you're still going to take this test, Jade." Mr. Reid said.

I sighed heavily. "Fine."

Everyone else sat in their seats, either bored or annoyed. Bored of the fact that we were in class, or annoyed of my long-winded and entirely fictional excuse to get out of this test.

This test that I was sure I was going to fail.

He'd announced this test just two days ago, which is not even close to a sufficient amount of time to prepare. My last hope was that Mr. Reid would suddenly grow a heart and give me an extra day to take it- but of course that was a long shot.

In all honesty, I definitely could have been prepared for this test if I had actually studied. Don't get me wrong, I had skimmed through the chapter- well, glanced at it sort of. I read a sentence or two.

Nonetheless, I definitely couldn't qualify my time spent as studying. With four other time-consuming classes and stacks of homework for each, it seemed close to impossible to actually get any extra time in to study.

I supposed a bad grade was what I deserved for not prioritizing this test. Maybe this was the reason that the teacher hated me so much.

That and the fact that my last name just happened to be Abbott. My older brother, Jaxon, hadn't exactly been his favorite student, and apparently neither was I. I was basically hated by association.

I leaned back in my chair as our wonderful teacher passed out our third history test of the year. This was definitely going to drop my grade and my anxiety was already setting in because of it.

Mr. Reid dropped a thick packet onto my desk and I leaned forward to read over the questions.

Question #1. What historical figure's assassination sparked the start of WWI?

I let out a breath of relief. That was an easy one. I picked up my pencil and wrote in Archduke Ferdinand onto the blank space.

Maybe this test wouldn't be so hard, I thought to myself.

Question #2. What did Germany promise Mexico in the Zimmerman telegram in exchange for siding with them in case of war against the United States?