Castaway ➳ cth [EDITING/HIATUS]

Chapter 16

 Calum's P.O.V.

"Make sure you all have the theory written down." Mr. Mathers sat back down on his rusty, old chair that stood here since I was in primary school. The huge disarray of numbers and variables promoted stress and mental breakdowns for everyone, but luckily I was busy enough writing everything down neatly and organized on my lined paper. Calculus on Tuesdays was the death of me, due to the fact that I despise Tuesdays.

For once in a while, I felt like the day was going to be a moderately nice day. I could feel it in my guts. The fear of not knowing whether I'm going to pass a specific class or even having a breakdown in the middle of the hallways like I did two years ago, was not there.

Stacking my notebooks and my Calculus-book on top of each other, I loaded them inside my bag pack, quickly - due to the bell that threatened to ring at any second.

Mr. Mathers interrupted everybody cleaning up by saying: "Hold up, I still have your tests from last Friday."

I groaned in discontent. Knowing that I did badly, my grade is certainly not going to be a good one. Perhaps average.

Failing classes was my biggest fear, although I unfortunately did so many times. I could hear my mother's voice yelling and scaring my sister away by saying I need to pass the class with extraordinary grades otherwise I won't have any stable future. Says the one who co-owns a company and earned millions over the years.

Nevertheless I started to focus on my anticipation. Maybe it wasn't as bad as I expect it to be.

Mr. Mathers walked up to me, his facial expression showed severe disappointment. The positive feeling in my guts started to drop and sink lower and lower.

He handed me the test. My eyes fell onto the grade, written in red on the first page next to my name.

70%.

You got to be kidding me.

My eyes couldn't leave the number written on the page. A number that perhaps will decide my fate.

Out of shock, I dismissed the teacher's request to talk to him after this class ends. I felt regret and anger, wanted to throw this paper into the next trash can.

A "D" was beneath contempt. Unacceptable, as my mother would say.

Live goes on, but a grade stays in your record. I love my mother and I don't want her to think I was going to fail this semester once again. Calculus is an advanced course I usually had to take in either University or year twelve, but as my mum "recommended", I was supposed to take it now. Bad grades and low motivation were the reason why I wasn't the person I used to be earlier then.

My brain started to become numb, and as the bell rang, a dull sound in my ears, I made my way towards the door, but got interrupted by a hand laying on my shoulder.

"Calum?" I hear Mr. Mathers ask softly. I turned around, not changing my facial expression.

"I'd like to talk to you", he says in a worried manner, "about your grade."

Sighing, I stepped back and shook my head. "No thank you. I messed up, I don't need anyone to drag my mood even more in the gutter."

Turning back around and determined to leave the classroom, the teacher still won't stop talking. "Calum, stay here for a minute."

"I'm going to be late for the next class!" Little did I care if I miss a class. I used to ditch every now and then, but as I tried to escape from my teacher's talking session, he still demanded me to stay in this room.