Memoirs of an Outstanding* Teen

Chapter 36: The Last Time?

Rachel and I couldn't stop laughing, even after everybody started staring at us. Someone eventually asked what we were laughing at.

"We have so much work to do!" I answered through the laughter.

"And that's why you're laughing?"

"Yes. We can't believe how much work we have that's why we're just laughing. Otherwise, we would be crying!" Rachel answered.

"You people are weird!"

We were sitting one of our rare free periods, and I got to talking to Rachel about all the work we had to do that afternoon. I remember, it was something crazy like: research and write a 700-word argumentative essay for English, study for the Afrikaans test, go through the physics notes because you understood nothing in class then do the homework exercise, finish the 16 polynomial problems for math, and (if you were me) squeeze in the coach assigned 45-minute run before the sun sets.

I realized quickly that Grade 11 was going to hit us with a lot of heavy blows. It was going to be a lot more difficult, and a lot more work.

At that point, I had gotten more accustomed to my Afrikaans work, but I still had to spend more time on it than any of my other subjects. In physical science, I discovered all that I had learned from grade 8 to 10 was a lie (that's not how an atom looks like??) In English, I discovered argumentative essays had nothing to do with quarrelling. In math, I discovered A's and B's to find instead of just X's.

What do you do when you're carrying something heavy and somebody puts yet something else on top of what you're already carrying? You don't drop everything, right? Especially if it's something important, a MacBook if you will. You might throw a couple of curse words and the person that added to your load, but you'll power more strength into your arms and keep walking. That's what I planned to do with my school work too, just work harder, and keep trying my very best.

We got to the end of the trimester, with the number of blows I had to steel myself against through the four months, I was happy to get an A average even though it was just borderline. And I made it to the top of the grade-11 Top Ten Students list, and Richard (Remember him? Russian joke guy?) was second right after me. Little did I know...