Friends & Paradise 2: Forever Doesn't Last Forever

Chapter 15: Last Day Surprises (Natasha's POV)

Finals were the most stressful week of all the entire school year. Unluckily, they were happening right now. I was lucky enough to be exempt from most of my classes, that is thanks to actually doing my work and paying attention. But, I didn't get exempt from U.S. History, Spanish, and World Literature. On Monday, I was able to skip school because I didn't have an exam that day. On Tuesday, I had to go to school until eleven-fifteen in the morning to do the History and Spanish finals. On Wednesday, was my American Literature exam, or my very last final exam for Junior year!

I was dropped off at the curb that Esteban dropped me off every morning for the past three school years. I walked to the High School building, for my very last morning as just a Junior. The doors were already opened, because it was already seven-fifty-five in the morning. The principal greeted me and some other students by the front door, and motioned for us to come inside the building. The history teacher I used to have back in tenth and ninth grade, was by the main office's doors greeting students as they came inside the school to take their finals.

I went up the stairs to the third floor, where my American Lit. class was located in. I carried by small Longchamp bag in my right shoulder. The bag had a pencil case, a notebook in case I needed paper, my iPad, and my iPhone that had my earphones wrapped around it. I pushed open the classroom door, and all the class was already inside. The only reason why all the class was here, was not because we were dumb or the class was too hard; if anything, it was fairly easy. The only reason we were here, was because the teacher doesn't let us get exempt, because she believes students should take the exam to really prove the teacher that you understand the course and can go on in life with the knowledge learned here. I walked over to my desk that I've been using ever since August, when the school year began.

At exactly eight in the morning, the teacher stood up from her desk and walked over to the podium and started organizing her test papers. She stood tall and said,

"Okay people, this is your final exam. Please don't copy from your next-door neighbor, try to do this using your brain, and I hope most of you make it. The other half of you who will probably fail this exam... oh that's too bad for you. I will hand out the papers now. There are two pages, front and back. The first part is vocabulary, one you should know by memory by now. There are twenty multiple choice questions for vocabulary, and on the back of that page there are ten create-a-sentence. The second part are ten essay questions about the stories and poems we covered this semester. I hope you make it, and good luck." Ms. Standford said.

She walked around the classroom handing out the test papers, and every student looked at it and knew for a fact, that they were 'fucked'.

"You have until nine-thirty to finish this exam. Remember to wait in the library if you finished early." Ms. Standford said, before sitting down on her desk and going to her computer.

I looked down at my exam, and wrote down my name and date. I realized, that I knew more about Pre-Calc than the meaning of some of the words. People no longer use words like, delusion and such. So why learn the meaning of those? It's not like you'll need them in your college essays, right?

I shook my head while trying to figure out the reason why we had to learn these terms. I tried to choose the right answer for the multiple choice part, but most of the words were a little tricky. Then, I went to the next section of the final. Write your sentence. Easy.

I basically breezed through that part, and went to the essay questions. They were about the texts we have read in class. The first question was about a story called The Devil and Tom Walker. The story about how a naive man got tricked by the devil to get money, yet he gave away his wife in order to recieve it. The irony in this story, is when the character of Tom Walker regrets trading his wife for money, and soon the devil takes him away. The question was about where the irony in the story is; I answered the question and gave specific examples, because I knew that the teacher wants very detailed answers. The next question was about The Minister's Black Veil. The question is asking to tell why the minister wears the black veil. The minister wears the black veil, because he is trying to hide something. The questions became easier as I remembered the lessons we had this semester. Surprisingly, I had actually paid attention in class. I was surprised by myself.