Life is a Killer Grade

Chapter 9: The Revealing Truth

"Ah! Ow! Ow! Ouch!" I blurted out as I hit walls and jagged, sharp edges as I'm going down the hole. I feel like I've been falling for hours. This thing was probably 2,000 feet deep into the ground. For what purpose would someone make a gorge this deep? I thought to myself. This all really confused me as I fell down.

At a sudden notice, I finally stop falling. But I'm so beat up that when I hit the ground floor, I hit it really hard. And I mean REALLY hard. I'm laying on my stomach. I'm in so much pain, so moving at all is a pretty bad idea. I lay there for a few minutes until I actually have some strength to stand up. My legs are shaking. I can barely stand, but I use all the energy I have to keep myself up and not collapse to the floor again.

I take out my phone, still shaking and moving very slowly, and turn on the flashlight. It is bright enough so I know what I'm looking at, luckily. But before I check out where I'm at, I check my body for any bruises from the long fall I took not too long ago. Surprisingly, I don't have any... I have much worse things on me instead of bruises. I have cuts and scars all over me. Blood is streaming down me EVERYWHERE. I gag and cringe as I look at all of it.

After a couple of minutes of looking at my beaten-up body, I get myself together and point my phone flashlight up at the area I'm in. The place is really big. I mean, really, really big. "Wow," I say to myself, examining the area, "this place is amazingly huge." The room was a round dome, probably a few miles all around. "This huge dome reminds me of the Hunger Games." I make a side smile at the thought of that. I start to walk around, thinking about the Games. I've always wanted to be like my favorite lead character, Katniss Everdeen.

Katniss Everdeen is a 16-year-old teenager in a book series, as a hunter with a bow and arrow, that lives in the city of Panem, under the leadership of the Capital. Each year, they send a male and female tribute, ages 12-18, out of 12 Districts, to fight to the death of survival of food, death, and shelter. In total, 24 tributes go to the Hunger Games, both male and female from each District. Katniss is my absolute FAVORITE character in the whole series. I would want to learn how to shoot a bow and arrow, just like her.

Suddenly, as I'm thinking about the Hunger Games, I hear a rustling noise beneath me. Probably underneath my feet from walking around. It snaps me out of my train of thought and I quickly look down at the ground. My eyes widen at what I see there. It has my name on it. Crystal McKena it reads at the top of the crumbled paper. I pick it up and flatten it out on my leg I hold up close to me. I wonder how a paper like this got all the way down here... It looks like something I did for one of my Social Studies assignments. I'm not surprised that I remember that I got an F on this project. But what really shocks and surprises me is what's next to the title of the paper. A+.

An A+? Was there a mistake in Mr. Canal's grading when he was putting it onto the computer? Did he put in an F on accident? I think to myself. But then, I notice some of my other papers I've done in Social Studies near the one I picked up. They're all assignments I've done in his class. They all say A+ on them. I remember that I failed this when I checked on the Assignment-Check Online! Mr. Canal is failing me on purpose! I've been getting A+ on all these things this whole time!!

I'm so frustrated and angry that I start ripping some of the papers up and throwing them away. I kick away some of the things on the floor as well. Tears start pouring down my face. I still couldn't believe it... I thought I was stupid this whole time for that one subject. It turns out that I'm actually not.

I spend at least 40 minutes thinking about all of this. Then I start to wonder about something... Where has Alex been? He should've been down here with me. At least, I think he should've been. But I don't think I'd want him down here while I'm bawling my eyes out. I hate crying in front of people.

After wondering about where Alex could probably be at, I suddenly feel like I'm being watched. Then, a loud voice calls out my name. "Crystal!" I quickly turn around to where I hear it coming from and look around for someone. I finally spot someone in the distance and they're calling my name again. The voice sounds angry, but I'm not completely sure. "Crystal!!"

I can finally see who it is calling me. It's Alex! My eyes widely open up as I notice who it was. "Alex!" I was glad he's okay. I then slowly dash towards him. I don't think he noticed I had scars and cuts with blood dripping from them. It was probably hard to notice because as I was running. But as I ran, I was slightly limping. As soon as I get to him, he picks me up fast and squeezes me tightly. It really hurt. I understand he likes me, and him hugging me with that much strength felt really uncomfortable to me.

"Oh my god, Crystal. Are you okay?" he asks me.

Alex sets me down on my feet hard. I answer back, "Yea, I'm fine. I just have some-"

He then cuts me off and looks down at my body. "Oh my god. Where did you get all those cuts and scars?" Alex bends down to examine them.

"A lot had happened to me as I fell down.But that's not important right now!" I explain to him. Alex slowly gets up, looking at me like I'm insane.

He angrily looks at me. "These scars and cuts aren't important? Look at you. You're a mess," he says, pointing at my beatings.

"I know!" I yell. "But I found out something as I was down here."

Alex looks at me confused. "What did you find out...? Down here...?" he says as he openly points around the dome-shaped room.

I then stare at the ground for a second before taking a deep breath. I look back him.

"I'm not... I'm not actually failing," I say relievingly, yet slightly frustrated. "It's all a fake. The grades. The assignments. Everything. Mr. Canal is failing me on purpose. I'm passing Social Studies."

Copyright ©2014 xnoleeeej

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Hey guys! Thxx for reading! Sorry for the sucky kinda ending to this chapter... I couldn't think of anything better. But I hope you all are enjoying my book! If there are any mistakes in the chapter, please msg me so I can proofread them. I was listening to music as I wrote this and I might have messed up a little. Anyway, please vote for this and tell people about this story! Thxx a bunch!

~xnoleeeej