Copyright ✘ One Direction [EDITING]

S E V E N T E E N

"Miss Riley, could you see me after class?" My Economics professor, Mr. Clarke, gave me a pointed look after he'd finished passing back the theses he had graded. I'd noticed that I hadn't gotten mine back.

My stomach churned. "Um, sure." I could feel several eyes on me and I felt a blush rise to my cheeks. What did I do?

I mean, I thought I did good on that thesis. What could have been wrong with it?

I began to regret taking economics. Who takes economics in uni? I thought it would be a great way to earn some credits, but Miranda had laughed when I'd signed up for the class. Guess I know why now.

When the class was finally dismissed, I stood up and took my time getting my stuff together. I shakily stuffed my textbooks, notebooks, and several pens into my bag and when the classroom finally cleared up, I walked over to Mr. Clarke's desk.

"You wanted to see me?" I asked, shifting my weight to my other foot and taking a deep breath.

Mr. Clarke nodded and reached onto a drawer on his desk, removing a stack of papers that I recognized as my thesis. "I wanted to talk to you about this."

He placed the thesis on top of the desk and my eyes nearly bulged when I saw the grade on it.

Sixty-two.

"Oh, crap," I mumbled, scratching the back of my neck.

He shook his head, "You're usually such a great student, Carter, but this..." He gestured to the thesis. "Was just a disaster. The thesis statement, the points you made, your evidence...I don't even think you were fully aware of what you were writing."

I clearly remembered the day I had finally written that paper. I'd been putting it off since I'd been so busy with the boys, and then I'd written another song that day and tried to write the paper in a night, but I thought the paper ended up pretty good.

Guess not.

When he realized I had no words, he just kept going. "It's not just this class, either. I've checked up on your other grades and they've been falling these past few weeks. I don't know if something's distracting you, but I think you should let it go or else you won't have enough credits to complete your freshman year."

"But Mr. Clarke," I said, "I tried really hard with that paper. I've just been really busy with...my job, but I don't think my thesis deserved a sixty-two."

Mr. Clarke sighed. "Carter, maybe you should just lay off the job for a little while and focus more on your school work." He opened up a folder on his desk and took out a piece of paper. "There's this Economics extra credit group that meets here everyday. You don't have to come all the time but please, make an effort to at least show up."

I gaped at the piece of paper. "But for my job-"

"It's for your own good, Carter," he said. "Now, I'm going to give you two days to redo this thesis. I'm expecting you to do much better. You can start with the group tomorrow."

I sighed and nodded, taking the piece of paper and slipping it into my bag. "Bye, Mr. Clarke," I waved, my tone sounding deflated.

"See you, Carter," he responded.

Miranda, fortunately, was waiting for me outside the classroom. "What took you so long?" she asked me.

"My thesis," I answered. "I, er, got a sixty-two on it."

"But you worked really hard on that!" She said, following me towards the school lobby. She threw the exit door open and stepped out. "You were literally up all night."