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chapter fifteen. desperately seeking serena
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There are three things we do alone: we are born, we die and if we're a high school junior headed for college, we take SATs. And while the test is said to measure our best traits, preparing for it inevitably brings out the worst. Humility becomes self-doubt. Striving becomes obsession. Some are driven to self-mediciation. While others cling to the security of being part of a group. And anyone who's used to bending the rules will find themselves breaking them.
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SATs TEXTBOOKS DECORATED Victoria Humphrey's bedroom, as she prepared for the most important exams in her life, the key to the door of Columbia, the university she desired. With all of that pressure revolving around her results, Victoria was drenched in a huge amount of stress leading to the nibbling for her fingernails, chewing the skin of her bottom lip and only getting frustrated when she couldn't put her contact lenses in the first time. While staring at the words written in the textbooks, the letters found themselves rearranging ( that was how Victoria saw them ), she believed that her dyslexia was playing a trick on her, leading her stomach to churn and for her fist to clench that stretched out the skin on her knuckles to white. She hated it all. That her life depended on the results she was to receive.
Victoria didn't put herself in a form of pressure like her brother had, where he sat at the head of his bed with a practice SAT paper within his lap. He thought testing out his knowledge would announce what areas he needed to work through, and Victoria only found herself reading over textbooks she felt as though filled her knowledge better. The twins did work together, which was the only reason as to why the garage door that usually divided their room sat ajar. It didn't exactly comfort Victoria, when she glanced up she would find Dan with his head in his hands and arched brows because he was perplexed by the words in the practice paper.
If Dan struggled, Victoria felt as though she was doomed.
While scribbling down words she was able to understand and write correctly, the door to Dan's room abruptly opened to the point it frightened the dark haired teen alongside Victoria herself. Dan groaned out with the sudden race of his heart as he glared at his father barging his way into his oldest child's room. "Dad," Victoria found herself closing her textbook while only frowning at the frustration that came from her twin. "don't ever do that again." He warned.
Rufus wasn't too bothered with the warning as he dove his interest into his wristwatch. "Just doing what I was told. Time's up." Victoria hopped off of her bed and pushed the centre of her glasses up the bridge of her nose. It had been a few days since she had the patience to put in her contacts, and yet another day was due to pass where she would avoid even opening the box. "I was instructed that whenever time was up, I should share that information."
