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"Ji Mia."
The said girl got up from her desk and threaded her way through the backpacks strewn on the classroom floor and came up to Ms Lee's desk. She kept wiping her sweaty palms as she does so.
It was Friday and Ms Lee was giving out the worksheets that they had done during their semester break for them to review on their own over the weekend. Ms Lee was also giving out the test that they had recently took a few days ago.
Ms Lee handed Mia her work without even sparing a glance at the terrified girl and called out the next name. Mia quickly hugged her worksheet to her chest to make sure that no one, including her, could see the marks she was given and rushed to her seat.
The moment she sat down, she placed the stack of worksheets face down. Mia was nervous. The results of her worksheet and test will determine if she still had a chance to do well in Math. That was the one thing that she desperately hoped for but was too afraid to face the fact that her reality might not be exactly as what she imagined it to be.
Mia planned to just shove the papers in her bag and forget they ever existed but her curiosity got the best of her. With one deep breath, her hand reached out and flipped the paper.
What she saw was beyond her imagination. A big red 9 was scribbled at the top of her test. Underneath it was written in the same awful red ink, a note from Ms Lee. "Please see me after school" was written in the messy penmanship that her teacher had.
A 9 out of 20. One more mark and she would have passed. However, she did not and that was the fact. Her eyes were welling up with tears. Her vision was blurry but she wondered why the big fat 9 in red was still crystal clear. Her classmates were all chattering noisily as they got their papers back but all Mia could hear was a deafening silence mocking her.
Just then, the bell rang throughout the school, disrupting her thoughts. Mia painfully blinked her tears away. Unfortunately for her, this was her last period which meant that she had to see Ms Lee soon. Everyone around her quickly packed their bags and was out of the door within 5 minutes. Mia took her time to put her things away instead in hopes that time would slow down with her.
"Mia please take a seat," Ms Lee instructed as she gestured to the table in front of her desk. With heavy footsteps, Mia dragged herself to the seat, her papers still clutched in her hands.
"Now look Mia, I believe that you can improve. I do see improvement. You just need to work a lot harder to ensure that you can do as well as your worksheet," Ms Lee said.
"My worksheet?"
"Yes. You got almost every question right. I am very surprised by this sudden improvement. However, I assumed that you may have received some help when attempting this worksheet since the quality answers you have given this assignment did not reflect well on your test."
Mia was stunned. Too many different thoughts and emotions were in her head as her teacher spoke. She was happy that she did well in her worksheet but she was also angry. Very angry at her teacher and also at herself.
