The Curse

Chapter 6- The blame game

      The bright red pen on the printed paper mocked me, the 40% at the upper right corner was taunting. Did they actually expect me to get this signed? By my own mom? With a 40% grade? There was no way!

      I flipped the pages, rereading the stupid   mistakes that had brought me to my depressing grade. More useless questions about apples and trucks. The papers were filled with very few check marks,  too many wrongs.

      And then I got to the last page. A small note from the teacher was at the bottom, and I could tell that it had been written quickly, based on how sloppy the writing was. There better be a good explanation for this. I thought.

     Martha. It started, but the name was scribbled on, Sarah written above it. Please  see me at lunch time as quickly as possible so that we can discuss your grade.

     The note was followed by a list of times that I could visit him, and one just happened to be today. I nodded to myself. Great. Anger boiled inside of me.

     Maybe if he wasn't such a bad math teacher, I would be able to do better on my tests, and I wouldn't have to waste my own personal time. I tucked the test away in my binder, deciding that I wouldn't be bringing this to mom.

     Once the bell rang for lunch, I trudged back to Math class, terrible test in hand, and sat down at my usual seat, inspecting the people all around me.

      Apart from the teacher, there were 3 students in class. 3 poor, miserable victims of the dreaded test, none of which I knew.

      The first one I saw sat two seats in front of me, busy texting someone on her expensive cellphone that had a semi cracked screen. She had a white phone case with The Beatles written across it in big, black letters.

      She wore dirty converse sneakers and faded skinny jeans, with a white transparent-ish t-shirt and a black tank top underneath. Her hair was a dark brown, and I couldn't see her face. She had her test on the desk in front of her, grade hidden by a wallet she had brought to class for unknown reasons.

      The second and third were identical twins, sitting right next to each other. They both looked straight ahead, like robots, and had their tests resting on their laps.

     One had a green shirt with black shorts and white running shoes. The other had a blue shirt, blue shorts and white sandals, oddly enough. Both had blond hair and extremely pale skin.

     The teacher started talking. It was obviously going to be a terribly long half hour.