The other girl and the results

After I parted ways with that girl, I started to move and look for my designated classroom to take the exam.

I walked with my notebook on hand trying a few more exercises.

I know it's dangerous to walk like this, and that the probability of colliding with someone increases drastically, but this is no novel, there is no way I'm going to collide with someone around the corner.

As I foolishly believe my words, I turn the corner, look up and see plain white, feeling soft round pieces of cloud smacking my face. I fell to the ground.

“Auch” is heard twice.

“I’m sorry. Are you okay?” I look up.

A pretty cute girl with silky brown hair stands up in-front of me.

“You should be more careful while walking” she says to me while lifting her head. Then I see her eyes. A very scary pair of eyes pierce my soul with one look. She seems very pissed off.

"I am so sorry I was distracted; this is all my fault!" I beg for her forgiveness.

"Well, I also was looking away, so it is both our fault".

It seems that I avoided death today.

I look for my notebook on the floor. I see two similar notebooks on the ground. We both try to reach them at the same time and bump our heads.

“Sorry…” We both said, rubbing our heads.

“I’ll grab them” I reach for the notebook, without even looking at them I give her one of them.

I was about to run away when she opened the notebook and made a very confusing face. I open the notebook on my hand and realize it is not mine, I probably give her mine instead since both look the same.

I exchange the notebooks apologizing.

"It surprises for a bit; I thought I did all my problems incorrectly".

"Haha, it's that so?... Wait! Are they all incorrect?!" I look at my notebook in concern.

"Yeah, all of them…".

"I thought I used the correct formulas…".

"Well, you did, but you used them incorrectly".

I look at my notebook in disappointment. After all this time preparing, maybe I'm really not ready for this exam.

"Here" the girl gets next to me "On this part you should have put this number on this side instead…".

She showed me all my mistakes and taught me how to use them correctly. After a few minutes, I feel like I understand every problem better than before. Even though she looked very angry before, she still helped me out, although her gaze is still looking very frightening.

"If you follow the formulas in this way, you should have no problem".

"Thank you!".

"Well, is what I think but looking at you I can see you are rather stupid, so try to remember what I just taught you".

"The insult was totally unnecessary".

She starts to leave saying that she is going to be late for her test, after walking a few steps she stops and starts to search for something all through her body, by seeing her reaction I can tell she didn't find it.

She turns around and walks very fast towards me.

"Have you seen a pencil?".

A pencil? Well, when we collided, only our notebooks fell, and when she was teaching me, we used my pencil.

"Sorry, I haven't seen it".

"Augh! not again…".

"Again?".

"I just lost my pencil case earlier this morning. I was able to get myself a pencil to do the test, but I lost it as well".

"Ohh…" What a careless girl.

"You just thought I was careless right!?".

"No…I just thought, for someone who calls me stupid, it was funny to think she would make such a silly mistake as to lose her pencil on an important test like the one today".

"Ah…" she tried to say something but felt embarrassed, pouting his mouth, making a frustrated child-like face. Her angry face went away.

"Well, that should be enough for calling me stupid".

"You!" Her angry face came back quickly.

"Here" I hand her a pencil and an eraser.

"Huh?!".

"This is for helping me earlier" Although she made fun of me, she also helped me, so I have to show gratitude.

"Really?".

"Yeah, I have 10 of those just to make sure, you never know what can happen".

"Thank you".

"Yeah, no problem, try not to lose them, at least not before the exam?".

"Who are you taking me for? I'm not that careless…" She opens her hand where the pencil and eraser were. The eraser is missing.

"Huh?!".

"Are you for real?".

"It was here a moment ago!" She looks desperately in her pockets.

"Here" I hang two more erasers, and one pencil "Be more careful".

"No need to tell me twice!" She looks away, in angriness and embarrassment.

After that we each went to our designated classrooms to take the exam.

A few weeks passed by, and the day of the results arrived. I was so nervous I could fill an Olympic pool with my sweat. Well, Jane was more nervous than me, somehow.

The school hands the results in person, and makes you meet with a counselor to discuss whatever results you got, so I have to go to the school in order to know if I passed or not. Since Jane is so nervous and is almost eating her fingers, I went to the school by myself.

Because of my nervousness I haven't slept well, and I’m one blink away from snoozing off. Also, it is six in the morning, for some reason the counselor thinks this is a good time to get your grades and talk.

On the way to the school, I had this weird feeling that something off was going to happen. But I didn’t let it bother me.

When I got to school, I walked towards the counselor's office and knocked on the door nervously.

“Come in,” said a familiar voice.

“Excuse me, Mr. Hill” I read the counselor's last name on the door while entering the office.

“Hi there Chris, nice to see you again”.

A tall man built like a fort greeted me. He is Bernard Barret. A friend of Jane, who has been helping her a lot since I was little, taking care of me and Emmi whenever she couldn’t.

“Bernard!?” I yelled, stunned.

“Why are you surprised??” He grinned like this was a normal situation.

What is going on? Why is Bernard here?

“Why am I here?? Is that your question”.

“Do you read minds or what?”.

“Haha, you know that I work as a counselor”.

“Yeah, but you work at the school across town”.

“Well, I just felt like being a counselor here”.

“...” .

“Surprise!” he said, opening his arms with a big smile.

Don’t get me wrong, I'm not mad at him because he didn't tell me he was going to be a counselor here. I am mad because he was the one that called me, these early to talk. If he wanted to talk to me, he could do it at my home or any other time, he didn’t need to call me at six in the morning just to talk.

“So, can you please explain to me why you called me to the school at this hour!?” I showed my anger.

“Hey, easy, you don’t need to get mad, I just wanted to see your results and talk about them”.

“At this hour?!”.

“God helps he who rises early”.

“...”. I stared at his mocking smile.

“So?”.

“Well, first we have to take a look at this” he pulls out a white envelope.

“...”.

I gulp and grab it. The results are finally in my hands.

I opened the envelope. I take a deep breath and with shaky hands, I grab the paper inside, and look at it.

“...”.

“So?” Bernard asked.

“I passed” I exhale in relief.

“Congrats”.

Suddenly I feel my shoulder lighter. I was able to make it. All those nights studying were worth it. My hard work paid off.

“It's nice that you passed, but that isn’t important right now”.

“What do you mean it’s not important?! I have literally been preparing for this for almost two months, day and night”.

“Well, actually this matter is something that we need to talk about” he said, changing his expression to a more serious one.

“You passed, that’s true, but you got fifty-two”.

“Ahh '' Although I passed, I did it with the bare minimum.

“Passing the exam doesn't mean anything if you keep your grades like this. You know you need to improve if you want to stay here for the second semester, right?”.

“Yeah…”.

“We need you to improve this semester as fast as you can”.

“I'll do my best to show the person that recommended me that he did the right thing”.

“But of course, I know that I did the right thing”.

"Eh? What do you mean?".

“-sigh- Who do you think recommended you?” he said looking at me like I am an idiot.

I am confused. I don't understand what he meant there. It is six in the morning, okay? And I hadn't had a proper breakfast, so I am dumber than usual.

“Who would be the only idiot to recommend someone like you to this prestigious school?”.

“Ohh. I got it” It took me one minute to connect the wires in my head, but I figured out that Bernard is the person that recommended me. Don't judge me, okay? I say it already, there is a lot going on and it is too early in the morning, so my brain isn't working properly.

“Eh!! Really?!” my reaction came a bit late.

“It really took you time to figure it out…”.

“Shut up!! It's your fault for calling me too early in the morning”.

“-sign- Whatever. Do you have any plans to bump your grades for this semester?”

“Yeah, I have an idea”.

“Normally, students are required to get more than sixty in order to pass the semester exams. But luckily you only need more than fifty-one”.

“Really?!”.

“Only for this semester. Then you will need more than sixty, like everyone else”.

“Now that I think about it. These are really strange requirements the school is putting for me”.

“Do you think so? I think that these are very good requirements”.

“They are, but why only me?”.

“Because I was the one that made those arrangements for you” he said with a smile.

I knew today was going to be a day of surprises, but I wasn’t expecting this. And I feel like this won't be the only one coming.