hw 24 short story

“BUZZ, BUZZ, BUZZ.”

Mike slowly opened his eyes to see that it was 7:00am. With the small amount of energy he had so early in the morning he slammed his hand down on the snooze for an extra 5 minutes.

“Mike wake-up for school,” called out his mother but he ignored her.

In retrospect those five minutes probably were not worth it. Now he might miss his train but it didn’t make much of a difference to Mike. The way he saw it was maybe for once I wont be the first one there.

Finally he moseyed out of bed, took a shower, got dressed in the average clothes he owned, not too flashy as to attract too much attention but enough to blend in, arriving at school a few minutes late.

“Today you will have a pop-quiz on algebra!!!” yelled his math teacher above the students who were talking so that the students who cared could hear.

Joining in with all the pathetic moans and groans of the other students Mike took his seat.

His friend Ron who sat in front of Mike turned around and gave him a pile of quizzes. Mike took one and passed it to the person behind him. Mike’s eyes surveyed the quiz quickly. He thought to himself A, B, B, D, C. Mike smiled to himself knowing that they wee correct. Secretly he liked math. He enjoyed finding the one possible answer to a problem. He would always remember what he said when his 5^th grade math teacher asked him what he liked best about math: “I like knowing that there is always one answer out there for a problem. And once it is solved it is like the truth.” Unfortunately for Mike getting good grades in high school wasn’t as cool as it was in fifth grade.

He circled A for question one, Bubbled letter B for two and three. Checking his answer one more time circled D for number four. And then looked at five:

3x-15=0

a. 6

b. 4

c. 5

d. 3

Ok C he thought and brought his pencil to the paper. Then he stopped. Mike looked over to the kid in front of him, Ron. Ron gave the teacher his quiz and said

“I didn’t get it, oh well how much can a little quiz mean?”

The Teacher stared blindly at him, finally after a long pause and a deep breath:

“You know Ron maybe if you didn’t spend so much time talking and joking around you would do a little better in my class.”

Ron looked over to Mike, his friend since middle school, and shrugged. Mike laughed “I’m glad I am in the class as him,” Thought Mike. However Mike also knew that the educational gap hurt their friendship.

Mikes eyes drifted back over to his own paper. He stared at C as if it was the most captivating thing in the room.

“I want to write C, its right I know its right, I know all the others I picked were right. C means 100, But if I get a 100 ill look like a nerd. Ron will think we are too different. Maybe I should circle A, get an 80 and be done with it. I will look better. It’s just a silly quiz. Nothing I can’t make up.” Mike thought to himself

Mike circled half of letter A. his pencil stopped without him realizing it. Mike knew he shouldn’t.

“What do I Do? It is worth it? This is so minuscule compared to the rest of my life. It is the decision of the day. I hate decisions and I hate prioritizing”.

Mike looked up and saw that even the dumbest kids in the class were handing in their quizzes. The teacher walked over to Mike’s table and asked for the quiz. Mike looked calm and collected on the outside, but in his head was quite the contrary.

“A no C no A no C no A. Do you want to be cool and happy now or smart and have it pay off later? AHHH I cant believe how much I am freaking out about a five question quiz!!!!!”

“NOW” exclaimed the teacher

Mike stared at him, then looked at Ron, then at the quiz. Took a breath, and circled C.