Tiffany's Story- Day 1

A hoarse, desperate cry echoes through the cave. He is alone, trapped, continually calling even though the one who was with him abandoned him long ago. He refuses to think of suicide… His mouth is within reach of a water drip, so his death will be the long one of hunger. His heart still bleeds from the betrayal: his lover could not free him, so kept on going to secure her own freedom. At this point, he would even be grateful for an enemy or wild animal to approach… anything would be better than this slow death, lingering in pain in the dark and cold and lifeless loneliness.

“A very dramatic scene, Tiffany, but the assignment was for a full page; I’ll have to take off a letter grade for this and I want to see you after class. Now, the homework for today is questions five through fifteen from page 283. Since we finished with the presentations early, you may begin working on it.”

With a sigh, Tiffany slinks back to her seat and arranges her desk back to her liking- people had been moving things around during her presentation. At least they hadn’t started stealing things this time. Instead of working on the assignment, she stares at the blank sheet of paper she pulled out, lost in her head. The bell jolts her out of her reverie, and she snaps up her supplies and walks up to Miss Atkin’s desk.

“Before you say anything, even with the letter grade deduction I will still earn a B on this assignment according to your scale of judging creativity. Even if you decide to be bitchy and take off points where you can, the worst grade you can give me is a C. With my B average and the fact that this assignment is worth so little, it really won’t affect my grade point average, so you have no basis for keeping me. Now, Mrs. Cooper doesn’t accept late passes, so I must get going.”

With that she darts to the door, not letting her teacher get a single word into the conversation. “Wait! Oh… why do I bother?” Miss Atkins exclaims, shaking her head ruefully over her aggravating student.

Tiffany gets through the rest of her afternoon, letting the hateful words sail above her head, ignoring her peers in favor of her internal world of daydreams. Still cognizant of everything around her, she simply chooses not to respond to it. After school she attends study hall, carefully making sure each assignment she completes will earn an 85% score, delaying her return to her residence- she refused to call that place a home.