unOrdinary...Jane?

V

To Finally Turn a New Leaf

The only thing I could hear is the slow and gradual ticks of a clock, the hands clicking towards the next dash. The sound of air coming out and in through, as the bumps from my chest echoes throughout me. Or was it the repetitiveness? The repetitiveness of looking through each bubble on a booklet ever so thinking one might be right, but the unexpected could be as well.

The feeling of my whole body aching, my stomach feeling funny, and my eyes constantly going back and forth. Checking and checking. Even the useless worry of a pattern of the same bubbled answer in a row keeps me running, keeps me looking.

This was a battle of something I'll never get used to. The tendency of a battle will never hold to the wit of knowledge. Everything was in the line, but not at the moment too soon. The realization of its wounds will only seep in after weeks. Not knowing your fate, not knowing how many mistakes, not knowing truly if you are right or wrong. The scratching of pencil's tips can be heard among the peers around, buffering with a slight brush of pink dust is often thrown in the air for moments.

I take the last few moments I had to scan through each one, still unsure if I was correct. But with a glance of the clock, I knew I had to trust my own guts and be confident of what I filled.

But before I could anything more, a sudden consistent sounds of beeping fills the room.

"Alright, put your pencils down, and please stop working" The test supervisor announced on the speaker, "The test is now over. Please wait and stay seated until your test is collected and called in groups to leave."

I drop my pencil on the desk and immediately limply laid back as I heard others follow as well, clanking of pencils on the desk. I take a big breath, relieved but worried. But it was already too late to really do anything about it now.

After getting out of the big testing room filled with evenly spaced desk chairs, in the lobby room before outside, I see many with I assume to be friends discussing to themselves. There were many small or big circles of this kind, as I can hear the mix of their discussions as I pass by heading out of the building.

"Yo! Yo! What you get for number 5?"
"What was number 5 again?"
"Man, I 100% got blasted by that test"
"Ah, I did not think it was too bad"
"ah shut the f*ck up, who asked??"
"You asking for a real blast"
"I feel like I only got a few wrong, hopefully..."
"Me too, let's hope we pass!"

I look back at them at a moment to glance over them. The look at their faces as they talked to each other. The smiles, the smirks, the joint-sadness, or look of playful anger all felt a longed familiar feeling. But turning back to the doors, greeted by the light of the sun shining on my face that made me squint, I look down as away from the sky to the path ahead of me.

From the distance, I saw a few benches and trees along the white concrete pathway, looking to take a seat on the bench closest. Once I got to it, I noticed something before taking a seat. It was a fairly new black painted bench with a sign on the face of its backrest that read: