𝑫𝒆𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 ✓

Determination

Determination

ONCE UPON A TIME there were two best friends. Beatrice and Malia, who were both sixteen years old. Both girls were in the same school, and went to classes together. They were inseparable since they were eight, and stayed like that until they were in high school. Despite being friends, both girls were completely different, or had different personalities, pretty much like polar opposites.

Beatrice was more outgoing, an extrovert, adventurous and was more confident than Malia. Malia was an introvert, shy, cautious at all times and more ambitious. Unlike Beatrice, who only focused on the present. "Live a little," she would always say.

Malia liked reading books, and liked studying, which made Beatrice confused all the time.

"I have never seen anyone who actually liked studying before. Weird." Beatrice asked her friend one day.

"It's not weird, Bea! I just care for my future, that's all. You should study, too, you know. Or else you won't live the life you want."

Beatrice never listened.

-

"I'm going to Shay's sweet sixteen today. Are you coming?" Beatrice asked, gathering her notebook and pencils and shoving them recklessly in her backpack.

"I can't. I have to study."

Beatrice gave her a look.

"What?"

"You know Shay would be upset if you don't come. She's been our friend since forever!"

Malia shrugged.

"Tell you what, you can come to the party today for, say, two hours, say hi to Shay and the gang, and after that we can be study partners!"

That made the girl smile.

"Really?!"

"Yeah, definitely! Now come on, we have to find a proper dress."

Malia did her part of the deal and attended Shay's party. Despite being a close friend to Shay, she was not very comfortable with the loud music and having too many people around her. Perks of being an introvert.

"Now that we're done with the party, you promised to be my study partner. We start tomorrow at five."

Malia ordered with a smile, making Beatrice roll her eyes. "Sure, whatever."

The next day, much like she promised, Beatrice was on time for their little study gathering. Malia let out a few books from her backpack and opened one of them, then began explaining the lesson to her friend.

However, to her disappointment, Beatrice wasn't paying attention. She was scrolling through her phone while liking a few pictures on Instagram.

"Beatrice, you promised!" the brunette groaned, clearly upset. The other girl noticed her tone and let go of her phone, putting it on a nearby desk.

"Fine."

That made Malia calm down a little. She began explaining the lesson again, trying her best to help her friend understand.

-

A week later, despite Beatrice's promises, she wasn't paying attention in Malia's lessons, and was slowly falling behind in her school work.

"Hey, want to come to study with me today?"

Eventually, the other girl snapped. "No! God, no. Malia, you can be too bossy sometimes, especially when it comes to books! I don't want to study, I want to have fun! We only live once, so what's the point of wasting your life between books! Bryce is hosting a party today, and I'm going. I won't force you to come this time."

Malia was disappointed. "Your loss."

As usual, Beatrice went to Bryce's party and had a lot of fun. What she didn't know was that things were about to get worse.

The following day, Beatrice had to leave school early. She had heard from her father that her mother was in the hospital, and she was pretty ill.

As soon as she arrived at her mother's room inside the hospital, she entered and was met by the sight of her mother lying on a hospital bed, coughing a little.

"Mum!"

She hurried to her side, sitting on a small chair that was beside the bed.

"Hey, honey... How are you?"

"Me? I'm fine, how are you?"

"I don't know, baby, I'm..." she stopped in the middle of her sentence to cough again, pressing a hand lightly on her chest.

"Mum... Are you going to be okay?" the girl spoke, tears in her eyes.

"I'm okay as long as you're okay, honey... I want you to make me proud. I know you will, but I want you to put more effort. You are the smartest person I know, so please don't waste your talent. You can do anything you want if you put your mind into it, and remember to be kind."

Beatrice then decided to take her mother's advice seriously.

The next day, Beatrice ignored her friends' invitation to sit with them at lunch and walked to Malia's table, which only had Malia sitting on it, eating lunch alone.

"Hey."

The brunette rolled her eyes. "What do you want? Are you here to make fun of me for being a bookworm again?"

"No! I'm actually here to apologize. I'm sorry I snapped at you the other day, it was mean and very uncalled for. I appreciate you looking out for me."

That made Malia smile.

"Thank you for saying that."

"And, I want to be your study partner, if you would let me. I want us to study together."

From that day, the girls put more effort into studying and, surprisingly enough, Beatrice was on top of her class, only second to Malia. They kept studying and both entered the colleges they always wanted.

Beatrice became a doctor, because she wanted to treat sick people, including her mother, while Malia became a teacher, because she wanted to motivate students to study and because she loved explaining lessons to others.

Both are still best friends.

Never forget to work hard for your future, and never forget to be kind to people. It's true, you only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough. Do whatever you want and know that you have a goal and that you're capable of helping people, but it's never selfish to make time for yourself, and it's not wrong to treat yourself once in a while. Everybody is smart in their own way.