The Scholarship

"I've had my whole life planned out. Not by specific details but I had a good sense of what direction I wanted it to go.." my voice trailed off as I struggled to write the scholarship essay in front of me. Senior year was almost over. I had three mere months before I, along with 432 others, would walk up some steps and accept my high school diploma. But before that happened, I had to get some money for college first. 

"What are you doing?" my older sister, Krissie, stood by my doorway. I rubbed my temple and fought hard to ignore her presence. "I asked what are you doing? Are you like, deaf or something?"

"Kris. If. You. Wouldn't. Mind. I'm. Trying. To. Write. An. Essay." I spoke through gritted teeth, half tempted to yell for my mom who would surely make her go away.

"Geez, calm down. I only asked what you were doing... What's it about?" She would not leave me alone.

"If you really have to know, it's about how one event caused a drastic change in my life. Now, please go. I know you're only doing this to annoy me." I placed my hands on the keyboard, ready to start another sentence.

"You won't get it." she replied curtly and left.

Her answer shocked me a bit, causing my hands to fully weigh down on the board, adding a jumble of letters on the document. I frowned at the doorway, knowing she had left and deleted the mess. "For...my whole.. life.. I've always gone about... the same.. rou..tine." I said out loud as I typed. You won't get it. What did she mean by that? 

"Gosh Krystal! Can't you be one of those nice sisters in the movies who help their little sisters with their problems and encourage them to follow their DREAMS!" I yelled knowing that wherever she was, she would hear me.

"Nope." She appeared at my door again, sisters have a way of doing that I guess. She laughed slightly and then made her way into my room and onto my bed.

I stared at the computer screen for a few minutes, unmoving. "...why did you say that?" I asked quietly.

"Say what? Nope?" she moved onto her stomach and faced me.

"No, not that... why did you say I wouldn't get the scholarship? I have good grades, and decent recommendation letters, how could I not get this scholarship?" It dawned on me that I had actually been hurt by what she said. Wow.

"Well, first of all, hundreds if not thousands of kids will be applying for that scholarship too. You're writing about an even that changed us big time? We come from a good home, Sofie, even if mom struggles with bills sometimes. We haven't gone poor or have come out of poverty, we've never been homeless unless you count the time we had to get the apartment fumigated and we haven't had someone important to us die. We're an average family. Second of all, grades and recommendation letters mean nothing to them sometimes. It's the essay that really counts. And most importantly, which goes along with reason one, nothing drastic has happened to us. To you!" She got off my bed and walked towards the door.

"Tell me one time where one thing has drastically changed your life?"

I opened my mouth to speak but as if reading my mind she added, "Meeting Jane Goodall in first grade does not count. You were obsessed with chimpanzees for two weeks and then it was over." I didn't say anything. I couldn't. After a while she smirked, "That's what I thought." and left my room closing the door. 

I sighed and swiveled my chair back to face the computer. I placed my hands on the keyboard again and glanced at the clock, 10:12. Could I finish this in an hour? Probably not.

I groaned and mentally slapped myself for putting this off for the last second. I can't keep putting important stuff like this off! IB classes or no IB classes, I needed to find a way to stop procrastinating! I kicked my desk in frustration causing the half broken drawer at the bottom to slide open. Out of the corner of my eye I could see the familiar glow of my screen saying I had a message. Evan.

"Not now Evan," I spoke to myself, "I'm a little busy writing a essay... about you!" After a while of just staring at the screen, it went dim again. I sighed in relief. I needed to talk to him but right now... I glanced at the screen and then back to my phone. Should I type the essay now and get it over with or see what Evan wants.. And as if the universe had heard of my dilemma, my phone lit up again, new notifications from him constantly popping up. 

This was gonna be a long night.

[Please let me know what you think, please be honest. Vote and comment if you like it! Thanks so much! I'll upload a new chapter tomorrow.]