Shannon's Story continues!

It's amazing how quickly time flies. Especially when writing a fiction universe!

That's ok. It gives me time to pace things out more.


The semester quickly wound down and soon it was exam time. Shannon had tried to find out why Aberdine and Amanda hated each other but neither wanted to talk about it.

"I don't know what her problem is." Is all Amanda would say.

"You're better off without a 'friend' like her." Is all Aberdine would admit.

"You should just leave it alone." Eddie was convinced.

But Shannon didn't like knowing her two best friends were fighting. And that she was caught in the middle. Shannon spent the rest of her semester splitting her lunch time with Aberdine and Amanda.

Things were finally normal with Amanda and she had to spend half as much time with her. It wasn't fair that her best friend had to be kept from her by someone else who was unwilling to be accommodating. It was all Aberdine's fault when she was with Amanda.

But she liked Aberdine. She was a little rough around the edges and a bit opinionated but she was a good friend when it counted. Aberdine was unapologetic about who she was, but she was also fiercely loyal to Shannon. Amanda was the problem when she was with Aberdine.

"I'd just tell them to fight it out." Eddie joked.

"Amanda would kick Aberdine's butt. She's way more athletic." Shannon gloomily observed as the two walked home. Amanda had team practice and Aberdine lived in the opposite direction so this was really the only time Shannon got to talk to Eddie without either one hovering around.

"Yeah, but I bet Aberdine isn't afraid to fight dirty. That's her advantage."

"You make it sound like a some kind of epic showdown."

"It is to me. I wanna see them go at it." Eddie smiled goofily. Shannon punched him in the shoulder. "Ok ok!" Eddie relented. "I don't get why they can't get along either, but really we have bigger things to worry about right now."

"Like what?"

"Exams?" Eddie reminded. "They're just around the corner. We've never had a high school exam before, we need to be focused."

Shannon hadn't thought about it but her first high school semester had sped by. She felt like she hadn't experienced it at all. She didn't even remember taking notes. Suddenly a wave of panic washed over her. What if she failed her exams?

"Eddie! What are we going to do!? What if I didn't take the proper notes? What if I spend all week studying the wrong things and go to the exam and its something I've never seen before? What if it isn't multiple choice!?"

"I think they have to make 20% of the exam multiple choice for all the dumb kids. As for all those other problems, you'd be at a loss. I'm sure you took the proper notes though."

"How? How can you be so sure? This is the first high school exam we've EVER taken! How can you be so calm about this?"

"You've always done fine before. And besides, it's our first exam, and it won't be our last. Aren't you passing all your classes anyway?"

"Yeah, mid 80's." Shannon was starting to calm down.

"So even if you absolutely bomb the exam you'll still pass." Eddie pulled his calculator from his backpack and punched up a couple of numbers. "For most classes the final exam is worth 30% of your overall grade. So assuming you got 100% on everything and didn't show up to the exam you'd still get somewhere around 70%. So if you're sitting somewhere around 85% and you fail the exam, that's still roughly 20% down. You'd pass with something of a low 60's." Eddie put away his calculator and smiled triumphantly. "Barely a pass, but still a pass."

"Is this how you go through school? Calculating the lowest possible grade you need to get by?"

"Hey, why stress and work hard when you'll still pass at the end of the day?"