Bad Day

The clock radio alarm jolted her awake, Jane Collins sat straight up
and leaned over to turn the alarm off. She stretched and glanced at the
calendar on the wall opposite the bed, it was ridden with crosses over
the days from June and today was the 19th of August. This was the day
she had dreaded and at the same time looked forward to for what had
seemed like a lifetime.

The clock radios luminous figures stated that the time was 7.30am; it
was time to get out of bed, time to find out if all her dreams were
going to come true or if this was the beginning of a nightmare. She
dragged herself out of bed, located her slippers and slipped her feet
into them. She could hear her mothers' footfalls going down the stairs
and she thought she could still hear her fathers voice, they must all
be waiting for me to get up she thought, oh what pressure. How she
wished she was in another place or that it was any other day than
today, I hope I make it through she thought as she looked through the
closet for an appropriate outfit to wear. What to wear, another
dilemma, she poised, looked at herself in the mirror on the closet door
twisting the ends of her red hair. I can't look too bright in case I'm
disappointed and I don't want to look drab either, jeans she concluded,
they were neither dressy nor dull.

She pulled out a pair of blue jeans from the bottom drawer and threw
them on the bed, picked up her toilet bag and tried to move as quietly
as she could to the door. She opened the door slightly and looked down
the staircase to see if anyone was coming up them, seeing or hearing no
one, she slipped out and made her way to the bathroom located on the
other side of the corridor. As she opened the bathroom door, her mother
called out,
"Jane are you up?" Jane stepped into the bathroom and locked the door
behind her.
As she started to brush her teeth, she heard footsteps coming up the
staircase, she paused and she heard her bedroom door open across the
hall, then her mothers voice said," Come on Jane, I know you are up,
get out of bed". The door closed and then there was a knock on the
bathroom door," Are you in there?" her mother asked.
"Yes, I am, I'll be down shortly", Jane mumbled with a mouth full of
toothpaste and water.
"Ok dear, hurry up, your father has to leave soon and he wants to see
you before he does", her mother said.
"I'll be as quick as I can", Jane replied.
Jane climbed into the bathtub and turned on the shower, drowning out
her mothers' receding footsteps.
In fifteen minutes she was back in her bedroom getting dressed, as she
stood in front of the mirror wondering what to do with her hair she
glanced at the clock radio, it was 08.15am. Dad should have given up
waiting for me now, he must have left for work, she thought happily and
was greatly disappointed when there was a knock on the door and she
heard her father ask, " Jane, can I come in?" She pulled on her
T-shirt, buttoned her jeans and answered, "Yes Pops, I was just on my
way down".
The door opened and her father walked in smiling, Jane was extremely
fond of her father, all her friends were very aware of her fathers good
looks, some of her friend had even declared themselves in love with him
but it was all a bit of fun.
The sight of her father in his uniform (he was a pilot) heightened
Jane's anxiety, I hope I don't disappoint him she thought. Her father
was an easygoing guy, keen on discipline but at the same time she could
almost always get anything she wanted (within reason) out of him. Quite
the opposite of her mother.

"Jane, I've got to go now, I just came up here to wish you good luck",
Mr Collins said, walking up behind her as she stood before the
mirror.
"Thanks Dad, I know I'll need it. My heart is in my mouth" Jane replied
trying hard to smile. She turned around and put her head on her
father's tummy (though she was actually aiming for his chest but he was
6.4' tall) and murmured, "Dad, no matter what happens you will believe
I did my best, won't you?"
"Of course, I will", he replied, "anyway your Mom will drop you off on
her way to work and I want you to call me as soon as you find anything
out, okay"
"Alright", Jane replied turning back to the mirror to study her
reflection. Her dad kissed the top of her head and left.

Here goes nothing, Jane thought and her mind wandered back to the last
time she had been this nervous. She had been ten years old and was one
of the four qualifiers for the districts junior swimming contest, the
contest was on a Monday afternoon and she had spent the week before
practising, her parents had been taking her down to their social clubs
pool.
She had felt she was going to breeze through, as she had no idea who
the other qualifiers were. All she was aware of was that she had beaten
all the other junior contenders in her school (she was quite proud of
that) and that the final contest was going to be held in her school so
she was going to have all the support she needed.

Everything had been going well until she walked into the school
swimming pool area and saw Sally Carter standing in a corner with her
parents. Her heart skipped a beat, Sally Carter. Jane had not seen her
since they were in junior school together about four years earlier.
Sally had bullied Jane everyday for a whole school year, the final
straw was when Sally had put glue in Jane's' hair in an art class and
half her hair had fallen out. Jane had to transfer to another school
and Sally had got away with it as her father was the head teacher of
the school and had dismissed it as an ordinary prank.

On this fateful day, all four contestants went into the changing room;
Jane tried as much as possible to keep out of Sally's way she did not
want any confrontation. Sally on the other hand had other plans. She
also remembered the incident and though she did not get suspended from
school, her father had found other ways to punish her. He had taken
away her TV, cut down her pocket money and made her help out or take
part in all the after school events he picked out. Sally obviously
still smarted at the thought

Four lockers had been marked out for the usage of the swimming
contestants, Sally had located Jane's locker and fiddled with the lock
on it. Unfortunately Jane had not noticed; but when she came into the
locker room, she realised she had forgotten her swimming goggles, so
she put her bag in the locker and left the room to retrieve them. Sally
seized this opportunity, she waited until the other four girls left for
the showers, went up to Jane's' locker, took out the bag and had a
rummage through; found Jane's' swimming costume and stuffed the bag
back into the locker. As she moved away, Jane came back in, she saw
Sally stuff something into her own locker suspiciously but dismissed
it. Jane took her bag out to get her costume and was panic-stricken
when she could not find her costume. Sally on the other hand was
nonchalantly putting hers on, trying her best to stifle her laughter
and keep her eyes off Jane who noticed it. With trepidation Jane
approached Sally and said, "I know you took it, hand it over", her
voice trembled.
"I don't know what you are talking about, cry-baby", Sally replied with
a smirk.
"My swimming costume" Jane said, " I saw you stuff it into your
locker"
"Oh really, you don't know what you're talking about, don't blame me if
you came for a swimming competition with a swimming costume", Sally
retorted.
"I'm sure I had it and if you are not hiding it let me look in your
locker," Jane replied close to tears, she did not want to have to go
and report the incident to anyone and at the same time she did not want
to miss the competition.
"I'll do no such thing, you have no right to look in my locker", said
Sally.
Jane was still contemplating what her next move should be when one of
the co-ordinators came into the changing room.
"Jane, why have you not changed?" the co-ordinator said and then
continued, "The competition starts in about 15 minutes.
Jane contemplated between telling her the problem and keeping quiet,
she glanced at Sallys' face and saw her making gestures trying to warn
her off saying anything. Then she thought I have nothing to lose and
said " Well, I can't find my swimsuit and I'm sure I brought it with
me".
"Really, have you looked around and asked the others?" the co-ordinator
asked and continued without waiting for an answer, "I'm sure you
have"
"That's right," Jane said, "my parents cannot make it home to get me
another one in fifteen minutes."
"Okay, what size are you?" asked the co-ordinator, "I'm sure there must
be some spare ones sitting around here somewhere, give me a minute" and
without waiting for an answer she left the room.
Sally, who had been listening to the conversation, smiled, locked her
locker and went off to the showers.
Jane sat on the bench with her head in her hands, she just wanted to go
home now and forget Sally and the stupid competition. She stood up and
started putting her things back into her bag, the locker room door
opened and the co-ordinator came in with a ghastly dark blue
swimsuit.
She handed the swimsuit, noticing the look of displeasure on Jane's
face she said, "Sorry, this'll have to do, it's the best one I could
find"
"Yeah, sure", Jane replied sullenly, wondering what her parents would
say when they saw her in this swimsuit.
The co-ordinator told her to hurry up and get changed, wished her good
luck and left the room. She hurriedly changed into the swimsuit and
headed for the shower, grimacing as she caught a glimpse of herself in
the mirrors. All the others were already out of the showers, so she
relaxed a bit as she stepped into the cubicle and turned the faucets
on. She faintly heard announcements being made for spectators to take
their seats and knew she had to be out on the stands in a minute. She
pulled her towel off the hook, opened the cubicle door and stepped out,
the next thing she knew she was on the wet floor with the room spinning
above her head. She knew no more until she woke up in hospital a couple
of hours later and saw her parents concerned faces bent over her.

She had later learnt that Sally Carter had spread shower gel over the
floor while she was in the shower and she had stepped out and slipped
on it as the culprit had planned. One of the other girls had seen her
do it so Sally did not get away scot-free on this occasion, Janes
parents decided to press charges and Sally was sent away to a boarding
house and her parents had to deal with investigations from social
services.

Her mothers' voice interrupted her thoughts, she was calling out to her
to come down and have her breakfast. Jane went to the calendar and put
a cross through the 19th of August then reluctantly made her way
downstairs, her mother was at the table trying to get Tommy her
two-year-old brother to eat his food.
"Hey, mom", Jane said taking her place at the table.
"How's my favourite A-level scholar doing then?" Her mother replied
smiling at her, Tommy just looked up and smiled at his sister
"I wish you'd stop saying that", Jane said patting Tommy on the head,
"you're going to be highly disappointed if my results are not up to
scratch"
"Why wouldn't they be?"
"Well, mom these things do happen you know not everyone passes these
exams", Jane replied. She could feel her the pits of her stomach
tightening, as she realised not for the first time that her mother
would not be as forgiving as her father. Her mother had always said
that her kids would do everything she did not get a chance to do .She
had fallen pregnant and got married at an early age, her first marriage
had collapsed when she had a miscarriage, Janes father was her second
husband. She had therefore gone out of her way to make sure Jane had
extra tutoring and all the time she needed for the preparation of her
exams.
Her mother just looked at her as if to say well that doesn't include
you and her fears were reconfirmed.
As the three of them sat at the table eating, Jane silently prayed she
would make the grades she needed to go onto university and then laughed
out loud when she remembered the exams were already done and she could
not undo anything.
Her mother looked at her strangely and started cleaning Tommy up; Jane
got up from the table and went to look for her trainers under the
staircase. While she was putting them on she heard her mother say hello
to Sharon, the cleaner who came in three times a week and knew that it
was time to go.

She made her way to her mothers' car through the main door so she could
avoid Sharons' morning chatter and stood by the car waiting for her mom
and Tommy to emerge. As she stood by the car in the driveway she saw
their neighbours coming out of the house heading for their own car, she
ducked under a hedge and waited for them to drive off. She could not
handle their early morning banter either. She felt like she was the
only kid in the area who had taken A-levels and everyone was waiting
for her to pass with flying colours.

Tommy came waddling up to the car, with their mother not too far
behind. They all got into the car and very soon were driving along
Carmel Road, which Janes' school was on. As they drove along she
spotted some of her classmates walking along to the school and wished
her mother had not insisted on driving her.

Her mother pulled up in front of a sign that said "St. Catherine's 6th
Form College" and stopped the car. Jane sighed and got out of the car,
"Well, mom," she said through a forced smile, "here goes
nothing".
"Don't worry love, you'll be okay", her mother replied, she started the
car then continued, "I'll expect to hear from you very soon, if I'm not
at work call the mobile".
"No problem, bye, see you later Tommy", Jane waved to them and moved
towards the gates, walking as quickly as her numb legs could carry
her.

All around the grounds of the school, there were gatherings of boys and
girls, hunched over envelopes and pieces of paper with expressions that
ranged from sheer delight to utter disappointment. Some were laughing
out loud, being patted on the back by peers and family, others were
weeping uncontrollably and had the arms of friends round their
shoulders trying to console them, others had closed expressionless
faces. Jane scoured the crowds looking for familiar and friendly faces
and at the doorway of the school office block she spotted Clare Swanson
and Daniel Grant, her two best friends. She supposed they were waiting
for her as they had decided at the end of the exams that they would
open their results at exactly the same time.
She called out to them when she got closer and they came down to meet
her waving envelopes in the air.
Daniel spoke first," Where have you been? We've been going mad with
these envelopes in our hands, I've been cursing you since I got
it."
"Yep that's right, we've been here for like forever waiting for you,"
Clare agreed.
"I'm sorry," Jane said, "I had an early morning dose of fear juice, I'm
terrified"
"Okay, ladies", Daniel said, "Lets get this over and done with, we'll
wait for you here"
"I'll be right back", Jane said and made her way into the office. Once
inside she noticed that the lobby had been transformed and looked in
utter chaos. There were students all over the place as there were
teachers. A bunch of tables and chairs had been set up in the four
corners of the available space and had form teachers sitting or hanging
around them, she looked at the posters above one of the desks and saw
that it had "SURNAMES H-M" written on it.
She looked round and spotted the one that said "SURNAMES A-G" and went
towards it. Behind this desk was Mr Tattersall, her physics teacher, he
looked up, saw her, smiled and started to rifle through the pile of
envelopes in front of him, "Ah, Collins," he said, " I thought you'd be
here earlier, how are you?"
He found the one with her name on and handed it to her, "Good luck",
he said and turned away to deal with his next victim. Jane looked at
the envelope that had her name typed neatly on it and smiled when her
mind likened Mr Tattersall and all the other teachers sitting at the
desks to judges meting out sentences to criminals.
She made her way back through the lobby to meet her friends; they had
moved and were sitting under a tree. She walked towards them, her heart
thumping against her chest while she tried to look brave. Daniel and
Clare stood up when they saw her approaching and the fear manifested on
their faces, they knew the time had come.
"Okay, lets do this", Clare said, holding her envelope by the tearaway
strip, the other two did the same," on the count of three".
"I'll count down," Daniel said, "1.2.3"

The envelopes were ripped open; three pairs of eager eyes scanned the
contents of the envelopes. Clare made sense of hers first, she
screamed, the other two momentarily glanced alarmingly at her at went
back to their papers, Clare started to jump up and down with joy.

Daniel exploded next, "Yes!" he exclaimed and punched the air with a
clenched fist, now he and Clare turned the Jane, they hoped and prayed
for her to scream, exclaim, do anything as long as it was with joy,
they waited and watched; it did not happen.

Jane was holding the piece of paper turning it over with a look of
disbelief on her face, "Nothing" she muttered, Clare and Daniel could
not comprehend what was going on, they crowded round her trying to
figure out what she was stunned by. They looked down at her piece of
paper and it registered, it was blank, the usual letterhead was there
but under that where the subjects and classifications were supposed to
be listed there was nothing.

"Wow," Clare exclaimed still looking stunned, her own joy forgotten,
"Its blank, "
"What the hell happened there then?" Daniel asked taking the paper and
envelope from Jane and scrutinising it trying to make sure he was not
seeing things.
Jane was still speechless; she sank to the ground with her head in her
hands. Was this good or bad? , she thought, she had never heard of this
happening , what should she do now?.

Her friends were as stunned as she was and struggled to find the words
to comfort her; they could not. They sat there for about five minutes
in total silence, no one wanting to be the first to speak.

Finally, Daniel could not contain himself and had to speak, "We need to
do something, talk to someone " he said.
Clare happy that someone had finally spoken nodded her head in
agreement. They both looked at Jane who had a mystified look on her
face and was staring into space oblivious of the people around her.
Clare, who was closest to her, gently patted her on the arm and
repeated what Daniel had said.
Jane looked around and found her rucksack, rummaged through it and
pulled out her mobile phone. "I've got to call my dad, " she said
looking at the phone she noticed that the reception indicator was quite
low so she stood up and continued, " I'm just going to find a place
with better reception" and with that walked away.

Her friends watched her walk away and they both let out deep
sighs.
"I can't believe it, " Daniel said and pulled out his letter of
notification and looked at it to make sure the results were still on
it.
"Yeah", Clare agreed, "Its not fair, she studied so hard as well"
They spotted Jane walking back towards them; Daniel hurriedly stuffed
his letter back into his pocket, stood up and walked towards her with
Clare bringing up the rear.
"I couldn't get hold of anyone", Jane said with a pained look on her
face, in fact she looked as if she was going to burst into tears.
"I think we should go and have a chat with Mr Tattersall, see if he
knows what you should do next" Clare volunteered.
"Yep, that sounds like a plan", Daniel said.
Jane looked at her friends as if seeing them for the first time and
said," Okay, its better than sitting down doing nothing"
The trio started walking towards the school building where the
ill-fated letter had been handed out. Halfway there Jane turned to her
friends and said, "In my state of shock, I forgot to ask you how you
did, so how did you do?"
Daniel and Clare both looked uncomfortable at having to divulge their
good results in the light of their best pals' misfortune and they both
pretended not to hear the question, but she was insistent and asked the
question again and this time they had to answer.
"Well, 2 As' and a B", Daniel replied trying not to look too
pleased.
"2 Bs and a C", Clare said with the same demeanour. Jane managed a weak
smile and said, "Well done, both of you, I always knew you'd do
it".
This seemed to make her friends even more uncomfortable so they both
kept quiet. They were soon back in the hall where the number of
students had somewhat dwindled as the pile of envelopes on the desks.
They looked around trying to spot Mr Tattersall, he was not at the desk
where he had been before, and then Clare spotted him coming out of the
Gents toilet. They moved towards him and waylaid him before he made it
back to the desk.

Mr Tattersall saw them approach and registered the looks on their
faces, "Well, if its not the three musketeers, what's wrong? Bad
results?" he asked trying to make light of their grave expressions.
Neither one of them said anything, Jane just held out the letter to
him. He looked at it and a bewildered look spread over his face, he
turned the letter over in disbelief, glanced at Jane, then stared at
the letter again. When he spoke the disbelief was registered in the
tone of his voice, "Was anything else in the envelope? He asked.
Jane extended the envelope she had in her hand, shook it and shook her
head at the same time.
"Well, well, well", Mr Tattersall said shaking his head, "This is
unbelievable, in my ten years of seeing A level results, this is a
first"
"So what should she do sir?" Daniel asked.
"I'm not sure, I'll have to make a few phone calls first", Mr
Tattersall replied trying to gather his thoughts. The three friends
looked at him expectantly, he suddenly snapped into action he motioned
for Jane to follow him and asked Daniel and Clare to wait for her in
the lobby.

Jane and Mr Tattersall walked out of the lobby into the corridor of
offices, as they walked along Mr Tattersall tried different doors
looking for an open or free one. He finally found one, which happened
to be the deputy head teachers' office. They went in, Mr Tattersall sat
in the deputy heads chair and motioned for Jane to sit opposite him. He
pulled the phone towards him, he looked up at Jane and said, "I'm just
going to try and get hold of either the head or the deputy, I know they
are on the grounds somewhere so I'll page them".

"Okay", Jane said and then asked, "Is it alright if I make myself a
drink"
"Sure, make me one as well, tea white no sugar"

While Jane busied herself with the tea making, Mr Tattersall made his
calls. She took his drink over to him as he was replacing the receiver,
it rang as soon as he put it down, and it was the deputy head Mrs
Brown. Mr Tattersall had a conversation with her detailing the problem
and it seemed that they concluded that the local examinations board had
to be contacted. When he had finished on the call, he gave Jane a quick
summary of the conversation and told her he had to pop out to his
office to find some phone numbers for his contacts at the local
examinations board.

He left the room and Jane wandered to the window and looked outside,
there were still number of students milling around the grounds. She
thought about her friends Daniel and Clare and wondered if they were
still waiting for her, about her parents and how disappointed they were
going to be with her. Her mind focused on her mother toiling away at
work so that as she always claimed her kids could have a better
foundation for life than she had, bad results she mused her parents
would have been able to handle but no results well that was a different
story. She looked towards the desk on which the letter sat and thought
that it seemed to give the impression that she had not sat her exams at
all. How am I going to convince my parents that I sat these exams, what
is the board going to say?

A ringing noise interrupted her thoughts, it sounded like the phone,
she walked back to the desk and picked up the phone, the ringing noise
did not stop. Maybe its my mobile phone she thought and located her
rucksack under the desk, rummaged through and looked at it, it was not
ringing but she could still hear the noise. She looked wildly around
the room trying to see if someone had left a phone lying around, she
found none. She decided she had to blot the noise out, so she sat down
put her head in her hands and closed her eyes, the ringing
continued.
She felt a hand on her forehead; startled she opened her eyes and
looked up into the concerned face of her mother.
"Are you alright dear, the alarm clock has been going off for a while",
her mother said with her hand still on Jane's forehead, "Why didn't you
stop it?"
Confused, Jane looked around, she was in her bed, she glanced around
the room, and it was her bedroom. Quickly she glanced at the calendar
on the wall; there was no cross over the 19th of August

Still trying to gather her thoughts she sat up, smiled at her mother
and asked "What's today's date?"
"Today's date?" her mother repeated, "Why it's the 19th of August the
day you've been looking forward to for so long"
The bedroom door opened and her father walked in with an envelope in
his hand, he came over to the bed and handed it to her.
"Good Luck", her parents said sitting on either side of the bed.
She tore the envelope open hurriedly pulled out the letter and stared
at it stunned; she let out a yell and jumped out of the bed, wildly
throwing her hands around. Her parents looked at her anxiously
wondering what the verdict was.

She threw her arms round her mothers' neck and put them out of their
misery, "THREE As', THREE BLOODY As' ", she yelled with joy.

The End

THE END