The Age of Youth

Youth 11

1 1

a once warm word

Every senior must visit their guidance councilor at the start of the new year for an appointment about their future choices. More specifically they would ask us what our dream was. Mine was to be number one, number one out of my siblings and number one in her heart but those are only dreams because they'll never come true.

The guidance councilor looked over Isaac's grades with a stern look then faced the teen who sat on the opposite side of his desk.

"Isaac," he said, "with grades like this, you won't be able to go into any top university. I don't think your mother would be happy with that. Don't you want to go to one of the big three universities? Your mother did, so did you father, your sister, and even your younger brother is being considered despite his age."

"I don't really care. I want to travel the world, maybe I'll go to the other side of the country."

"If you want to find a university out of the province it'll be harder as they focus on your grades even more. With your current grades, I suggest you try to stay within the city."

"How good would my grades have to be if I want to go to away?"

"Honestly, you would need to ace all your exams and by that I mean a perfect score on everything."

"Okay," Isaac said and got up.

"Isaac, this is a big deal, you can't just say okay and it'll happen."

"I'll see you later Mr. Liang." On his way out of the office, Isaac greeted his favourite teacher, "Hello Mr. Kurehi, your partner doesn't think I can get into a school across the country."

"You're going to prove him wrong?"

"Totally."

"You know," Mr. Kurehi said, closing the door to his partner's office, "he's going to do it."

"Have you not seen his grades Cho?"

"Have you not seen him during tests Gavin? He sleeps."

"Aren't you supposed to be defending your favourite student?"

"He understands everything, probably better than I do but he's always overshadowed by his siblings. Doctor-to-be sister, genius brother plus he has his reasons to do poorly on tests."

Gavin Liang raised his eyebrows in shock, "What good reason does a student have to do poorly on a test?"

"I never said it was a good reason but love makes us make dumb choices."

What is my dream? Why does my guidance counselor care about that? Shouldn't they worry about what my future goals are, career path? Then again, if I told them I wanted to be a published author, I'd be told to look for a more realistic path. So I guess what's my dream isn't so stupid of a question. My dream is to be loved by my father again.

In homeroom at Diana Cross' Academy for Girls, Rei sat quietly in her seat by the window writing her manuscript. She had started writing last weekly after finalizing the characters and plot.

"As you know, we have a new student joining us today. Please come in and introduce yourself."

The door slid open and a red haired girl in a track suit walked into the classroom and gave the class a smile.

"Hello everyone, my name is Marie Watson. As you can tell, my uniform has yet to arrive but my gym uniform did. I hope we can all be friends."

"There a free seat next to Rei. Rei wave, thank you. If you have any questions, just ask."