Jennie gave three slow knocks to the open office door to get the middle-aged man’s attention. It proved to work when he looked up in the direction of the noise. Adjusting his glasses, he smiled seeing who it was that disrupted his reading so early in the morning.

“Ah, Jennie, come in. Didn’t see you there.” He gestured to the chair in front of his desk encouraging her to take a seat. “How’ve you been? How’s your aunt?”

“Why’d you want to see me?” Jennie asked wanting to get straight to the point. It was too early for her to engage in small talk.

The man in front of her felt otherwise and did not answer her question. Instead he crossed his arms and sat back in his chair, his eyes remaining on the girl, while he waited expectantly.

Jennie rolled her eyes. If she wanted an answer she’d have to give an answer first.

“I’m okay and aunt Sohee is too. Can you tell me why I’m here now?”

The man sighed leaning forward. He took off his glasses and put them to the side before beginning to explain.

“Well, I’ve talked to some of your teachers to see how you’ve been doing and it’s not looking so good.”

“What else is new?” Jennie said her voice flat and her expression blank.

“Jennie, this is your last year in high school. You can’t be failing all your courses if you want to graduate. I know it’s been hard on you after what happened but – “

“I don’t want to talk about that.” Jennie interrupted.

“And I’m not forcing you to. I’m just saying it’s been a month since the incident and your teachers are getting tired of being lenient. You don’t even seem to be trying.”

Jennie stayed silent not making eye contact with the man. Her gaze was focused on the clasped hands in her lap. He opened his mouth to speak again but Jennie was faster.

“I am trying.”

“Skipping classes and cheating on tests says otherwise. You’ve got to try harder. The only thing you’re passing is vocals. That’s not enough if you want your diploma.”

“All the other classes are so… boring.”

“Not everything in life is fun, Jennie,” he said seriously and paused searching for the right words to continue. “Look, I’m a guidance counselor. My job is to guide you to be successful. I can’t do that if you don’t cooperate. You’re a clever kid, I know you can do this stuff if you actually put some effort in it.”

Jennie sighed letting what her counsellor said sink in for a moment.

“Thanks Mr. Knight, but I don’t think I can do it.”

“Jennie, you’ll never know unless you try. And I know for a fact you haven’t.”

“What do you want me to do then?”

“Actually show up to class and pay attention.”

“I do sometimes. I just don’t understand. It’s just a bunch of mumbo jumbo to me.”

“Then ask for help. You can ask your teachers or your classmates. Hell, you can even ask Google. No one is expecting you to do this alone.”

“Teachers hate me, my classmates are about as helpful as a sack of potatoes and the internet isn’t always right.” Jennie argued, this time looking into Mr. Knight’s eyes as she spoke. He seemed unfazed. 

“You know those are just excuses to get yourself out of doing the work.”

Jennie gave the man a lop-sided smile. “I do.”

“So are you going to consider what I said?”

Jennie let out a heavy breath of air through her nose in defeat. “I guess so.”

***

Taking her counsellor’s advice Jennie had mustered up the courage to ask her teacher for help during her first period class for the day: physics. The teacher seemed surprised but willing to help. She did her best but it didn’t go as well as Jennie had hoped. When she finally understood a concept the teacher would introduce another one and make it confusing all over again. It was all too much and too fast.

“Do you understand it better now?” Mrs. May had asked her.

“Y-yeah thank you.” Jennie had lied and gotten out of the situation as quick as possible.

Asking her teacher was off the list now. She wasn’t of any help and she assumed her other teachers would be the same way. Jennie exhaled deeply, that was enough “putting in effort” for one day.

***

The bell rang signalling the beginning of lunch. The school hallways were in a frenzy with students chatting and laughing with friends heading out in different directions. Some to the cafeteria and others elsewhere.

Jennie navigated her way through the crowd not having a specific location in mind. She spotted Nate and Rosie in the distance and decided to meet up with them.

“Hey guys.”

“Hey, where were you this morning? Thought you were skipping,” Nate asked slipping his cellphone in the back pocket of his jeans.

“Decided I wanted to learn something today.”

Rosie raised her eyebrows. “And how’d that work out?” she asked.

“Not that good.”

“As expected,” Nate grinned. “You’re not going to learn anything at this school.”

“I know, but my guidance counsellor’s making me,” Jennie told him pulling her slipping bac