Anxiously tapping my foot, I looked at the clock for the tenth time in just two minutes.

Only three minutes left… I thought to myself. I’m never gonna be able to finish this test in three minutes…

Sometimes, it seemed like our teachers were conspiring against us. Whenever we had a math test, we always had a science test. Whenever we had an English test, we had a social studies test, a PE test, and so on.

Of course, the ‘math’ test earlier that day had been easier than pie, but this test was tough. I’ve always gotten bad grades in science. How the heck am I supposed to know what element is formed when Carbon is fused with Oxygen?

After sitting there making no progress on the second problem for the remaining three minutes, the bell finally rang, signaling to get our stuff from our lockers and go home for the weekend.

“Hand me your tests as you leave! I’ll see you all on Monday,” the teacher, Mr. Williamson, said.

As I handed my test to him, I tried to be as quick as possible to escape the room, but, unfortunately, he noticed what little progress I had made.

“Mark, go to your locker and come back to my room. I need to talk to you.”

I froze. Dang it. Quickly, I turned around and started to protest as the two or three students behind me walked out of the room, handing Mr. Williamson their tests as they left.

“No, please, I have a… thing!”

“A thing, huh? Sounds important.” Smirking, he leant toward me slightly. “Who are you taking?”

“Wha- How did you…”

“When you’ve been teaching as long as I have, you start to see patterns, something you probably can relate to through video games. Anyway, go get your stuff from your locker and come back here.”

“Okay…” I sighed. Slowly but surely, I walked to my locker. As I got my stuff out, Levi approached me.

“Hey there, pony-lover! How’s it going?”

“Not now, Levi. I have important business to take care of.”

Laughing, he made his comeback. “Yeah, and that affects me in what way, exactly?”

I groaned. “Levi, I told you, I’m not in the mood.”

Levi’s expression changed dramatically to a frown. “Meet me outside at the front of the school in 30 minutes. Or else.”

I snorted. “Or else what?”

“Or else I’ll…” Levi thought for a moment. Suddenly, his face lit up with an evil grin. He approached me slowly. “Or else I’ll beat up Rarity.” He said the mare’s name slowly, as if to keep me in suspense.

“You even touch her, and I swear, I’ll-.”

“You’ll what?” Taking my lack of response as a lack of threat, he continued. “That’s what I thought. You have 30 minutes to do what you want.” He then walked off.

After I gathered my stuff up, I walked back to the science room. Upon seeing me, Mr. Williamson greeted me back with one short sentence: “Congratulations, you have the lowest grade in the class!”

“Is that it?”

“Yeah, just come in for tutoring after school every day next week. On Friday, we'll decide where to go next.”

“Thanks, Mr. Williamson. I really appreciate that you’re not making me do this today. I have… a lot of stress, suddenly.”

“It’s not a problem. It’s actually a problem that I technically have to bring you in for tutoring. I could be playing Starcraft, but, no, you students have to do so poorly on the- erm… you can go…”

“Yeah…” Getting up from my seat, I moved the chair back to the table I borrowed it from and walked hastily out of the room.

The last thing I heard Mr. Williamson say was, “And time to grade homework… Actually, no, I’ll just play Starcraft.”

Now running down the hall, I checked my watch. 3:05. Crap! I need to get out there! I quickly broke into a sprint, knowing Rarity was almost certainly still out front and Levi was out there.

As I ran, my best friend, Jacob, came up beside me. “Hey, I was wondering where you were. Why are you running?”

“Not right now, Jacob.”

“Fine. Can I borrow a quarter?”

“Why?”

“I have three quarters, and I need one more to buy some milk,” he answered, pointing at the milk machine along the wall of the main hallway.

Sighing, I pulled out my wallet and dug out a quarter.

“Here,” I said, dumping a quarter into his hand.

“Thanks. I’ll pay you back soon.” He walked off to the machine.

I quickly started running back down the main hall. In front of me, the janitor was testing out his new extendable mop. He had it extended to the longest length, which appeared to be several meters. Having no time to waste, I quickly jumped over it.

The front door was so close now… Outside, I saw Levi slowly approach Rarity, who was completely oblivious to him. No! I’m too slow! I dropped all of my stuff on the floor right there and ran at my highest speed, maybe faster, into the door… but not through it.

Having slammed into the door, I looked up to see that I had tried to leave the building through the entrance door. Quickly, I ran to the exit door and shoved it open. I leaped into the air to tackle Levi. As I flew through the air, I saw him growing larger and larger. Yes! I’m going to hit him!

Rarity turned around just in time to see me flying at Levi. As I flew closer, it appeared more and more like I was going to hit him, until my momentum failed me. I slowed down and plummeted three feet to the ground, face-planting when I got there.

“Mark!” Rarity yelped. She galloped over to me to see if I was alright. I looked up to see Levi cracking his knuckles as he began to run at Rarity. Suddenly, Levi stopped. He looked as if he’d been hit by something. He fell over, revealing Jacob behind him, walking towards him to pick up the milk bottle.

“Wait, how did you buy a bottle of milk and walk a quarter of the way around the school in the amount of time it took me to get to the front by sprinting down the main hall? Did I hit that door harder than I thought I did?” I rubbed my head, feeling for any bumps.

Jacob shrugged. “Track, I guess. All I know is that Levi still owes me five bucks from the field trip last month, and if he’s not gonna give it to me, I’m gonna have to take it myself.”

Rarity giggled. “Now I see why the two of you are such great friends, Mark. He is quite like you.”

“If by “a lot like me,” you mean “not really at all like me,” then, yeah, I guess he is a lot like me. We get along well, but we’re not really like each other.”

“Oh, hey, there’s a twenty in here!”

I drew my attention back to Jacob just in time to see him pull a twenty out of Levi’s wallet.

“Hey, do you have any paper out?” I asked Jacob quickly.
“Yeah, it just so happens I do,” he replied, pulling a notepad and pen out of his left pocket. “Here.”

I took the supplies and wrote down a quick little message for Levi. I ripped it off the notepad and slipped it into his wallet, handing Jacob his pen and notepad back.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Jacob.”

“See you.” He quickly put Levi’s wallet back into Levi’s pocket as a teacher walked out.

“So, Rarity, are you still up for a movie?”

“Oh, of course! That would be wonderful. Do you have any idea what movie we should see?”

“We can just decide when we get there.”

“Well, what you choose doesn’t matter to me.”

“Well, shall we go then?” I suggested.

“Of course,” Rarity replied, smiling.

And so, I walked off towards the movie theater with a pony with the feeling I was forgetting something, the worry of having to stay after school for tutoring, and, of course, security in the fact that Levi would read the following sentences the next time he wanted to buy a soda:

If you’re wondering what happened to your money, it was confiscated by the police as evidence of your attack on a large group of students.

Also, your mother has been arrested.

Author's Note

I know, this chapter isn't as funny as the previous ones, especially the first one, but it's more of just a setup for future chapters. Firstly, Chapter 4, obviously, which, I think it's safe to reveal, is going to be the date.
Also, of course, the tutoring sessions, the note they left in Levi's wallet...