The Stallion and the Test
"You have the rest of the class period to finish. If I catch you talking or peaking, I will immediately rip your test up and you will have a zero." Said the teacher, a slightly bulky young unicorn with blue fur and a light brown short mane. Spectacles lay on his nose, a red tie hanging by his chest along with a blazer that ended by his belly.
I can't believe Mr. V is making us take another test. We just only finished a unit, not to mention my grades are bombing. Failing this test can mean failing this class.
"You may begin."
I watch with disdain as he sits behind his desk, leaning back in the chair.
I stare at the test with undisguised disgust. Dear Celestia I hate math. I rock around in my chair a bit, making a slight croaking noise.
Weather Shine, the mare who sits next to me, stops and slams her pencil down.
She brushes her long black mane out of her eyes as she fixes me with an icy blue look.
"Bruh." She whispered over to me as I kept rocking.
I stare into her eyes and fix my red hair in the reflection. "Don't move I'm doing a thing." I whisper back.
She groans heavily and looks away before I can tame that damn cowlick.
Be like that, I think to myself. I look back at the test and contemplate the first answer. It's obviously trig or something. Maybe calc? I dunno I don't pay attention in this class. Find X? Why don't you find all the fucks I give.
I notice the ink on the page is clear. It is with crisp perfection. I level my head on the desk to look closer at it. Wow, tests make me a philosopher. Is that a word? I think it is...
I ponder what printer could've printed the sheet. Then I remember printers don't exist still for some reason.
Dammit. I lean back in my chair and resent the test even more. Like seriously. Why should we have to take tests?? It's not like these tests do anything for us in life.
Like seriously. Can you imagine some big manager handing his workers a test on calculus? Build me a house! he would say.
Useless stupid tests. They're only here to make us miserable.
I can see me right now, standing up and slamming the stupid test on Mr. V's desk. I don't give two shits about your stupid test! I would yell. He would be dumbfounded and comebackless.
I bullshit my way through the first page, marking random letters as I go. Weather Shine puts her pencil down and flips the paper around so no one can copy off of her.
What a fucking goody-goody. A hot fucking goody-goody though. I can't believe she's already done.
I flip to the next page as loudly as I can, letting the other bitches in this class know I'm better than them.
I wonder if I can see through her paper at her answers. After all, Weather Shine never failed a single test. I realize I haven't really been taking advantage of that.
I guess she noticed me staring because she reached out with one pink hoof and moved it to the other side of her desk.
She still stares at me with an icy blue look that can cut diamonds.
I shrug and smile awkwardly, turning away and focusing on my test.
Then it hit me; I can do this if I believe in myself. I can pass this class and go to Marvard or some shit like that. I can prove I'm smarter than the average male.
Then I see question six and all those thoughts vanish. I sigh and bullshit my way through page two as well.
Mr. V is always getting mad at me for always doing something other than pay attention to his lectures. I don't know why he's gotta be so mean about it though. Not like I come here by choice.
He even sent me to the principal's office once because he asked why I even show up to school, to which I replied truthfully, "because my parents will be prosecuted if I don't."
Fuck this education system. Foals grow up, hungry for knowledge that can help them in the real world. But when they're forced everyday to go to school, they stop wanting to learn. I've heard about stories from my parent's school adventures, and I gotta say that they had it easy. Now a foal's intelligence is based on the fucking numbers that show up on their report card.
They could be fucking geniuses in music, but fail a math class and have to be reclassified.
If I was leader of the education system, I would see the strongest subject the student exceeds in and focus on that. If the kid sucks at History but is great at English, then I would have them study it.
But, like I said, all we do is learn shit that applies to no one in the future.
I sigh and bullshit my way through the last page, slamming the stupid packet shut and pushing it to the furthest corner away from me.
This is why ponies like I shouldn't take tests. All we do is think about life and find ways to resent this shit until we get bored and blame the piece of paper in front of us for our failure.
***
"I can't say I'm not disappointed, Chicken Feather. I had hoped you studied." Mr. V said as he passed my test back to me. A large 59% marked in red circled the paper in front of me.
"I'm surprised you're surprised." I mutter, just a tiny bit audible. If Mr. V heard it, he didn't show it.
Of course Weather Shine passed with a hundred percent. When does she not?
I don't know what came over me that day, but something drove me forward as I slid my notebook in my pack, shouldered it on, and left. I just left.
I dropped out of school a week later.