After I Died, They All Felt Sorry For Me

Ashley applied some ointment to my bruises, her eyes filled with concern.

"Your dad really went too far this time. How long is it going to take for you to heal?"

I didn't respond. I had grown numb to such comments.

I could even predict what she'd say next.

And sure enough, she continued, "You have to understand where we're coming from. Your dad works so hard to support all of us. It's only natural that he'd be upset when you don't do well on your tests. Just try to do better next time, and this won't happen again."

In this mock exam, I had only missed the top score in the class by 15 points.

I was only a few points behind the second and third place.

In fact, my total score was slightly higher than my first test of the year.

But all they cared about was my rank, whether I was number one.

It was not like I could always be first. I was not a genius.

But they'd never understand that.

I just hoped the SAT would come soon.

Another day, in class, the atmosphere in the advanced class was tense.

No one really noticed when I missed a day.

During a break, my deskmate, Lucy White, who I got along with really well, came over and asked, "Hey, you weren't at school yesterday. What happened?"

With the exams approaching, taking a day off was quite unusual.

My layered clothing hid the bruises.

I shook my head. "Just wasn't feeling well."

Lucy, seeing my pale complexion, immediately believed me. "You won't believe it, but Dylan made a point of showing your test paper around yesterday. He bragged about it to the whole class!"

Dylan Moore was our English teacher, a rather smug old fellow.

This time, my English performance was excellent, and I was ranked first in the county for that subject.

But of course, my parents didn't care about that.

Lucy didn't notice my waning spirits and continued, "Even though I dropped a few places in class this time, my overall score went up. My mom's so proud of me that she's taking me to buy some figures this weekend. You have to come with me!"

I smiled and nodded. "Sure."

Her life, her parents—everything about it was something I envied deeply.

Sadly, I would never have that.