Carter is running through the dark hallways and up the endless flights of stairs trying to beat the worst noise ever; the second bell. His long legs made this task much easier as his short, brown hair got messier as he ran. But before he reached the floor he was going to, the bell’s horrific sound rang through the halls. He sighed as he slowed down to catch his breath and walked to the classroom.
When he reached his classroom he slowly opened the door and walked to his seat. “Carter, where have you been?” asked Carter’s English teacher Mr. Donovan. “I…I had gym class, yeah, and our teacher let us out late.” replied Carter in an unconvincing voice. “Well you’re lucky I haven’t sent the attendance otherwise you would have been considered late,” explained Mr. Donovan. Carter breathed a sigh of relief, because he knew that Mr. Donovan was one of the strictest teachers in the school. The rest of the class went like normal, boring facts about stupid things that went in one ear and out the other. As the period was about to end Mr. Donovan told the class that they had to write a story that is 4-5 pages long and gave them a handout on what they needed to use in their stories.
Carter knew he was going to wait until the last day to do this project but was still mad that he and his classmates had received the project. He was barely getting a B in this class and did not want to go under that because his parents would kill him… or at least punish him. But even though he knew this, Carter did not want to do this project. So when his day was over and he got home, he threw his backpack onto the floor and went to his computer to play with two of his three friends.
Carter turned on his computer and immediately received a call from his best friend Matt. Matt was like Carter in the way that they were the same height and had the same hairstyle and color. Matt was in the same grade and classes as Carter, too. So the first thing Matt said was, “So, gym class huh? Nice excuse.” “Look if I hadn’t fallen down going up the stairs I wouldn’t have been late to class,” replied Carter in an annoyed tone. “It’s not my fault you can’t do simple task like walk upstairs,” chuckled Matt. “Look can we just do something,” moaned Carter. “Sure,” said Matt, still laughing at his joke.
The next month went by like this until there was one week until the project was due. Carter had just realized this and started to panic. And he was such a shy kid that he didn’t want to ask anyone for help. He was so shy that he felt like even inanimate objects like his laptop and huge television would laugh at him whenever he failed at something. Even when he was younger Carter felt alone but had always managed to make at least on friend in his schools. He became friends with Matt in the 5th grade.
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It was four years ago and Carter had just walked into his teachers classroom. Carter sat in his seat when he realized that there was a random kid in the classroom that he had never seen before. The teacher explained that the class had a new student joining them, Matt.
Carter always made better friends with the new kids because they were always more awkward than he was. This made it easier to become friends.
Carter walked up to Matt and welcomed him to the school. They talked at lunch and hung out during recess for a couple months and became best friends. Now they talk whenever they get a chance and sometimes do homework together. They always know who to pick as a partner, each other, and hate it when the teacher does and they don’t become partners. This is because they are both awkward with other kids.
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Carter, still panicking, quickly tried to come up with an idea to write a story suitable for this project. After pacing for a few minutes he decided to write about his best friend Matt. He started immediately and after only 20 minutes had written the title page. He looked at his clock, and then back at his paper and thought, “Wow, I really need to get working on this.”
Carter started at around 9 o’clock in the evening and had to stop at midnight when he was told to go to bed. He woke up the next morning, did his routine, and went to school. He came home did his homework and went to play on his computer, completely forgetting about the project.
At 7 o’clock Matt went off his computer and Carter went to go watch television. It was only at 10 did he realize he did nothing on his project. He decided this might always happen so he put the story on a flash drive so he could do the project in school.
The next day during 5th period, Carter had a free period and went to the library. When he got there he took the one seat left in the room and took a computer, inserted the flash drive, and continued the project. At the end of the period he had finished 2 pages of the project and felt accomplished as he saved the project and left the room.
The next day Carter did the same amount of pages on the project, and it was due the next day. But, Carter wasn’t worried because he had finished the project. Then he remembered that he had to do an explanation on the story and panicked again, because at this point it was 8 o’clock in the evening.
At midnight the explanation was almost done but not yet completed. He had to go to bed but luckily had a free period before his English class so he could finish it then.
When he went to his free the next day he got a seat and a computer and started typing the project. Carter had no idea how he was going to continue this explanation before the next period started though.
As the bell rang signaling the end of the period Carter was just finishing the explanation and hit the print button. He wished the printer wasn’t as slow as molasses as he heard the dreaded second be, meaning he was late for class.
Carter finally got the story out of the printer and ran up the stairs. He burst through the class doors and jumped to his seat. Mr. Donovan did send the attendance, making Carter late. But that didn’t matter to Carter because he had his project to hand in.
About a month later Carter received his project back. He was so surprised by his grade that when he got home he threw the paper on the ground and rushed to his parents to tell them what he had gotten.

And on the paper that was on the ground there was a huge A written in red ink. He ended that class with an A along with an A or A- in all his other classes. Carter’s parents would have been angrier with him, because he was late to class, but he received and A so they ignored it. But they did tell him to manage his time better than he did. Carter changed the habit of waiting ‘till the last second to do a project, too. He made sure to never have to panic to finish a project again.