By: Kierra Hamby and Natalee Tygard
Hello, Readers! This is our common interest post! We were paired up because we both had a passion for writing. Together we wrote this short story.
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Amber sat there, staring blankly at the wall as she heard the murmurs of her teacher’s voice. She was listening to her science teacher, Ms. Grimer, explain a unit test coming up soon and what was to be expected from it. It wasn’t like Amber cared, it was just…boring to her. She figured since she had been learning everything from the unit so far, she would just study for it a bit later. Surely, she wouldn’t need to remember the expectations from Ms. Grimer now? She felt a tap on her shoulder and looked over at her friend, Sage Monroe. Amber looked over at her, curious, and finally out of her own head.
“Hey Amber, have you received a study packet yet? Ms. Grimer told us earlier to grab one.” Sage whispered to Amber. Amber’s eyes widened, when was that said? She hadn’t been listening to the lecture. Maybe she could grab it on the way out? It would be awfully rude to get up in the middle of a lecture. She looked around the brightly lit classroom and saw the small stack of papers on a wooden table near the front of the room. She made a mental note of the situation, and planned to grab it after Ms. Grimer was done speaking.
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After school, Amber made her way down the school’s front lawn of dry, burned grass to the bright yellow bus that was loudly idling as it waited for its passengers. The bus ride to her house was uneventful, as usual. She watched out the window covered in fingerprints as the colorful houses blurred together, until her own came into focus.
When the bus came to a stop, she quickly stood and exited as the flimsy door swung out. She casually walked up to the red front door as she slung her cosmic backpack around her shoulder. She pushed the door open and saw her dad in the kitchen, already cooking dinner and her mom was on a business call in the living room. “How was school, honey?” Her dad asked from his spot at the stove. “It was okay,” she replied as she made her way up the creaky, carpeted stairs to her bedroom. On her way down the hallway, she walked past her brother’s door and heard the loud noises coming from his video games. She walked into her room and hung her backpack over her purple desk chair. She sat down on her bed and sighed. Then her dad shouted from downstairs, “Dinners ready!”
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After dinner, she went to her bedroom to work on her homework, but that was when she saw the study packet that she managed to awkwardly grab before she left class. That was when she remembered the test. She set the packet aside and decided she would just study later. She felt pretty confident about the unit they just covered, so she figured this test wouldn’t be too bad. Right?
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A few hours later, Amber finished brushing her teeth and headed down the dark hallway into her room again. She felt the exhaustion of the day weigh heavy on her shoulders. She plumped herself on her full-sized bed and stared up at the white ceiling with a sigh, looking over at her desk, which still had the dim light of the lamp on from when she was doing her homework. Her eyes then traced to the packet that laid on the edge of the desk, hidden away from the light.
Amber felt her heart drop at the sight, knowing that she hadn’t written a word on it. The more she stared blankly at the stack of papers, the more she felt her chest tighten with the anxiety of doing them. Between her physical state of tiresome and her mental state of exhaustion; she asked herself: “Should I do it?” She then took a deep sigh and contemplated for a moment. I know this. She told herself. She could fill it out really fast in the morning with the knowledge that she holds. So, she rolled over, took a deep sigh, and distracted her whirling thoughts of the test and school by closing her eyes and resting.
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The next morning, Amber woke up to the sound of her brother bustling about outside her door. It was only 10 minutes before her alarm clock would wake her, so she let it slide, but was really annoyed by his inconsiderate behavior. She got up, her head still foggy and tired, and lazily grabbed the papers off her desk before putting them in her bag. When she got to the dreaded packet, she paused for a moment before rolling her eyes. Her mind wasn’t as clear as it needed to be to make the decision of to be or not to be, so she just shoved it in there with everything else. Then she did her usual morning routines and left for school.
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Amber found herself in Ms. Grimer’s class once again, her head finally clearing up after 3 periods of nonsense. She immediately felt her mind cloud the minute she saw the words written on the board: UNIT TEST TODAY! She had forgotten all about it in the scramble of events that occurred, and never even studied! She sat down nervously, feeling her breath grow unsteady by anxiety.
“Alright class! You’ll need all the time you need so I won’t keep you long, but: I hope you did your study packets! It goes over everything I went over yesterday, but in greater detail! Now, as soon as you receive your test, you may begin. I will now hand out the papers!” Ms. Grimer announced to the class in the booming ecstatic voice the young teacher usually presumed. Amber dreaded those words with every ounce she had in her body. She shakily breathed in and sighed, deciding that it was probably best to just talk to Ms. Grimer after class. She shouldn’t have these thoughts distracting her more than they already have. So, she put her head down and went to work.
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The bell rang for the next period, but Amber knew it wasn’t that far. So, she went up to Ms.Grimer’s desk. She hoped she could clear things up with her and maybe lessen the consequences of her procrastination by consulting her. She felt Ms. Grimer’s eyes look at her with curiosity and felt that sense of anxiety yet again.
“Hello Ms. Harkley, shouldn’t you be going to class?” Ms. Grimer asked with a peak of curiosity.
“Well yeah but…I just wanted to say that…I didn’t have the chance to do my study packet, or study. I’m sorry-”
“Oh, I see.” Ms. Grimer interrupted for a moment before a silence fell over for a moment. “Well, there isn’t much I can do about it. I would hate to see it affect your grade, but it is what it is. Just remember to make some time next time, okay? We will talk more tomorrow.”
“Oh, um, okay…I’ll get going then. Thanks for talking with me.” Amber exclaimed in a hushed voice before making her way out. She felt that the conversation didn’t go as well as she would’ve liked, but how else could it have gone? Somehow, it still lifted a weight off of Amber’s shoulders to talk about it. She reflected on her decisions very carefully as she made her way through the rest of the day. Next time, she would make sure to not put off her studying– maybe she wouldn’t feel as miserable or anxious when she is confident in her ability to study for a test.
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“You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.”–Abraham Lincoln
“The greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started.”– Dawson Trotman
“My advice is to never do tomorrow what you can do today. Procrastination is the thief of time.”–Charles Dickens
Citation: Scott, S. J. “117 Procrastination Quotes to Stop Being Lazy in Life.” Develop Good Habits, 26 Oct. 2022, www.developgoodhabits.com/procrastination-quotes.
