Re Marks

That was rough.... Thing to do now is try and forget it.... I guess I don't quite mean that. It's not a thing you can forget. Maybe not even a thing you want to forget.... Life's like that sometimes... Now and then for no good reason a man can figure out, life will just haul off and knock him flat, slam him agin' the ground so hard it seems like all his insides is busted. But it's not all like that. A lot of it's mighty fine, and you can't afford to waste the good part frettin' about the bad. That makes it all bad.... Sure, I know - sayin' it's one thing and feelin' it's another. But I'll tell you a trick that's sometimes a big help. When you start lookin' around for something good to take the place of the bad, as a general rule you can find it. ~From the movie Old Yeller

It’s the last day of the school term. I hadn’t expected the school to release the kids’ tests results that soon as it’s the teachers’ usual practice to let the kids enjoy their holiday before facing the music.

But when Rachel stepped into the house in the afternoon, she couldn’t help but rattled on about her results.

“Mummy, I got the highest marks in Science!” the young lady almost but screeched in my ears.

“Really?” I dropped whatever I was doing and marveled at my precious girl who was always struggling to do well in Science.

“Guess what? I got the highest mark in the Multiple-choice section and the highest in the Open-ended section too!” she was practically hopping up and down, which was a rather amusing sight, considering her size and her usual demure self.

“Oh wow! That was amazing!” I couldn’t contain my excitement too. “How many marks do you get then?”

“I got ninety-four out of a hundred!” Was it her voice that was trembling or myself? It was almost unbelievable!

“Ninety-four? Great Lord! Ninety-four!” It’s my turn to jump up and down and I hoped I wasn’t causing any agony to anyone who was prying at us through our kitchen window.

“By the way, I got seventy-nine for my Chinese,” there was a cheeky smile on her face.

There was a moment of hesitation. I did not miss the mischievous glint in her eyes.

Just as I had expected, she couldn’t bear it any longer and blurted out enthusiastically, “It’s seventy-nine out of eighty!”

To the dismay of those unfortunate prying eyes, the two huge nuggets of fleshy tissues were bouncing up and down again.

“I got seventy-five for my Higher Chinese,” she let the words rush past the thrilled giggles still ringing in the air.

I tried searching her face for any signs of tricks up her sleeves again but found none.

Her face was somber this time as she repeated, “I only got seventy-five percent for my Higher Chinese.”

I was a little disappointed, but her results for the other two papers more than make up for the disappointment.

I couldn’t wait for Angel and Mervin to be back from school in the evening to find out if they’ve gotten their results too. Even before I could pop the question, Angel was babbling away the moment she spotted me.

“Mummy, we got back our Chinese result today,” she chirped. “I got ninety-point-five!”

“Oh wow! That was great!” I was really glad to hear that.

“You know, my teacher even praised me in front of the whole class!” The girl’s face was beaming with pride. “She told the whole class that despite me having missed lessons for a whole week, I still score well for my test!”

“How wonderful!” I gave the girl a deserving hug.

Sensing the unusual silence from Mervin, I turned to him, “Have you got back your paper too?”

The boy nodded absently.

“How many marks did you score?” Judging from his solemn expression, I was prepared for the worst.

“I got seventy-four,” he mumbled.

“Out of eighty?” I was still hoping for a miracle.

“A hundred,” he was staring at an invisible hole on the ground.

“I thought you had told me the paper was easy?” I could feel heat rising.

The poor boy continued to stare at the ground and avoid my piercing stare at all costs. Since I couldn’t kill him with my murderous glare, I switched to drowning him with waves of naggings.

I ought to be counting my blessings. And it did soothe my soreness a little.

But it’ll still take some time for me to heal from the blow.

Ironically, I am expecting more blows to come.