Courtney ran down the hall, late again, to class. She stopped outside of the door and quickly smoothed her white button down shirt, red and brown plaid skirt and her left knee sock. She hated the uniform, but it was required for the private college.
Unfortunately, she had grown after her parents bought her uniform for this year and the skirt was a bit shorter than it should be and the top was too tight. She opened the door and tried to slip into the back of the room while her teacher had his back turned.
"How nice of you to join us today Miss. Delaney." Mr. Caden said, drawing everyone's attention to her. "I'm sorry...I just..." she tried to think of an excuse, but was cut off "You'll stay after class." He demanded and then quickly got back to the lesson.
Through the two-hour class he didn't make another mention of her tardiness, or her neglect to bring her book to class again. As he finished class and everyone left Courtney tried to slip out, but Mr. Caden called her to his desk just before she left the classroom.
"Why were you late again?" he asked her. Courtney spit out a story about how her roommate had turned off the alarm again and she didn't realize what time it was. Mr. Caden told her to meet him in his office at 2, when her last class of the day ended.
Courtney went through the rest of the day knowing that she was going to be in trouble. Two more demerits and she could lose her scholarship, of course, she was going to lose it anyway if her grades kept slipping. Or worse, what if he called her parents?! Finally the day ended and Courtney went to his office.
"Mr. Caden?" she asked, opening looking into his office door, which was slightly open. Courtney was surprised to see Melissa, one of her classmates, fixing her hair as she hurried out of his office.
Mr. Caden welcomed her in and asked her to shut the door and have a seat. She sat in front of his desk, looking down, straightening her skirt and fidgeting with the two braids in her hair.
"Miss Delaney, do you know what grade you have in my class?" he asked her.
"Um...no" she replied, still looking down, almost afraid to make eye contact with her teacher.
"You are failing. One half of your grade is based on participation, and you do not participate in class." He went on, "Now, I am left with two choices, I can fail you which of course means that I will have to notify your parents and you will lose your scholarship, or..." He paused
"Please! Mr. Caden, I can't lose my scholarship, my parents will kill me!" Courtney said, trying to fight off tears as she bit her bottom lip.
"Then you will have to do some extra credit for participation points." He said, with a small grin on his face.
"Okay, I can write a report or do a presentation or whatever I need to do..."
Courtney felt relieved that she was able to make up for her mistakes with some simple extra credit, but something about the look on Mr. Caden's face worried her.
He asked her what her consequences would be if she failed, and she told him how her family would be very disappointed and would shun her. This college was the only place that she had been accepted. He told her to think about it and decide if she really wanted to pass, and if she did to meet him at 8:00pm.