With a pounding heart, I knocked on the door of the classroom. This was my last chance to go over to the next year.
Let me introduce myself. My name is Julien and I'm 18 years old. I attend a school in Higher General Secondary Education. My grades this year weren't good, and the only way to go over to next year was to convince my French teacher to let me look into all of my tests from this year so that I could maybe find a checking mistake.
The deadline for her to change my grades was tomorrow. The day after tomorrow would be the day that the school would call you to tell you if you passed this year or not. And if it stayed like this I definitely wouldn't.
Ms. Mercier was 26 years old. She was a very attractive woman and was also very ambitious. She really wanted to succeed as a teacher and never really departed from the rules. That's why I didn't really have a lot of hope when I knocked on the door.
"Come in," I heard her say. I opened the door and nervously walked towards the desk she was sitting behind. "Hey Julien, can I help you with something?" she asked. "Yes actually you can," I said.
I explained to her what my problem was and told her that she was the last person who could help me. She must have heard how desperate and nervous I sounded because I was actually shaking a bit.
"Well, I'm really sorry for you," Ms. Mercier said, "but there isn't a lot I can do for you. All the tests are still at my house and there is no school tomorrow. So unless you want to come by at my house tomorrow there is nothing I can do for you."
Of course, I felt very relieved when she said that. She told me to be at her house at 12 P.M and she gave me her address.
The next day I ringed her doorbell at exactly 12 P.M. Ms. Mercier opened the door and let me in. There wasn't anybody else in the house. I had no idea if Ms. Mercier had a husband or boyfriend but I couldn't see a ring on her finger. She led me to the dinner table where I saw a stack of papers waiting for me.
As I started to look into the tests in the hopes I could discover a mistake, she offered me something to drink.
"I'd like a cup of coffee, please," I said.
I asked for coffee because I knew that would take her some time. I had a pen in my pocket so I could adjust some of my answers. Unfortunately, she could clearly see me while standing in the kitchen so I didn't even get a chance to cheat.
The next thirty minutes I spend looking into all the French tests that I made this year. I discovered two mistakes but after calculating I found out that I needed to find at least one more mistake in order to pass this year. But I had already gone through all of the tests.
"And was it enough," I heard her ask.
"No," I said with big disappointment.
"That's too bad," she replied.
"Isn't there anything else you could do for me, Ms. Mercier?" I nearly begged her.
"I believe I have done enough for you already, boy," she said.