Prompt: Person A fails and Person B tries to help them.
Lexa has been worried about her grades for a long period of time. Sure, that sounds like a stupid thing to be worried about, but she had very strict parents. They always enrolled her in the highest level of classes and always expected her to get perfect marks. They expected her to go to the best university in their area. They expected her to be exactly like her genius sister Anya.
They should just realize it would never happen.
Lexa was not naturally gifted like her sister was. She had to work very hard in her academic level classes, and even still she did not get A's. She was lucky to get a low B. Her parents pushed her too much and she snapped under the pressure so many times, but they never seemed to care. By grade 12, she simply stopped caring. She bullshit her way through school and lied about her grades to her parents, then accepted any punishment given to her if they found out.
Now it was report card pickup day and she was so anxious she thought she would burst.
Lexa silently opened her car door and exited the vehicle. There weren't many students at school yet since you could pick up the report cards from 9AM until 1PM, but her parents forced her to get her 'amazing' grades bright and early.
The brunette trudged through the school to get to her homeroom. There a gloomy air throughout the entire school. She saw kids lurking around the halls with their friends, some looking joyful and others looking downright distraught. That will be me soon, Lexa thought. As long as a graduate...
When she finally arrived to room 307 she opened the door and walked to the teachers desk with a calm facade. Her teacher, Mr. Kane, looked at her with a sympathetic gaze. She ignored it, picked up her envelope with her report card, and left the room as quickly as possible.
Lexa booked it back to her car and slammed the door shut. She looked at the orange envelope in her hands and shut her eyes. She took a deep breath and reopened them. She shakily pulled at the tab of the envelope and ripped it open. The brunette slid the papers out and threw the envelope on the backseat behind her. Lexa took a breath to calm the butterflies in her stomach and finally looked down at her marks.
English : 70%
History : 58%
Biology : 42%
Lexa's eyes widened. Her heart stopped and breath was caught in her throat. She couldn't breathe. She reread the line over and over to make sure she didn't just read it incorrectly.
42. 42. 42. 42.
She failed. She fucking failed biology.
Her parents were going to kill her.
After stalling her return home for three hours, she finally stopped in one of the tunnels for the creeks. She checked her phone quickly and saw that she had a lot of missed calls and new messages. A lot were from her parents but she saw a couple notifications from her older sister.
Lexa grit her teeth and threw her phone at the wall in a rage. She heard a loud crack and pieces of the device flew off. She ripped up her papers and threw the pieces of paper into the tunnel. They scattered around the floor and most fell into the water, being washed away. Her breathing was erratic and heavy. She started shaking and the brunette felt tears forming in her eyes. She was scared. But she had nothing else to do anymore.
The teen carefully reached into the inner pocket of her flannel and took out the pocket knife she got from her older cousin two years prior.
'Only use this if you really need to, alright?'
Oh she needed it, but not for the reasons he probably thought. She failed her parents. She fucked up and they'll probably beat her ass for it.
Lexa rolled up her sleeve and tested the sharpness of the knife. Without adding too much pressure, she ran the blade across her wrist. Droplets of blood started to come from the cut, but not too much. It's been too long.
She pressed the blade a bit harder the second time. And a little more the third. And the forth.
But they weren't deep enough.
She gripped the handle of her pocket knife tighter. With shaky hands, she lowered the knife over her veins and pressure until-
"Hey!"
Lexa dropped the knife. She whipped her head in the direction of the voice. At the entrance of the tunnel stood a blonde girl with a cigarette between her fingers and a small bad over her shoulder.
She's really pretty...
Shut up, Lexa.
"Well? Are you going to answer me?"
Lexa blinked and snapped out of her thoughts. "Uh...sorry?"
The blonde sighed. "I asked you what you are doing in my tunnel."
"Oh..." Lexa looked down at her arm "I was...um..."
The girl took a few steps closer and her eyes widened. "Holy fuck, are you okay?"
She rushed towards the brunette, dropped the cigarette, and grabbed her hand to pull Lexa's wrist closer to her. The blonde took the bag off her shoulder and pulled out a bottle of water. She poured some water on the cuts then tugged off her thin jacket. She carefully folded it to lightly wrap around her wrist.
The entire time, Lexa stared at the girl questioningly. Why did she bothering doing this? Lexa was a complete stranger.
The blonde let out a calming sigh. "Sorry. I'm Clarke." She held out a hand and Lexa cautiously shook it with her uninjured hand. "I'm in med school so I guess my medical instincts just took over," She laughed.
Lexa was still looking at her bright blue eyes. Clarke ran a hand through her hair and sat down a foot away from the brunette. She crossed her legs and looked into the brunettes green eyes.
"So," Clarke shifted on the floor, "What's your problem?"
Lexa just stared at her, mouth slightly open. "Umm...uhhhh..."
"Look," Clarke shuffled a little bit closer, eyes focused on the cuts, "You can't do it again."
Lexa looked away from the blonde beauty, which was the only way she could talk in complete sentences. "You don't understand."
Clarke laughed humorlessly. "Care to explain it then?"
Lexa huffed and turned away, yanking her injured arm back towards herself. She was acting like a little kid, but she didn't care. The blonde looked around the tunnel again, eying the destruction around her. "Report card?
Lexa glared at her. Clarke laughed. "Strict parents?"
The brunette was eying her cautiously now. "What would you know?"
Clarke huffed. "My mom. She has strict schedules for me and wants to know about everything in my life." Lexa turned away.
"You can't just run away because of a bad mark."
Lexa whipped her head back to face Clarke. "What would you know?" She repeated angrily. She stood up shakily and glared down at the other girl. "I failed. I failed high school. My parents are going to fucking kill me. They expect so much from me and I'm just not smart enough for them! I'm gonna be labelled as the failure in the family!"
Yelling at the girl made her run out of breath. She was huffing and her hands were balled up and trembling at her sides. Clarke sighed and rose from the ground. She brushed her pants off and stood at her full height getting in Lexa's face. She was an inch or so shorter than Lexa, but Lexa still shifted backwards a little.
"Like I said, so what? So you failed a grade, big whoop. You can take summer school. You can go back a year. It doesn't matter." Clarke tilted her head to the side. "You're probably a very intelligent girl."
Lexa scoffed and crossed her arms, slightly wincing at the pressure against her forearm. "Intelligent? Look at my grades."
"You're more than just your grades."
Lexa chuckled humorlessly, "Not in my family."
Clarke crossed her arms too and glared at the brunette. "Then screw your family; they aren't worth your time. If they can't look past your grades and if they could have realistic expectations, then they sound like fucking idiots."
This time when Lexa laughed, it was true. She laughed and didn't notice the tears falling down her face until Clarke pulled her into a tight hug and started whispering how it was okay, and that she'll be alright.
Lexa choked out an I'm sorry. Clarke just told her to shut up for a minute and breathe because her grades did not define who she was, and it didn't matter that she didn't graduate. It didn't change anything, and if her parents couldn't look past this they didn't deserve her.
I honestly don't really like how I wrote this and I didn't really edit it but I am very stressed about not graduating so let me pour my feelings out pls