Rimmer was sat, tapping his pencil on the desk in the library, trying to do his English essay. It seemed very unfair to Rimmer that the other boys in his class could quickly scribble something down 5 minutes before class and pass, and he could spend 5 hours, working his socks off only to recieve a fail.

Rimmer groaned as he glanced at his watch, the Librarian would kick him out in an hour, he had to work fast.

'Write about the greatest day of your life' that was his essay topic. Rimmer had broken out into a cold sweat when Mr. Marten had announced the topic, he didn't have 'a greatest day' of his life, he had contemplated writing about the day he had met Elizabeth, but he quickly dismissed the idea, feeling it to be too personal, and something that he wanted to keep a secret.

"I'm still waiting for the greatest day of my life to happen," said Rimmer quietly, his pale eyes lit up as a thought struck him. Why not write about not having 'a greatest day of your life', okay it wasn't the topic that he was asked to do, but Rimmer felt that if he put every once of effort he had, he might be able to get a low pass, or at the least a high fail. He put pencil to paper and began to write.

I am still waiting for the greatest day of my life to happen, but when it does it won't be me winning the lottery, getting a beautiful girlfriend, or buying a sports car, it will be something much more simple and it will go like this. Firstly I'd wake up, and after having a peaceful breakfast, I'd go to my lessons, and be told that I have passed them all, not with top marks, not with 'flying colours' but just passed them, which for me, is good enough. I'll then have a nice school day, and by nice I mean having no one calling me names or tripping me up. I'd just be left alone to do my own thing, and maybe someone might come over and talk to me, and want to be my friend. At the end of the school day, I'll go outside where my mum and dad will be waiting to pick me up, they'll hug and kiss me, and tell me that they love me. We'd drive home, where my three brothers John, Frank and Howard will be waiting for me, they'll give me a pat on the back and a 'welcome home' and we'd then play catch in the garden

When Rimmer signed his name at the bottom, his hand was aching, and his eyes were drooping. He looked at the piece of paper, covered in his tiny writing and smiled. It was a little bit scruffy, he'd crossed out bits, there were loads of spelling mistakes and there were a couple of tear drops when Rimmer had got a bit upset, but other then that, it was perfect.

As Rimmer packed up his things, he thought about whether he'd get a pass or not, the essay he wrote wasn't the same as the topic, but he'd tried his hardest on it, and that was all that mattered.

Later that day, after he'd handed in his English essay to a very shocked Mr. Marten, Rimmer had maths, things were going well, but as always something had to go wrong.

"Right, I've got to go find the extra calculators for Miss Smith, just get on with your work quietly, and no messing around" shouted Mr Johnston, walking out of the room, glaring at his maths class.

Rimmer felt the colour drain out of his face, whenever the teacher left the room, the class would turn on Rimmer. He gripped his pencil with sweaty hands, and stared at his work till it blurred out of focus. He hoped that if he stayed as quiet as he could, didn't move or draw any attention to himself, they'd leave him alone. They didn't. "Hey, Bonehead" Rimmer jumped at the sound of his infamous nickname,

"Hey, Bonehead" The new boy, who Rimmer found out was called, Brian Lawson, came storming over to Rimmer's desk, "I over heard the head teacher say he found you asleep on the school steps, on the first morning back of school" he paused, checking to see if he had a sufficient audience "what's the matter, parents finally got rid of you?"

"Leave me alone," mouthed Rimmer,

"What, Bonehead" asked Brian, grinning "didn't quite catch that, Bonehead, could you repeat that please, BONEHEAD!"

"leave me alone" said Rimmer,

"you telling me what to do now, Bonehead,?" Rimmer only half noticed the class, gathering round him and Brian, eagerly awaiting a fight,

"no" said Rimmer weakly, "I just want you to leave me alone"

"well I don't want to, Bonehead!"

Slowly, the class began to chant 'Bonehead, Bonehead, Bonehead' getting louder and louder and louder, and louder, till Rimmer couldn't take it any more, he leapt up from his desk, knocked Brian out of the way, barged past Mr Johnston who was just walking in the door, and ran down the corridor.

"Rimmer" he yelled angrily, while the class all scrambled back to their desks, "get back here now!"

Rimmer didn't go back, he didn't even look back, he carried on running, until he got the boys bathroom, and he raced inside and shut the door, and sat against it. He was shaking in anger and fear, tears soaked his face.

"why can't they just leave me alone" asked Rimmer to no one in particular, he got up, and walked over to the sinks that lined the wall, he looked into the mirror.

He saw the face that his parents loathed.

He saw the face that bullies loved to torture.

He saw the face that made his teachers snarl.

He saw the face that everyone hated.

His face.

Rimmer let out a scream and began to bash the mirror as hard as he could. His fists screamed in pain, but Rimmer kept going, with every hit, his anger was realised, but his body was creating more and more anger.

As fast as he was realising it, his body was creating more of it, so the pain was building up, everything bad that had ever happened to Rimmer was coming back to haunt him,

The day John broke his train set on purpose and blamed it on Rimmer.

The day his father broke Rimmer's arm, hitting him too hard,

The week he had no meals for failing a maths test,

The day he missed out on the chance of telling Elizabeth how he felt.

Rimmer gave a final scream, and hit the mirror with an otherworldly force, the mirror shattered into a million pieces and rained onto the tiled floor.

Rimmer stood staring at the wall that had held the mirror. All he saw was his life stretching in front of him,

Another 3 years of school,

Another 5 years before he could move out of his parent's house,

His work life, which lasted 47 years, sometimes more.

47 years working with people who will probably hate him as much as the students do now.

Then there was retirement, which will be lonely, and dull.

Rimmer was expected the live 85 years, he's only lived 13, his life was stretching out in front of him, a life, alone, and finally dying, old, unloved and depressed.

Rimmer cried, and looked down into the sink, a thin shard of glass blinked up at him,

'go on' it purred encouragingly 'it's the only way Rimmer, the only way you can truly be happy!'

He gingerly picked the glass up from the sink, he turned it over in his hands, it was smooth, it caught the light, and it seemed to beg to be used. With shaking hands he held the glass over his wrists. A weak smile stretched over Rimmer's lips as the glass sliced through the delicate flesh on each wrist, and he let out a little laugh as the blood began to trickle out...