July 4, Friday

-:-:-:-:-

There was a theory about how multiple universes formed continuously and endlessly as time passed. Their formation might be through the collapse of giant stars - the birth of black holes. While the idea was so farfetched, one particular high school student desperately believed in it.

Maybe I'm not as stupid in another universe.

"Oh, I really can't believe that guy got first place again! You should have seen his smug face! I'm the one who's supposed to be smug this time!"

Desperately, desperately. She would cling to that theory for as long as it was convincingly proved otherwise.

"That teacher is just so unfair! Can you believe that she gave me a ninety-five instead of a hundred? I perfectly followed the recipe that she assigned to me! It was even the first time that nothing exploded as I cooked!"

Mai thought that maybe if she killed herself now, she might live a shame-free life in another universe.

"I was this close to taking that top spot! Just one – one - point!"

Yes, she thought. Maybe she would kill herself.

"I wouldn't get that scholarship anymore. No, scratch that. I wouldn't even get accepted into the university!"

Certainly, she would curl into a ball of nothingness later, muttering profanities at herself as she pulled all her hair out five strands at a time. Maybe she would die that way.

"Then I won't have a job, and then I'll live off of the leftover food I scavenge from trash cans, and then I'm gonna have to marry a monkey - "

"Why do you have to marry a monkey?"

It's decided then. She's going to kill herself.

"I wouldn't have any other choice, would I?"

"What if the monkey didn't want to?" Mai's bus buddy said, reading his crumpled map as he did.

"Then I'm gonna marry a dog instead."

"Same thing. What if the dog didn't wa -"

"Fine. I'll die alone."

The young man shrugged and said nothing in return.

A very, very pregnant pause filled the air as Mai fumed in her seat. She wasn't mad at the person beside her, she was mad at everyone else. The test results were announced the day before, and it took about three or four of her classmates to restrain her from assaulting the student who, once again, got first place.

Mai did not have a violent nature, but the look in that student's eyes really drove her over the edge.

"What do I do with myself now?" she asked herself. She covered her eyes with a palm to conceal the angry tears that threatened to fall.

"That's a stupid question," her neighbor said, his tone condescending. "And you're exaggerating."

"But it's true!" Mai indignantly exclaimed, lifting her arms in frustration. "I wouldn't be able to enter that university with my low grades!"

"You're an idiot to think that," he said, rolling his heavily bagged eyes. "Didn't you say that you're second in class?"

Mai opened her mouth to spring out another enraged cry, but she was interrupted when the bus stopped for the third time while the operator called twice. She stood up and huffed in exasperation when the young man's legs were still in the way. She brashly excused herself and stomped all the way out the door.

Bus number 42 skidded away the moment the girl stepped off, and she stood there for a long while. Her locked muscled refused to budge as she stared incredulously into space.

If I kill myself now, I hope I'll be mute in next universe I go to.

-:-:-:-:-

A/N: Voilà. Tell me what you think! Thanks always for reading! :)