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The Price of Being Careless
The price of being careless.
The night was a cold and soundless one, until the alarm-clock rang and woke me up. I turn it off and open my eyes; without giving it too much thought I set my left feet on the cold floor; stand up and go take a shower.
I head to the kitchen and look at the table, all the books were pilled up on the edge of it, as if they were about to fall. I was too tired to care even if they did, the laptop was safe so I didn´t put too much attention to it.
The coffee pot was half empty but the coffee was old and cold, so I washed it and poured myself some hot new coffee. Grabbed my backpack and left the apartment heading to the university.
I took the 7:00 a.m. buss heading to the university, to be honest, the university is quite close, just a two stops from where I take the buss. But the morning was cold as dead so I didn´t want to walk all the way. Today is my last final exam, thermodynamics, in two more hours I won´t have to stay up late at night studying and wake up early in the morning.
The class is hard and a lot of numbers are involved, but I have managed to get passing grades so far, I just need to pass this exam and I won´t have to be concerned about passing the subject.
At last, I arrive at the university and head to the classroom. As expected, the atmosphere is a gloomy and sad one, you don´t see so many happy faces on final´s week, and the ones you see are from the people who have already given up on their classes. The girls who wore high-hills all semester are now wearing Converse, and the guys that you only see at the gym are now seen at the library.
Now, I´m at the classroom and just about to take the exam.
I´m handed the exam by professor Vale, and I immediately start to answer it.
Just this one test and I finish the semester. Just this one test and I am free.
The test was long, but only had three questions, to get the answer you had to solve from three to four problems within the question. I was tired, slept only 4 hours before the exam but the happiness of being free gave me energy to answer quickly.
On the last question my brain started to hurt, my eyelids became heavy, my energy was running out, but it was just one more. Somehow I answered it, handed in the exam and left. But only to come back in a couple of hours to get my result.
I came back to the classroom to get my grade, I greet Professor Vale and ask for my exam.
The first page was fine, with both questions correct. But the last question was wrong. The procedure was not wrong but only the answer. I forgot to put the decimals!
“Professor Vale, the last question. Could you look at it?” I said with a shaky voice.
“Yes, sure, but I have double checked all the exams. I doubt there is a mistake… Oh, I see what you mean, you just forgot to put the decimals in the final answer. You must have been tired to make this kind of mistake”
“yes yes, that’s precisely it. But see, I did get it right. It was just a silly mistake”
“Silly mistakes are the worst ones. Well, have a nice holydays. I´ll see you next semester” he said with a serious and firm voice. “Unfortunately for you, I´m not changing the grade, so you will get 69 as final grade”. Just with those word he left the classroom.
I couldn´t believe it, just like that, all my efforts during the semester went to nothing. All the nights I didn´t sleep were useless. Just because I was tired and eager to be on vacations I didn´t double checked the exam. If only I had, maybe the holydays would have been more joyful.
