We open in a small town where high school students are rushing out of school on a cool Friday afternoon; ready to enjoy their spring break. As the school empties of life there is a lone corner of the library where a young man is still working hard on a paper determining his right to graduate. The young man focuses on the computer screen and types, greatly concerned his writing will not be good enough to pass the rough standards required. The young man is Hard of Hearing and even though he’s brilliant, he is having a hard time passing his writing exams. He types on, reading and rereading, trying his best to catch any mistakes he’s made. Changing and fixing and no matter how hard he tries, it’s still wrong! Frustration is fighting with depression to take control of his mind. Tears invade his vision and he’s chewed on his lower lip so much it begins to bleed. All the students are gone from the school, gone to start spring break. Not him… Even after he is able to leave this one paper in a box of authority he got the golden ticket to come to a class during spring break and write another paper. He’s worked so hard… his grades are close to perfect… his future depends on this paper, and if he cannot pass it he won’t graduate. No matter how high his GPA, no matter how many classes he’s passed… it all depends on these tests. His life hangs in the claws of a young hearing teacher who hates her job. His future depends on this one woman who sits at her desk and cries because she is so unhappy doing what she’s doing. She sits daydreaming of a different life while students fight to succeed in a swim upstream to graduation. The young man saves his paper again and catches a sentence he wrote, “The girl went to their father and ask for a money.” Damn! He knows it’s wrong, but he doesn’t know how to fix it. He looks around for help, but knows he’d be risking it all if an adult were to help - even with one little sentence. This is a test, and if someone were to interfere with it, it would mean failure. He reads the sentence again and again, but is unable to find the mistake. Through training in English, he knows something is wrong, but what? WHAT! He closes his eyes and rubs his head. “This is not fair!” he thinks to himself. He wants to throw it all away, his frustration is raging, he wants to scream to release some of the stress - but he can’t. He looks around at the empty library and wonders what it would be like to be free, out running with his friends and enjoying himself. He should be laughing and goofing around. That would be great because he knows he won’t be a kid forever. It’s almost over and instead of enjoying the last few moments of his youth, he’s stuck at the school library all alone. He looks again at the sentence and reads it out loud. Sounds good to him, but a lot of things sound right to him that are wrong to the hearing world. Why does the hearing world have to be so judgmental? Why can’t they be more understanding? Again he reads the sentence, “The girl went to their father and ask for a money.” Oh, he sees it! He changes it, “The girl went to their father and ask for money.” Yeah - that’s better… or is it? He can’t tell, the sentence SOUNDS correct to him. Saves again. It’s almost five and school was out at two. His stomach yells for food and his throat screams for liquid. It was time to print his paper…he had no choice. He filled his lungs with air and held down “control” key and slowly pressed the “P” key, then quickly he hit “enter” key. He went with bricks on his chest to the printer, collected the papers, stapled them together and shoved it into his backpack. He glared at the blank computer screen for a few minutes wondering his fate. With depression heavy on his soul the young man walked out of the library and over to the teachers’ lounge, placing the paper into the box of the one who will determine the pass or fail. He sighed heavy and walked out of the school…

Saturday morning his teacher walked in and grabbed the paper out of her box, “Finally!” she exclaimed with annoyance. She went to her room, threw the paper onto her desk, and sat down. “This is not going to be fun.” she predicted as she held up his paper and began to read. “Did he put any time into writing this?!” She asked herself aloud. She finished the paper and threw it down onto her desk. “I don’t want to deal with this right now.” With a great sigh she stood up and walked to her door and glanced back at the paper the young man had put so much time into and worried so much about. She switched the lights off, closed and locked her door and mumbled, “Moron,” as she walked away.

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