Day of Reckoning
5/11/01, early morning
May 11, 2001; it was a date GC had learned to live by since the first day of Junior year. It was the date of the AP US History Test, her first and only AP class this year. The test was the crowning event of any and every AP class. If you passed it, you received college credit, recognition on your cume, and the euphoric feeling that accompanies the phrase “I did it.” If you did not pass --- well, GC did not think about that. Mister Jameson, her AP US History teacher, was too good a teacher to allow for less than a “3”; and GC remembered too much.
GC was not alone. Many of her friends were already waiting outside the auditorium when she arrived. They all had one goal in mind: to pass the test. Well-wishes of “good luck” and “you’ll do fine” floated around the heads of the Juniors as they anxiously waited for the doors to open, waited to take that test, as they studied last minute concepts about the Articles of Confederation, the Constitution, Marbury v. Madison, the Jacksonian Era, and many others.
Finally, after what seemed to the Juniors an eternity, the doors to the auditorium opened, and the college counselor and her associates ushered the students inside.
The test was four hours long. From eight to twelve the students pulled out all the juicy tidbits of information they had crammed into their heads during the year. They filled in the many multiple-choice bubbles, they poured out their hearts and mind into the pages provided them for their DBQs.
By lunchtime it was over for them, those students of AP US History. They exited from the auditorium, basking in the warm glow of the sun. GC went off to lunch with her friends, and to also wish her friend Josh good luck on his AP European History test.
GC thought little of the test afterwards, knowing that fretting about it would prove of no consequence, especially if she failed as she dreaded she had. She would find out in July.7/10/01, early evening
GC, Greg and Larry stepped out of Billy Bear’s with full, satisfied stomachs. Larry fished his cell-phone from his pocket and handed it to GC, as she had asked to call her mom while eating. She took the phone, turned it on, dialed her home phone number, and listened to the ringing tone as she waited for someone to pick up on the other line.
After the third ring GC’s mom picked up. “Hello?”
“Hi Mommy!”
“Oh, hi Sweetie! How are you?”
“Ah’m good. How are you?”
“I’m fine, thanks. Oh, hey, guess what?”
“What?”
“Your AP scores came today.”
“They did? What’d I get?”
“I haven’t opened it. Do you want me to?”
“Yes!”
GC heard her mom rip open the envelope and take out its contents. “Looks like you got a ‘4’,” her mom said.
GC’s eyes grew wide and she went through a state of euphoria. She got a “4”! Not a “3”, or “2”, or “1”, but a “4”! a “5” was the top score, but a “4” was not that bad. “Are you serious?!”
“Yep.”
“Dude!”
