The+College+Catastrophe

Nick Ranalli 4/27/10 English Honors 11/ Mr. Perkins Period 1 __The College Catastrophe __**

It was February of their junior year and everything seemed normal in the lives of Adam Williams and Kevin Barnes. The pair had been the best of friends since the third grade and did everything together. They were both very successful in both school and sports, and it seemed as though high school was too easy for the two, despite the difficult courses they were taking. Life was like an easy test to the two friends, because stressing over school work wasn’t in their programming. They were living what they considered the good life, and it seemed like nothing could divert them from this life they coveted so much. They came into school on a rough Monday morning and heard that there was an assembly being held for all juniors during third and fourth periods. After asking around, Adam finally found about college a believable answer. The assembly was to be on the topic of college preparation. Kevin and Adam scoffed at the topic because, in their minds, it wasn’t worth their time. College preparation certainly didn’t affect them, the two thought. It would just be another Hamilton High assembly that they would have to sit through. “Why would we have to prepare for college,” the boys thought to themselves, “everything is perfect the way it is now.” So as the monotone bell signaled the end of second period, Adam and Kevin trudged down to the auditorium, prepared to possibly get a very much needed nap out of this assembly. The junior class of about three-hundred students packed into the undersized auditorium like sardines. The guest speaker, Mr. Edward Whitehead, gave a riveting speech on the importance of college, and the possible consequences for those who will not properly prepare for college. The two teenagers, who would have usually been in the middle of a good dream, felt as though they were in a nightmare; they were gripped to their seats in anxiety. Mr. Whitehead described the process of college preparation as “the single most important process in your lives to date.” Adam was close to nausea as he whispered urgently to Kevin, “I can’t believe that we’ve never even considered this before.” Kevin replied, “You’re telling me, I don’t want to end up like a bum on the streets, man we have to pick it up.” When the presentation was over, everybody left the auditorium with a growing feeling of anxiety surfacing in the pits of their stomachs. “How could I have been so stupid,” Adam scolded himself for his lack of preparation. Kevin answered him as they were walking to their fifth period class, “Dude, we have to start concentrating on school more, we have been taking it way too easy.” The prospect of encountering difficulty in being accepted into the colleges that they desired haunted them all day. Kevin expressed this growing feeling of discomfort on the topic to his parents. They provided him with words that they had hoped would reassure him, but they only made him more nervous. “How do you know for sure that I’ll be fine?” Kevin thought to himself, “what if good isn’t enough!” The boys, after a night of restless attempts at sleeping, returned to school the next morning determined to better prepare themselves for college. The first, most logical step was to attempt to improve in the class rankings, they believed. Adam and Kevin vowed to themselves to rise through the class rankings as best they could. From then on they began to stay after school every day, begging for extra credit opportunities. They also stressed completely and tirelessly over exams of even the minutest importance. It seemed as though they would stop at nothing until they reached the top of the class. They wanted desperately to become the most impressive and outstanding students in the entire school, and would do so by what seemed to be whatever means necessary. Their parents were becoming very worried with them, and Adam’s parents confronted him on his newly prioritized life. “Adam, we know that all you want to do is be successful, and we commend you for that, but you are spreading yourself far too thin,” Roger Williams said. Adam responded with his new favorite response, “I have to be the best for colleges to recognize me; you do want me to go to a good college right?” And with that close-minded response the conversations would end, to be resumed at a later date. Nevertheless, even though they were both becoming increasingly exhausted and were often arguing with their parents, the two boys rose through the rankings and posted themselves at the top. Kevin was at number two in the class and Adam was close behind at number three, both under the genius of the school, Martin Scheyer. They realized that, because they were so high up in the rankings, they could not let up at all, at risk of losing their positions. Every day became a struggle for the two guys. But now they found that their opposition was each other. What was once a strong, seemingly unbreakable friendship became a struggle and a competition that pitted the two against each other. This wouldn’t be easily noticed though, because they continued to be friends, but a certain distance grew between them. They became isolated not only from each other, but from their respective families as well. Kevin’s parents, Kathy and Jim, became uneasy with the increased reclusiveness of their son. The son they once witnessed as inseparable from Adam, became in a state of tunnel-vision in his goal to become academically successful. These two friends started becoming increasingly competitive against each other until the breaking point was reached. The breaking point was reached on a cool day in late March. Kevin, who was absent from school that day, called up Adam to ask what the homework was for the day. Adam promptly answered, “I don’t know.” Kevin responded, “What do you mean you don’t know, you were in school today weren’t you?” But Adam wouldn’t give up what he saw as a golden opportunity, “I can’t help you, bro”, and with that he hung up the phone. Adam, though he felt a little bit of guilt for not helping Kevin, convinced himself that it was going to help him succeed. The next morning, when Kevin was without homework, it seemed as though their friendship had become only intact in the eyes of their peers. The two boys now held a mutual dislike for one another, and it was only the beginning. The following night, Kevin starred at Adam with great dislike from across the room in which they were attending a SAT preparation session. He was calculating a way to get back at Adam for the points that he had cost him. “Adam doesn’t know that I’m even mad at him,” Kevin thought. “As soon as he needs my help, I will be able to take a couple of points away from him.” The following Thursday, his opportunity presented itself in the form of an AP Biology Exam. Adam was in a stressed panic over the prospect of having a test the following day in Advanced Placement Biology. He had no clue, and he needed to do well on that test. He only trusted one person in the class to be aware of the test date, and that person was Kevin Barnes. Adam convinced himself that Kevin wasn’t aware of his attempt to damage his GPA. “Why would he think that, it was only one homework assignment,” Adam thought to himself. With that thought behind him, he picked up the phone and texted Kevin, asking him if the test date was indeed Friday. After a brief pause, in which Adam assumed Kevin would be searching through his homework planner, a response came. It read, “It’s on Monday bro, at least that’s what Mr. Swan said.” Adam, reassured, went to sleep early that night as Kevin studied for the test that was upcoming early the next morning. As Adam walked into the biology classroom first period that Friday morning, his stomach fell to the ground. This is because he was witnessing the distribution of a test by Mr. Swan. He made eye contact with Kevin, who faked a confused expression and raised his hands in the air in an innocent way. But both Adam and Kevin now knew what was really happening. So Adam answered his innocent charade with an icy stare. Adam proceeded to get an eighty-five on the test, which would have been terrific, had Kevin not gotten a ninety-eight. Going into the end of the third quarter of the school year, Kevin and Adam both had an average of 101.9. But one giant obstacle still awaited them, the final project for United States History. A giant PowerPoint was assigned as this project. Both Adam and Kevin were determined to make each other’s project fail. Gone were the aspirations to help each other do well, or to even do well themselves. At this point they only cared about hurting each other’s grade point averages. With that goal in mind, both boys thought of ways to sabotage each other’s projects. Adam came up with the idea to steal Kevin’s flash drive from him. That would cripple his productivity and make him do his work all over again in one night. Kevin thought that he would attempt to erase Adam’s project off of the T-drive on the day before the project was due. As the project drew nearer, the time for the final acts of sabotage that would effectively destroy their once strong friendship and each other’s attempts at maintaining high averages, approached also. On the day before the projects were due, both of the guys were starting to carry out their plans. During lunch, Adam took Kevin’s flash drive out of the front pocket of his book bag while he was on the lunch line. He then proceeded to put it in his locker and return before Kevin even had returned. The next period, US History, as everyone was putting the finishing touches on their projects, Adam walked away from his computer, satisfied with his project. Kevin remained behind, having already saved his project yesterday to his flash drive, and erased Adam’s presentation off of the students T-drive. Both of the students had accomplished their objectives seemingly without a hitch. The next day, Kevin and Adam both walked into US History class with smirks on their faces. Everything would go exactly to plan and they would be the one that stood out the most. Then, when it was time to present, Adam was on the computer, trying to find his presentation while Kevin was searching through his book bag desperately to find his flash drive. Then they realized what had happened. They then turned around to face each other and Adam flipped the chair he was sitting in and tackled Kevin. The fight only lasted for about fifteen seconds because Mr. Holmes broke it up. Mr. Holmes was shocked at the behavior of his two favorite students. He escorted the two boys down to the office where Mr. Peter would speak with them. Mr. Peter, the school’s vice principal, was used to dealing with fights from many students, but never students who were as successful and impressive as Kevin Barnes and Adam Williams. He made the two boys describe the situation to him, and when they were finished, he attempted to help them. “Now I know what you boys are going through. The stress that you have put yourself under is unwarranted though. You should be supporting each other in whatever ways you can; it is only in this way will you both reach your highest potential. You are both very intelligent, but you have become ignorant to the fact that competition should be positive and constructive, not separating and destructive. Also, you guys are supposed to be friends, and friends should always help each other. The two guys then realized the mistakes they had made and felt terrible. They soon apologized to each other and left the office together. They continued to finish the year ranked second and third in the class, but they didn’t need to know who ended up higher, what really mattered was their renewed friendship.