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Local student Isla Parker is royally fucked.

She should have learnt her lesson on the last test she failed, but Isla has since adopted quite the laissez-faire attitude when it comes to taking exams.

An attitude that is immediately dropped as soon as she sees the first page of the test.

See for Isla, Maths has never been her strong suit. Nor has English, History, Information Technology or Science for that matter.

It’s not that she’s stupid, but as a former gifted child, Isla had coasted through life relatively easy until she hit high school.

When faced with the reality that he’d actually have to make an effort in order to get good grades, Isla had given up on everything she wasn’t immediately good at.

That, coupled with the residual bravado leftover from being a child prodigy, has left Isla in a strange paradox where she simultaneously believes she’s better than everyone else but suffers from cripplingly low self esteem.

Which is why when she flicks through her maths test, an unsettling wash of anxiety courses through her body. Because it’s always a bad sign if the first question has you stumped already.

Sorting through the papers for any maths equations that look relatively doable, Isla falls into the trap of believing if she comes back to the question later, she’ll miraculously be able to work it out.

She looks around the classroom to see if anyone else is as confused as she is, before copping an eyeful from the supervising teacher who hisses at her to keep her eyes on the test.

“Oi!” says the teacher, who Isla is known to.

Mumbling under her breath as she attempts to answer the simpler questions, She gives up halfway and begins mentally calculating the lowest acceptable passing score.

However, he aforementioned engrained by unwarranted cockiness means she is giving herself the benefit of the doubt on several very uncertain answers.

Her rounded-off worst case scenario score is likely to be quite an overshoot, and can only result in tears.

THIS IS A DEVELOPING STORY

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