I rolled the paper sheet and threw it onto the floor. A prodigious yawn escaped from my mouth, and my eyes were drooping so low. Saliva almost flew out of my mouth but onto my parched  cracked lips. “I hate homework” I was whining and complaining; as if homework was the biggest threat in my life.

I stared at my desk; dark-pitched ink could be seen splattering all over the paper sheets. My eyes were locked at the last word I wrote. My mind was spinning upside down, overlapping my thoughts and suddenly empty. Exhaustion kept building up within my body that made me nearly passed out. “Hang in there” the white angel called out to me. While mosquitoes were busy circling around my ears. The ‘buzz’ sounds were ridiculously noisy; it sent me awake with sleepy eyes.

I was an excellent academic scorer but a lazy one. Something just did not make sense to me; as if the puzzles were not in the right place. Why an excellent student like me had to do homework that will never stop piling up? I mean I wasn’t a stupid student. And, homework snatched away my precious time to play video games. But the fact was that the teachers knew I was good at exams. Speaking of teachers, they gave me an impression that they wanted smart and hardworking student. I was smart but this was insufficient for them to love me. They even disgusted my red-dyed long hair which I thought it was perfect.

My vision was getting blurry, as my sleeping beauty waved into my direction. The bed behind me was wailing in my ugliest name, Star. I had an essay that I must complete; it was a compulsory task the learned English teacher made us. This homework was assigned 3 days ago, and I usually took 24-hour to complete it however, not today. My brain was snowing heavily that all my thoughts were frozen. The homework was due tomorrow, and every muscles in my body was shrieking on top of their lungs.

I continued peeking at the not-so-white paper. Plenty of words were smeared because I unawarely poured a glass of water onto it. Remorse filled me up the moment I thought that my day was going to doom. I was exhausted which made the condition even worst. After school today, I didn’t even bother to run my fingers through this piece of essay, rather playing catching-eyes video games. For this second, I knew that I would have to face the music tomorrow, but still I was trying hard to complete my essay.

The time went by tick-tack-tock, I just realized how fast the time crawl by. Peering through the window, I could see nothing but darkness. What did that indicate? It was nightfall. “Oh man! I can’t think of anything to make my essay alive!” I yelled at my tedious teddy bear. She was sitting at the corner on the desk. Five hours had past, only a few phrases were successfully written down in the paper. My essay was still thousands mile away from the end-point.  I knocked my head into the desk and put my pen aside.

“Just 15 minutes will do. I’m going to rest my eyes before I resume my homework.” I spoke to the teddy but there was no response from her as if I was talking to the wall. I jolted backward in my armchair, my body slided down, and I was drifted into my dream as soon as I closed my tiring eyes.

The ferocious sun launched its attack on my eyes. My eyes were forced open. The hen outside the yard cleared its throat that its clucking sounds broke the tranquility of the dawn. I was shocked to awake so do other sleepyheads in the neighbourhood. “Omg..” my heart was screaming as though it almost shattered to million pieces. I was on the floor, climbing up to my feet, and I saw my essay was undone on the desk. I could not believe that 15 minutes actually turned out to be forever sleeping.

I was in huge, horrendous and awful trouble now. My English teacher, Mr. Simon was someone you must not mess up with. Why would I say so? Your parents would be called to school. I regretted my decision to play video games rather than not completing my homework. Finally, I realized that there was no use to even burn the midnight oil doing my homework because it was too late. And now I was running out of time as though a sport car had ran out of fuel.

Mr. Simon was extremely sterned, and he kept sending us piles after piles of homework. What we had to do is writing and keep on writing until we break our hands, wasn’t that ridiculous? I wondered what made him Mr. Simon, and why on earth that he was my English teacher. I was fake crying with invisible tears rolling down my cheeks.

I was lost for a second, planning what to do next. I peeked at the wall-hanging clock; it showed precisely seven in the morning. “Oh my, I will be late for school…” I made a beeline to the bathroom and take a quick breakfast before I raced to school. At this particular jiffy, I cared nothing, I knew my parents would never be proud to be called to school unless I was awarded the best student of the year. BUT, I could care no more.

Since the school was just a stone’s throw from my house, I managed to reach the school 2 minutes early. The ringing of the bell pierced through the air and shattered the tranquility of the day. I slipped into the classroom quietly and secretly, in attempt to hide my hastiness, panic and bewilderment.

Tak tak tak tak…

Mr. Simon’s footsteps were heavy and steady. The closer the footsteps went, the more nervous I was. Finally, Mr. Simon marched into the classroom with books piling up in his arms. His huge figure blocked ¾ of the whiteboard at the front. His eyes came in contact with mine, he looked furious but disappointed, I wondered if he already detected my incomplete essay in the bag.

“Good morning Mr. Simon.” students cleared their throats respectively, looking confident.
“Please be seated students.” Mr. Simon hurried his words.

Like an automatic robot, students stood up row by row and one by one to turn in their homework, the essay.
“Here you go, Mr. Simon.” said a student. Mr. Simon took it over and scanned the essay with his huge powerful eyes. Within a minute, he mouthed a few words to the student.
“Well done, next please.” Mr. Simon praised.

The students returned their seats right after they handed in their essays. In just a split of second, it was my turn. I forced the muscles in my legs to stand up. I pulled my body towards Mr. Simon’s desk in slow pace like a dead mammy. My body was shaking tremendously and sweat beads were accumulated on my forehead.

I put my incomplete essay on the desk and pushed it towards Mr. Simon. My eardrums were hypnotized to shut, and so I would not hear the loud scoldings. It must be embarrassing to be scolded in front of my classmates. For the moment, I knew it was my wrongdoing, and I deserved a scold. In my heart I admitted that I was a lazy student. For all the times, this was my first time for not being able to complete my homework. Usually I won’t make this mistake. It was my greatest fault in life. I wished the earth could open up and swallowed me in.

“On the counts 3, 2,...” I mumbled silently.
“I was very disappointed on you Star.” Mr. Simon rinsed his mouth with words.

I was in awestruck. Like a needle knitted my mouth, I could not speak a word. My facial expression was frozen, and I was uprooted on the ground, immobile. Mr. Simon continued.

“Star, what I did is for your own sake. Homework is the preparation before exam. I can’t deny the fact that you’re smart but homework makes you even smarter. Well, I hope you really take in what I said and turn over a new leaf. I expect you to be both smart and hardworking but you kinda disappoint me. For this time, I’m not going to call your parents, but I hope you reflect yourself and no next time.” Mr. Simon ended his speech while smiling at me.

All the words were rinsing in my head; my mind was repeating what Mr. Simon just said, like hypnotizing me. For a second, I could not get over all the words. It was like tsunami, too huge and horrendous, too much burden that could even killed a horse. I dragged my feet while returning to my seat. I was feeling remorseful and shameful, all at the same time. I didn’t expect Mr. Simon to have expectations in me, and I almost ruined it. Well, after much thoughts, I decided not to waste my time playing video games before homework was done.

I have learnt that there is no smart people when they are lazy. Homework is not an excuse for students to be lazy. If you wish to bear fruit, you have to put in effort to give fertilizers and even water the plants that you’re breeding. No pain no gain, no homework no improvements and no water no healthy plants. When we are willing to plug ourselves in a work; we have to make sure that the work is done before getting a sweet outcome because where there’s a will, there’s a way!