A Cruel Buzz

She was exulting when she called with her exam results, possibly around 11am this morning? I'm unsure.. My head felt two sizes too small for my brain as my clock appeared to be dancing with a blur. Today was GCSE exam results day, and my friend who is a year younger - received hers today.

I was proud of her, this time last year I achieved good English grades, good language grades... But that's where the satisfactory grading ended. She scored an A, a few B's and the rest, C's.

My speech was slurred on the phone, my eyes were continuously closing but I listened on.
"I got...An A in Textiles" her voice beamed proudly.
"Nice" I said.
"...A B in English Lit, a B in Maths, Science" she continued.
"Cool cool, what else?" I asked.
"I got C grades in Art, Statistics and English Lang" she finished, awaiting my response.
"Awesome, see? I told you there was no need to worry"

I supported her throughout revision periods and constantly reminded her she would succeed into entering sixth form. I was happy that she was happy, after all the times she screamed "I'm gonna fail" I always reminded her the usual "You did your best, you'll be fine" etc.
Although sometimes, good things have a nasty habit of turning bad...

"I beat you" she said, a slightly cheeky sounding voice .
"Ah, you sure did - well done!" I answered back.
"I got four B grades and you have one"
"You don't have to remind me" I was surprised by her tone, she should of expected my cold one back.
She chuckled.
"How many A grades did you get? None I think!"
"Yeah alright, your A was in textiles - useless. Stop reading me old news, I've heard all this dross before"

She kicked off at that point, the conversation died down as did my energy. We said our goodbyes and I promised to speak to her again later.
I'm sure the excitement was a little too much for her, at least, that's what I keep telling myself. I felt she had been a bit cruel gloating about her results like that. Last year, I remember the sudden heart-beat-stopper as I realized I was forced to take a different educational route. Apart from those that did the same, no-one else would have any idea how that felt. An instantaneous rejection and the realization that the exams we sat in that hall, did actually matter.

I may not have deserved success in certain subjects, but I didn't deserve this mornings phone call.