Gone To The Stars

"Gone To The Stars"

“Hand in your project by Friday,” Mrs Glow stated and left the class. Grumbling under my breath, I calculated that the project would take up most of my free time. As it was, the project’s theme was on stars, so I would have to go to a library to do some research on it.
   
    The next day, I went to the National Library. Unfortunately, the library had one entire level dedicated to the subject: stars. I groaned inwardly; it would take about a week to sift through all the books. I had about only two days to Friday, not counting today. Worse, they were all reference books and I could not borrow them home.

Resigning myself to the elephant-like task, I began my research.

      It was not as bad as I thought. By the end of the day, I had some relevant information on the birth of stars. Although it was a difficult subject, I found myself highly interested. I went home whistling, thinking of the ten pages of explanation that was written on the process of a star’s birth. Surely Mrs Glow would be impressed, I thought. The old woman was always biased against me and I intended to hand in such a brilliant project that she would not be able to say any snide comments.

    The next day basically consisted of going to the library after school. I had shelved aside all homework in favour of the project and was running out of excuses to do so. A couple of lies did the trick and the teachers stopped asking. I went to the library and pulled out on enormous book, causing the rest to topple off the shelf.

People started glaring and I hastily stuffed all the books back except for the large one. The book was worth its weight in gold; I found highly useful information in it. Fifty pieces of construction paper explained the process of a star’s death; the way it burned out and the final result. I was extremely proud of my progress.

    Thursday, I went to the library again after avoiding several teachers. There was now a huge pile of undone homework on my desk and two tests on Friday. I really wanted to show Mrs Glow up with my project and hence ploughed on researching. Everything would be worth to see her face. The day at the library went well, although I found less information this time, I managed to lengthen the explanation of stars’ importance to the early people of Earth. Satisfied with my work, I left the library late at night.

The day I was to hand in the project I binded the papers together. A tiny grin slipped across my face as I imagined Mrs Glow’s face when she tried to read a hundred and fifty pages of ultra-fine handwriting. On my way to school however, I tripped on a ledge sticking out of the ground. To my utmost horror, my precious project flew out of my hands. It landed in a drain full of water.

Cursing angrily, I retrieved it. But the damage was already done. Half of the words had been smudged by the filthy water. Nevertheless, I would hand it up. At least I could explain why project was in such a state. Mrs Glow’s period came, and I gave her my sorry-looking project, maintaining an innocent face. The class would be startled at her reaction.

They were.

“What’s this piece of…rubbish?” Mrs Glow demanded, holding out my project with two fingers and a horrified look on her face. “It’s my project, Mrs Glow…it fell into a drain when I slipped,” I said smoothly. I proceeded to explain a star’s birth and so on in exhaustive detail until she stopped me.

“My dear, your project has indeed gone down the drain!” Mrs Glow exclaimed. “I asked you to do a project on CELEBRITY stars, not the stars in space!” she snapped. “Did you even pay attention?!” Lame excuses poured out of my mouth in an attempt to salvage the situation. I was also thinking of all the time I had wasted, piles of homework and two tests. The class was laughing by now and I resolved to get revenge someday. So engrossed I was; I was startled when Mrs Glow shrieked.

“Not only has your paper gone down the drain…it has…it has gone to the STARS!” It was indeed an effort gone down the drain, or as Mrs Glow put it, gone to the stars.



A/n: This was done when I was 15 & in high school. It impressed my teachers so much that they decided to display it to the whole school...Looking back at it now, it doesn't seem at all good to me. Might be my perception, but hey...