Hey I found something when I opened my laptop for the first time in MONTHS, I think I was rewriting [DRAMA] from Kim's POV
TRIVIA BUFF: Senior year. What is there to say about senior year? There are countless movies depicting this time period. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986, watched four times). Booksmart (2019, watched three times). The Last Picture Show (1951, watched once). But what does it mean to you?
PRACTICALITY: It’s the year before college. Worrying about adventure and good times is for other people. This is the time to buckle down, load up your portfolio with awards and gushy letters from your teachers and make yourself the best looking candidate around. Then you can get out of his Hell hole.
Work-Study is a part of that plan. The school only opens up a few spots for students, only for seniors, only for those who have proven they can handle an intense workload without their grades suffering, given out on a needs-based motion since it pays.
ALIENATION: And you need it.
BUSY BODY: [Easy: success] - Some students might crumble under the pressure of so much, but you are not ‘some students’. Keeping up your perfect grades on top of Work Study will be no problem. Why not throw in an extracurricular on top of it all?
VOLTA DO MAR: [Medium: success] - Eventually even you can snap from an overloaded schedule. You’re doing enough.
RULE OF COOL: Imagine: you’ve pushed yourself so hard that you have a very public meltdown in front of the whole school. You’ll forever be known as the boy that went Cuckoo In Calculus, or something.
TRIVIA BUFF: [Hard: success] - Season two, episode nine of Saved By The Bell (original air date November 30th, 1990) ‘Jessie’s Song’ features Jessie taking caffeine pills (or speed) and having a mental breakdown. It is remembered mostly in an ironic, mocking sense because of its over the top acting and compressed timeline.
Kim put in his application halfway through his junior year, two minutes after the digital portal opened. Halfway through summer break he learned that he was approved to work in the front office, helping with paperwork and relieving a lot of administrative stress.
LOGIC: Good practice for the future. A lot of jobs, even outside an office, require paper documentation of everything.
PASSION: Plus, boring paperwork is kind of relaxing for you. Repetitive motions and all that.
Every senior student gets a study hall period, privilege of almost graduating, and that’s when Kim works in the front office. One day, about halfway through the year, he is called into the principal’s office.
He’s sitting behind his desk, the perfect picture of authority, except for the fact that he looks out of his depth and is struggling to get whatever he wants to say out of his mouth. Kim is sitting in the chair meant for students and is trying his best to not twiddle his thumbs.
“You’re a very fine worker,” he starts, trying to keep a cover of an unshakable mentor figure but several things just aren’t clicking for him. “One of the finest we’ve ever had, truth be told.”
OVERACTIVE NERVOUS SYSTEM: Well, someone is about to be replaced. Probably by some steroid-filled football player that won’t do a damn bit of work but will get just as much recognition. Who is that someone? Take a look in the mirror and taste the rejection, baby.
COMPOSURE: [Medium: success] - “Thank you, sir.” You do not appear nervous. You do not ask