I tugged at Twilight's shoulder. "Come on, Twilight. Let's go already."
Twilight sighed with frustration. "I already told you, I need to study before I can hang out."
I groaned with similar frustration, and paced around the room, laying in a variety of places and playing with a few objects strewn around the room.
It was almost time for the exams, and Twilight, being the ever studious person she was, had to study a bunch, even though she could probably get an A if she didn't study at all. I was like that myself, if to a lesser extent, so this studying all seemed pointless.
I was so bored, so I just watched Twilight's dark violet hair waving around as she moved her head to look at different pages scattered on her desk.
I wanted to say something, but I knew that would just make my wait longer, so I grabbed my backpack, opened it up, and took out a book to read. It was an interesting book, but I couldn't really focus on it. I was too eager to do something with Twilight after she was done.
Thankfully, after a few minutes of distracted reading, I heard Twilight yawning and folding up her notes. "Oh, thank goodness," I cried with relief. "I thought you'd never be done."
Twilight frowned while organizing her papers. "Studying is important, Sunset. You need to try it."
"There's a difference between what I should do and what I need to do. And studying is not in the latter category."
"But you need to think about your future. You can get by as you are because you're intelligent, but that won't be enough for university."
I shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. We'll just have to see. But if studying is anything like how I've seen it is with you, I really don't think I will."
Twilight folded her arms with a slightly peeved face and asked, "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, you know. You've been studying so much that you haven't been making any time for anything else. I feel like we barely hang out anymore."
"What are you talking about?" Twilight exclaimed. "We hang out all the time. We're hanging out right now. Maybe you'd feel better if you studied too."
I bit my tongue as I mulled that over. Finally, I heaved an enormous sigh. "If you really think I should, I guess I can give studying a shot." Twilight smiled from ear to ear, and jumped out of her seat to hug me. With a motherly tone, she said, "I'm so proud of you. You'll see. Studying can be fun! I can teach you some of my techniques right now if you want!"
I winced at the thought of wasting time with Twilight on studying, and passionately refused. "Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. That is really not necessary. I'll just figure it out on my own."
Twilight reassuringly put her hand on my shoulder and claimed, "You can do this. I believe in you. And I'm sure you'll do perfectly on your exams."
I smiled.
-
I frowned. "Ughhh!" I groaned while scratching my head. Ever since I'd gotten those encouraging words from Twilight, I’d started studying like mad to try to meet her expectations. Exams aren't too hard. But when you're trying to learn and memorize literally all of the content, it becomes a bit more challenging.
I scanned the page I was looking at a few more times and felt all the info going over my head. How did Twilight do it? I considered asking her for help, but I was sure any of her studying techniques would require a ton of extra work I was not willing to put in. I really wanted to just stop studying, but now that I'd started, it was impossible to simply stop. And I still wanted to make Twilight proud.
So if you couldn't guess, I was pretty stressed at the time.
I miserably glanced at the clock and saw it was midnight, so I put all my notes away and turned off the lights before going to bed.
The next day, I felt really off from the moment I woke up to the time school ended. My mind was stuck on how much content there was to take in from all my courses. Why did my semester have to have 4 exams? Why?
I was asking myself this and other similar questions while I walked over to where Twilight was waiting for me. I was really frustrated. Why did I have to suddenly become a stress ball when school had been such a casual thing for me before? Obviously Twilight wanting me to succeed and pride was why, but still, did it have to affect me so much?
Once I reached Twilight, we began our usual walk to the school gate, and Twilight started talking about random stuff, until she noticed that I wasn't really listening and inquired, "Are you okay, Sunset?" She stared at my disheveled hair and weary eyes with concern.
I bit my tongue. I really didn't want to tell Twilight that because of her I was stressing out over exams, but I also didn't want to lie. I just groaned for the longest time, until I finally decided to go with the lesser of two evils. "Um, I just didn't sleep well last night." It wasn't technically a lie, I told myself.
I knew I really should've just told Twilight what was going on. But I was not in the mood to see Twilight upset right now.
For a week or so, the wild studying continued, and I discovered more and more about why I had never wanted to study in the first place.
By the end of the week, I was completely drained from trying to do my best at studying. My friends had asked me quite a few times why I was like this, and I kept making lame excuses, not wanting to be deterred from the path I had chosen. Now that I'd started, I was determined to see it through to the end.
As usual, I got up from my desk at the end of the day and walked over to Twilight, who was waiting for me with more concern than ever.
We began walking down the halls, and I was snapped out of my worried state by a voice. "Sunset," Twilight loudly called my name. "You really need to get more sleep. I know studying is important, but it's not worth losing most of your sleep for."
My eyes widened. She'd known all this time why I was so drained? "You've known the whole time why I've been like this?"
Twilight nodded. "Yeah, it's pretty obvious considering it started right after you agreed to study. I didn't want to discourage you, since I like that you're studying, but you're overworking yourself. You need to get sleep more than anything."
I didn't answer for a few seconds. I looked down, and with tired eyes, I thought again about all the work I'd been putting into studying. All the frustration I'd been feeling for the past week became pent up, and I snapped, "Well, I'm sure that's easy for you to say, Ms. Smarty Pants! But we're not all as smart as you!" I rubbed the bridge of my nose as Twilight leaned away in shock. "Ever since you told me to start studying, I've been working my butt off to make you happy. So don't you tell me to stop it now!"
I breathed heavily, and looked at Twilight's face as it turned from startled, to confused, then annoyed. "Sunset, I'm just trying to help. There's no need to be so upset."
"Isn't there though? Exams are really soon, and you only told me to study recently. Why didn't you make me sooner?" I shouted with arms waved high in the air. "It would've made my life so much easier."
Twilight was visibly angry now. "I didn't make you do anything. You did it all yourself! If there's anyone to blame, it's you!"
My lips curled. I knew that was true, and that's what made me even madder. "You think you're so great? I bet I'll score 10x better than you! Even though you've completely abandoned me to just focus on studying. As if your mark is more important than your girlfriend!"
Twilight looked hurt, and she responded, "That's not true! I've been trying to find a balance between maintaining my grades and my relationship. You can't just expect me to drop everything and spend all my time with you!"
I rolled my eyes angrily. "Of course not, but you can make some time for your girlfriend. And you haven't been doing that at all!"
"What do you mean? Of course I have. We hang out a lot! I explained this all a whole week ago, remember?"
I shook my head. "But we don’t have any meaningful hangouts! Whenever we get together, you always focus on studying this and studying that! Why don't you date one of your books instead? You obviously like them more than you like me!" Not even stopping to see Twilight's reaction, I stormed off in fury.
Once I had gotten far away enough, I wiped a few tears from my eyes, and I breathed deeply a couple of times to calm myself. The brief argument flashed through my mind, and my jaw dropped.
I was appalled when what I had said finally clicked in my head. How could I have said all that? How could I be so rude to someone I loved so much? She must've been devastated. I'd never snapped at her like that. I knew I needed to fix this, but how?