I was never known for my beautiful handwriting and the many “S-satisfactory” marks I got on my handwriting assignments confirmed this. Even so, every now and then I would perhaps inadvertently turn out a brilliantly written handwriting assignment for which my usual satisfactory comment would be replaced with “O-outstanding”. Heading towards the end of the year, I had accumulated three of such scores. Alex, who at that point sat next to me and was equally horrible when it came to legible writing, somehow went through a metamorphosis. Almost as if a switch had been flicked on, his handwriting tremendously improved and it did not go unnoticed by Mr. Yowell. When he received his first outstanding mark I simply shrugged it off. With his second one I wondered if he was going to catch up with me. His third one, which also included a footnote of “excellent” had him bragging that he would beat me with our last assignment. I hardly doubted his prediction.

Our notebooks were distributed back to us as we all flipped through them to see how we had done on our final assignment. Alex received his a little before me and he quickly found the sought page. He triumphantly shoved it in my face, emphasizing the fact that not only had he received another outstanding mark, but also surpassed me in that field. I dejectedly leafed through my notebook only to realize that somehow I had also received an outstanding mark. While our score was tied at four, I outdid him in boasting about our last mark.