When the bell rang, she turned in the final and was thinking about ways to apologize while grabbing her things. She didn’t even notice her backpack was open. She just wanted to find Alex and try to make sense of the whole situation.
“Marian!” Alex said, with a smile from ear to ear. “Here, come!”
“What is going on? I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have given you any ideas! I’m a terrible friend, I should have helped you study, not give you ideas to copy! I’m so, so sorry! Did they expel you? They did, didn’t they! And it’s all my fault!” Mariana replied, without stopping to breathe in between sentences.
“It is.” Alex said seriously. “It was all your idea, indeed,” she added smiling. She’d tried to prank her friend, but she could see how much she was suffering.
“What happened?” Mariana asked as she caught her breath.
“You gave me the idea, really.” Alex confirmed. “I was convinced that I would have to cheat; I couldn’t see any other way out. However, while you went on with your ideas, I realized I would not be able to go through with it. I would probably just start crying and confess in the first five minutes!” – She laughed with so much ease that Mariana was astonished. “That’s when I realized that my issue was not not understanding statistics, but applying them by heart. The smartest thing would have been to talk to the teacher, but there was not enough time, and they might see it as an excuse. So, using your idea, I wrote an essay analyzing the statistics of cheating and applying them to that test. OK, I know that I may have made the teacher more aware of it, but I didn’t think of that at the moment. I analyzed the median, the average, I also did a historical comparison and even proposed a double-blind sort of study to apply to the learning and testing of statistics. That’s when you entered the class and saw me. I was defending myself. I was actually explaining my thesis and how to disprove it. I realized statistics is actually very useful and not at all impossible, I just needed to apply it to something real. I had to explain my situation to the teacher, of course, but after he saw that I had really understood the purpose, and how upset the whole situation made me; he said he would accept it instead of the test! I’m not out of the woods yet, I still need to get an A, but I’m so happy about the alternative idea!”
“All good, all good… I wished you’d tell me something though. I nearly went to the teacher and confessed that I had told you to cheat, and how!” Mariana said, quite upset. She was happy for her friend, but she’d been so worried and felt so guilty!
“I know, I know. And I am sorry. I wasn’t sure it would work. With everything that’s been going on these last few years, I didn’t want to fail again. I needed this to know what type of person I am, what I can handle and, especially, what type of nurse I want to be in the future. I know I should have kept you in the loop and I’m sorry about that. But, if it’s any consolation, I did tell the teacher it was all your idea, and he said he’d consider giving you extra credit for your selflessness.” Although Alex felt like a failure sometimes, she was proud of her decision to give credit to her friend. Not because it had actually been her idea, but because throughout all these years, she’d been there for her, poking her in the arm, casually inviting her to warm meals at her place, and even designing a masterplan to cheat.
“Well, I cannot not take that into consideration” Mariana replied, excited about the prospect of receiving extra credit for letting her imagination run wild. “However, you should have told me. Although, next time you want me worrying sick like this, it better be at least because we’re robbing a bank. Not that I don’t trust the plan, it’s just that my executioner has a conscience!” Again, as always, Mariana laughed as if it were the funniest joked in the world, and that day, to Alex, it was.
Series – Evanescent
January: If Something Can Go Wrong…It Will – Jonay Quintero Hernández (Spain)
February: The Planet of Pleasure – Nane Sevunts (Armine Asryan) (Armenia)
March: Evening with Jackie Chan – Gennady Bondarenko (Ukraine)
April: Vuvuzelas, Walkie-Talkies and Madiba Magic – Sarah-Leah Pimentel (South Africa)
May: Remembering – Seyit Ali Dastan (Turkey)
June: 5-4-3-2-1 – Talia Stotts (America)
July: Getting Ready for Newborns – Marilin Guerrero Casas (Cuba)
August: Regrets – Kate Korneeva (Russia)
September: A Hollow Pursuit – Diana Haidar (Syria)
October: The Test – Alejandra Baccino (Uruguay)
November: A Life Rekindled – Lauren Voaden (United Kingdom)
December: Translation Perfect – Zhang Lu (China)
Special: Catching Water III – Javier Gomez (Argentina)
Background – Context
Transadaptation Volume 2: Conceived – Childhood Transadapted, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2021)
Transadaptation Volume 1: In the Middle – Prelude to a Contemporary Transadaptation, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2020)
Peripatetic Alterity: A Philosophical Treatise on the Spectrum of Being – Romantics and Pragmatists by Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
La Syncrétion of Polarization and Extremes Transposée, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2019)
The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2018)
L’anthologie of Global Instability Transpuesta, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2017)
From Wahnsinnig to the Loony Bin: German and Russian Stories Transposed to Modern-day America, (eds.) Angelika Friedrich, Yuri Smirnov and Henry Whittlesey (2013)
Emblems and stories on the international community
Perception by country – Transposing emblems, articles, short stories and reports from around the world
Credits
Cover photo: Montevideo, Uruguay – After the exam – Greta Schölderle Moller (Unsplash)
Source: The Codex of Uncertainty Transposed