Free Pass/Fail (2012) by David Wellington

to. Not to mention a hot date to get ready for tonight.”
    Jake jumped out of the chair. “You don’t talk about that. That has nothing to do with you and your goddamned program.”
    “Of course not,” Mr. Zuraw said. He was looking down at some papers on his desk.
    “You stay out of my business,” Jake demanded.
    “Like you stay out of mine?” Mr. Zuraw asked, not looking up. “I know when someone’s been in my desk, Jake. Now. Seriously. Get back to class, or I’ll have to give you detention.”
     

Chapter Sixteen
    By the time Jake got home from school that afternoon he was ready to throw up. His stomach was rolling around inside him like a balloon full of molten lead. His hands were sweating so much he started worrying about dehydration—a serious problem out in the desert. He came in through the kitchen door and went right to the refrigerator and drank three big glasses of icewater until he was panting and his throat felt frozen.
    He called Cody. “I’ve never failed anything before,” he told his friend. He had gone straight up to his room and curled up in his bed. He had the blinds closed and the telephone pulled around on its spiral cord and it felt hard and hot against his head. “I’ve never even gotten a B.”
    “It’s not the end of the world,” Cody replied. “You can fail two more times before—”
    “Before they kill me. I know. Only two more times. What if they give me another test like this one? What if all the tests from now on are this hard? I can’t do it, Cody. I have to find a way out of this. I have to break their system.”
    “How, though? We already know you can’t leave town. We know that no one in authority is ever going to take you seriously.”
    “I could get some evidence somehow. Some proof of what’s going on.”
    Cody sighed. “Jake, I gotta tell you. We went to the cops once. If you come to them with the same story, they’re not going to look at anything you bring them. You need to focus, man. You need to pass the rest of the tests, whatever that takes.”
    “If I had to do another test right now I couldn’t—I would just fail. I couldn’t even try, I would just tell them I fail and leave it at that. I feel like I’m going to die right now.”
    “You’re not. You’re over-reacting to this because it’s never happened before. And anyway, it’ll be like a week before the next test. You’ll have time to recover. Try to take your mind off this. When’s your date with Megan?”
    Jake looked at his alarm clock. “In about three hours. But I don’t know if—”
    “It’s tonight?” Cody laughed. “Are you so sure you’re feeling like this because you failed a test? It sounds more like you’re nervous about the date.”
    Jake hadn’t thought much about the date since that morning, but now that he did the leadenness in his stomach grew and his palms started to sweat again. Could Cody be right? Maybe his subconscious had just been nagging at him, reminding him of what was to come. He thought about calling Megan and breaking the date, which would at least alleviate some of his nerves. It was a risk, a distraction. He kept thinking of everything that could go wrong, all the ways he could offend her, and wouldn’t it be better to not take the chance? If she rejected him now he would truly want to die. If he put her off, he could focus more on the tests, on surviving—but no.
    No.
    This… thing with Megan, this nascent relationship was the only thing in his life that felt pure, and right, and untouched. When Mr. Zuraw had even mentioned Megan’s name Jake had felt rage build up inside of him at the very thought of him knowing who she was. He had to take the chance, had to see where things went with her. Otherwise, what was he living for? What was the point of going on at all?
    To his seventeen year-old brain there was nothing else. No future, no college, no job prospects. Everything had shrunk down to two irreducible points: passing the tests, and