username + number :: shortstop + 201714
kalon name :: Carisse
prompt :: [600/600 words] [feat. Milo]She looked down at the spread of rejection letters that littered the table, hair falling over her eyes as she rested her head in her hands. Five,
five different universities had rejected her from their medical school programs. How could this have happened?! Carisse had spent her whole life up until this point working to get into med school. Her father was a surgeon. Her mother, an anesthesiologist. Carisse had been molded into the perfect candidate.
Yet somehow, it had all gone wrong.
Carisse felt incredibly lost and alone. There was no way that her parents would react well to the news. They had poured huge amounts of money and time into Carisse's journey, and she'd failed to see it through to the end. The Kalon was filled with intense dread. She pushed her chair away from the table and stood before retreating to her apartment bedroom. She flopped down on her bed and pulled her laptop towards her, opening it as tears pooled in her eyes.
Whenever Carisse was feeling down, she put some work into her passion project to cheer herself up. Her novel was nothing more than a hobby. After all, she was supposed to be working on her medical school applications. But it brought her so much joy to continue her tale of adventure and mystery. With a little more work, and a lot of refining, it would soon be ready to publish. She opened the document once more, doing her best to push the rejection letters from her mind.
A ding from her laptop brought her out of her thoughts. Someone had messaged her. Wiping the tears from her eyes, Carisse opened the Discord message.
"
Any news?" asked Milo. Carisse groaned, typing her reply.
"
All rejections. Every single one. From all five places!"
"
I'm sorry, that's a lot to come home to."
Carisse rewrote a sentence in her novel three time before Milo sent another message.
"
Have you considered majoring in something else?"
Carisse paused. She hadn't, actually. She was too scared of what her parents would say. And besides, she had never prepared for any other major. All she really knew how to do was to apply to med school. But she didn't tell Milo all of this. Instead she just sent:
"
No."
There was another message from Milo soon after.
"
I think you should consider it. From what I've read of your novel, I think you'd do well in an English major or something similar."
"
But what about my parents?" Carisse shot back, tears forming one more.
"
Who cares what they think?" Milo responded. "
I think they'd be happy to see you being successful, rather than being rejected from one program over and over."
Carisse shuddered. Could that be true?
Now she felt more lost than ever.
"
I'll think about it," she finally typed. "
But I want to send in a few more applications first."
-----
Carisse grabbed the mail on the way back in to her apartment. The results from her two latest medical school applications had come in. She opened them above her kitchen table, then froze once she realized that they were both rejections.
Damn it.She tossed them in the trash and dug out her laptop again. A message from Milo was already waiting for her.
"
Well?"
"
Screw it. How do I apply for an English degree?" Carisse typed back.
"
I can send you some links. You're certain you wanna do this?"
Carisse was not certain at all. She was shaking from the stress and the fear of the whole situation. Who was she, if not a doctor?
"
I'm sure."