Gemotions

Rain lashed against the windows of the university library, mirroring the tempest brewing inside Maya. She slammed her textbook shut, the sound echoing in the otherwise quiet room. Her carefully constructed study schedule, the meticulous tracking of her hours spent in the library, all felt like a waste now. The email, with its curt explanation of a clerical error, a swapped scholarship, had just landed in her inbox. It was supposed to go to a student with a name that sounded remarkably similar to hers, but was clearly not *her*.

She ran a hand through her already disheveled hair, the action doing little to soothe the sudden thrumming in her temples. The financial aid office was closed for the day. She’d have to wait. Wait to explain, wait to plead, wait to… well, she didn’t even know what she was waiting for. A solution, she supposed, though the sinking feeling in her stomach told her one wasn’t forthcoming.