Gemotions

The weight of the textbooks in her backpack suddenly felt unbearable. Maria trudged across campus, her shoulders slumped, the crisp autumn air offering little relief from the inner turmoil. She replayed the email in her mind again, each sentence digging deeper. The scholarship, the financial safety net, was gone, and the future she'd envisioned felt suddenly out of reach.

She stopped at a bench and sat down heavily. The leaves swirling in the wind seemed to mock her. She wrapped her arms around herself, a futile attempt at self-comfort. She wanted to yell, to break something, to somehow make this injustice disappear, but she could only sit and seethe, the image of that email burned into her mind.