Gemotions

The acceptance letter felt ridiculously light in Maya's hand. She balanced it on her nose, wiggling it to keep it from falling. Her dorm room, usually a chaotic mess of textbooks and half-finished art projects, seemed brighter today. It was the scholarship! Her escape route. Now she knew it wasn't really hers. A mistake. A bureaucratic error. She giggled, a little bubble escaping her lips.

She grabbed her phone. The campus bookstore was having a sale on novelty erasers. Perfect. She'd need something to doodle with while she figured out how to fix this whole mess. Her stomach flipped with a mixture of dread and something akin to mischievous anticipation. She was going to savor this.

The email confirming the mix-up was particularly absurd. She reread it, the words blurring slightly as her eyes danced across the screen. "We regret..." blah, blah, blah. They wanted her to give the money back. She imagined the look on the admissions officer's face when they got *her* response.