Gemotions

The rejection letter crackled in Maya's hand. It was a flimsy piece of paper, barely worth the ink it was printed on. She crumpled it, not to discard it, but to squeeze the life out of it, to make it a useless ball. Then, with exaggerated care, she smoothed it out again, the crinkled lines a map of her frustration. She marched directly to the student union’s bulletin board, where the scholarship recipient list was posted. Her eyes scanned the names, lingering on each one, mentally cataloging them. The girl who’d always worn designer clothes, the boy who'd gotten a free ride from his parents. Maya would get them back, in some way.