Anna

                Anna sat at her desk chewing on the end of her pen. She hated introductions and conclusions. No matter how flowery her wording throughout the body of her essays, the beginning and ending always sounded somewhat hashed together. She sighed as she took out her laptop. This was going to have to be good enough, there was barely enough time to type and print her paper before class. Why did she have to procrastinate? She’d have to lecture herself later; there just wasn’t time for guilt now.

                Her fingers caressed the keyboard like they had been born to type. Anna would have typed her paper in the first place, but her professor wanted a hand written draft as well as the final essay. Writing was tedious and inefficient. She hated how ugly mistakes looked on written drafts. Pencils smudged and erasers smeared. Pens didn’t smug, but they left ink blots, and mistakes were permanent. Mistakes were one thing Anna could not accept.

                She grabbed the still warm paper from the printer as she headed out the door. She put it in her bag and slipped on her jacket as she hustled across the campus. She glanced at the time on her cell phone. How did it get to be so late? Gracious!  Anna broke into a run, ignoring the looks she was getting from other students.

                Class was just beginning when she slid into the back row, panting. Her professor gave her a pointed look, but didn’t say anything. The lecture was long and Anna couldn’t help herself as she took out her phone to once again check the time. She tapped her foot impatiently for the class to end. It was all she could do to stay awake.