It was the week we’d all been dreading: state testing.
The lights buzzed above our heads, the silence in the room rang louder than anything I’d ever heard, and my heart thumped like a drum. I was nervous. My hands were sweaty. My pencil kept slipping.
So I did what I always did when I was anxious. I reached into my hoodie pocket and unwrapped a mint. The cool flavor helped. It gave my brain something else to focus on. I started answering the questions. One mint became two. Then three. Before long, I had a rhythm bubble, answer, unwrap, crunch.
The mints were the only thing keeping me sane.
But by the third section of the test, things got weird. My stomach felt kind of … minty. Not like the fresh minty. More like. “I’ve eaten 20 mints and my insides are frozen” minty.
Still, I kept going.
That’s when I heard it.
“Alani.”
My head snapped up. Mrs. Carter was standing at the front of the room, arms crossed, eyes locked on me. Everyone looked up. I felt a thousand eyes staring.
“Can you step outside for a moment?”
My stomach flipped. I stood, heart pounding, and followed her out into the hallway.
The door closed behind me.
“I need to ask you something,” she said. “Are you okay?”
I blinked. That wasn’t what I expected.
“I—I’m fine.”
She gave me a look. “Alani, you’ve eaten at least 15 mints today. Possibly more. You’re distracting your classmates. You’re distracting yourself. What’s going on?”
I stared at the floor.
“I don’t know,” I whispered. “ I just get nervous. The mints help me breathe and help me focus. Everything just feels so unbalanced.
Mrs. Carter’s face softened. “State testing is big. But you don’t need to bury your fear in peppermint. You’re smart, Alani. You’ve worked hard. You’ve got this.”
I didn’t know what to say. My throat felt tight.
Then she said something I’ll never forget.
“You’re not failing this test. But you are letting fear control you. You’re stronger than that.”
That hit me.
I nodded slowly. “Okay.”
She smiled “One mint during breaks is fine. But during the test, I want you, not the candy, to take the lead.”
We walked back into the room. I sat down, hands still shaking. No more unwrapping. No more crunching. Just me, my pencil, and then silence.
It was hard.
But I made it.
And when we turned in the last test on Friday, Mrs. Carter walked by my desk and whispered. “See? I told you.”
I grinned. No mints in my mouth. Just pride.
