Creative Writing Competition 2025: Lower Division

Once upon a time, there was a nine-year-old girl named Diana. She loved school and did well in every subject, except… math. After lunch, came the dreadful, horrific boredom of math class. Diana always had to listen and watch as the teacher, Mrs. Fleur, put long four-digit numbers subtracting three-digits on the blackboard, and asked students to come up and solve them. It hurt her eyes just to look at the problems, let alone solve them.
Diana always got bad grades on the tests as well. One time, she got 37%! Today, as she walked into class, Diana groaned. There was going to be another math test in a couple of minutes. “Not another one!" Diana whispered to her best friend, Liz as she sat down. “We practically have a million tests every week, Lizzy”. “Well, that’s because we only have a month and a half left in third grade, and the teachers are making sure that we’re ready to go to fourth grade, Di”, Liz replied sternly. “Besides, I'm excited. I hope that I get a 100%!”. Diana exclaimed “What? How can you be excited? It’s so bori…”.
She was cut off by Mrs. Fleur, who was telling everyone to settle down so she could pass out the test papers. Diana was determined to finish the test and get it over with as fast as she could. She was the first to finish, because she had rushed all the questions without showing her work, and skipped five out of fifteen questions! However, Liz finished last, because she had taken her time and answered each question properly, showing her work.
At the end of the day, Diana received her test grumpily, seeing that she had gotten a big red “X” on the top of her paper, along with her grade of 57%. But then as she walked over to Liz, she saw that she was jumping up and down, beaming. When Diana peeked over the edge of Liz’s files, she was so jealous of what she saw. Liz had gotten 100%. “My mom’s going to be so proud of me!” She squealed, still jumping. Wait, Liz!” Diana yelled as Liz started to walk home. Startled, Liz held back. “How did you do it?” Diana panted trying to catch up. “I just studied very hard for a week”, Liz grinned and skipped on.
From that moment, Diana decided that she could be good at math like Liz, and she was going to get 100% on the next test. When she got home, she studied for three hours straight without taking any breaks. She did her math workbooks day and night and when it was time for the next test, she poured everything she had learned from the workbooks into the exam.
The following day, Diana ever so nervously opened her math folder… and saw that she had gotten a 100%! What an unexpected surprise that was! Diana had a new appreciation for Math. She still wasn’t as comfortable with math as she was with other subjects but at least she knew that if she practiced, she could be better. Diana never forgot Liz even when she grew up because Liz taught Diana to never give up even when things get hard, and to work hard. Unexpected things can happen!