Most of us want to be good friends, when we can. We want to do right by other people, and if we can make someone feel better instead of worse, we usually do.
That said, throwing a test at school is a big ask, especially for those of us who care about our grades.
These two went to school together, and OP scored well on a science exam. His friend did not, and OP later found out that his classmate’s parents often compared the two, wishing their son could be more like OP.
Ouch.
14M. Okay, I know this sounds REALLY weird, but please hear me out. So there’s this guy in our class ( let’s call him Joe) . We had a final round of examinations before our end term exams in March. Joe scored low in Science and I scored the highest. He walks up to me with HATRED in his eyes and says , “Happy now, OP?” . i didn’t understand why he would be so angry.
Well, i found out he had pretty strict parents and they always compared Joe to me, and he was never good enough how hard he tried. That explained his hostility towards me throughout middle school. I sympathized with him so i ask him if I could help.
He asked if there was anything he could do to help, and his classmate said it would help if OP threw the next exam.
OP refused but offered to study with the classmate, who got angry and insulting.
He said purposely scoring lower would be really helpful. I was pretty sure that he was joking, but apparently not. I told him that it wasn’t possible. But I told him we could study together if he wanted to. He refused. He was stubborn and kept on repeating “Just fail some exams, I’m sure a few 0s instead of perfect As won’t hurt your ego” . At this point, I was tired of him BS and told him to f*ck off.
He’s wondering if he was wrong, since the classmate is very hurt by his parents words and actions, but doesn’t think him failing exams is really going to help the situation.
Here’s where I might be TA. Every time I score higher than him on an exam, he tells me that his parents scold him A LOT and he cries for hours.
I do feel a little bad but I don’t think me failing exams is a healthy solution, for either of us. His friends think I’m TA.
So reddit, am I wrong here?
Reddit turned out to be the right place to go for this young man, who really does seem to have a good head on his shoulders.
Image Credit: Reddit
Plenty of people agreed that part of the problem was the other kid’s parents knowing who got what grades in the class.
Image Credit: Reddit
And just because everyone agreed OP was not in the wrong, didn’t mean they couldn’t sympathize with the other kid, too.
Image Credit: Reddit
Don’t let someone else’s problems become your problem, son.
Image Credit: Reddit
They hopefully helped OP see that he can’t help everyone, and not to take it personally if he can help it.
Image Credit: Reddit
I hope this boy read all of these responses and is feeling better about his own choices right now.
What would you have told him if you could? Tell us in the comments!
