Too Easy

Jina always said she was number one.

At school, there wasn’t a single other student that could beat her. When it was silent reading, she always read the fastest. Once, she had to take some extra time reading the good part, but then she saw her best friend, Candace, was on page sixty, and she was only on thirty-eight. So she flipped really fast until she was number one again. She missed the good part of the book, but she still read the fastest.

In science, everyone received a plant to raise. The teacher said the plants would grow slow, so they needed to be careful and gentle. But Jina knew better. The teacher only said that because it wouldn’t make the other kids sad if theirs grew slow. She poured lots of water on it until it looked like it was floating around in the thick, brown mud. Jina’s plant died in a single day, but she bet that was still the shortest time anyone had ever grown their plant.

At home, she always ate her dinner the quickest. She never stopped to talk about how her day went with her parents. She never heard what her family talked about during their dinner. She just stuffed her mouth and chewed until she was done. Then, she would run off to do her homework the fastest, too.

On the weekend, she went with her parents to the mall to get new clothes. While they looked around, she waited for the elevator. When it came down, she would start running up the stairs to get to the top floor before the elevator did. Her knees were always red from tripping, but knowing she really was number one at everything made her feel better.

Of course, she never entered any real contests. Her friends all did fancy soccer tournaments or art competitions. Some of them even went to the big math olympiads or did concerts at music halls. But she didn’t have to.

Why should she?

She already knew she was number one.