Tremaine Mills knew he was teetering on the brink. He was walking a knife's edge, with how he bombed his semester. He had to maintain a grade point average of 1.8 to not be dismissed from the varsity team he poured his blood, sweat, and tears into this past year.
But several garbage final results made him scared for his future.
He could have studied more, of course. That was something that his friends did for weeks.
However, how can he miss several nights of wild pre-final parties for it?
Holy shit, here's another exam result…
An email sent to him by his Philosophy professor was not something Tremaine was looking forward to this early in the morning.
His best buddy Deshaun was a fine student, so he could easily reach a 2.5 GPA or higher without breaking a sweat.
Their ex-girlfriend Emily was a top student that helped both of them out when they're on a massive pinch, so no worries there also.
But Tremaine on the other hand, he barely hung on with a 1.8 last semester…
And now, his grades are flunking even more than last time...
"Bro, are you really gonna get dismissed from the team? No way, right?" Deshaun was in high spirits, after getting fantastic news about one of his final exams.
"Fuck you, if I screw this last one too, I'm dead for sure!" Tremaine's index finger was hovering over the email, unsure of whether to open its contents.
"Holy shit? It's that bad already?" Deshaun shivered too. He knew how much his longtime friend had regressed with regards to his academics ever since he entered university.
During high school, Tremaine was top of the class with a clean 3.7 GPA and an Ivy League level SAT. Only his closest friends knew that he was top of the class not because he's smart, nor he understood everything in high school, but because he's trying his best to get into a good school for his mother alone.
Surprisingly, Tremaine wasn't in it just for basketball.
He might have become a walk-on in the Illinois program, but his reasons for getting there had always been his heroic mother.
Tremaine spent many days and nights inside Deshaun's family home, with the absence of his ever working mother, striving to pay off the astronomical amount of debt they're on.
Deshaun knew how much Tremaine's hard working personality had been shaped by his mom's own determined exploits.
She worked several jobs no one wanted to do, worked tirelessly, and got paid little, but always showed up in front of her son with a smile on her face, as if everything she's been doing was nothing but a breeze.
Deshaun knew how much Tremaine felt responsible for his mom's future.
"Just open it, man! The results won't change if you wait, anyway!" Deshaun himself tapped the email button, and Tre's exam results opened amid both their eyes.
12/100.
Tremaine's heart sank.
Deshaun could not believe it either.
'Mom, I'm sorry… I didn't work hard enough...'
***
Tremaine woke up dreaming about an unforgettable memory.
The day he failed all his final exams and was kicked from the team.
Oh, those were the days.
Tremaine was smiling ear to ear, looking forward to another day to work hard in his chosen craft, and academics too.
He won't ever let his mother down again.
If he had to hustle for both his basketball career and his education, so be it. He will do it for himself, and his mother.
It is already the middle of October, and midterm exams are looming over the horizon, the same way the NCAA season is.
Perhaps it was a good thing that Coach Michael Roughan had decreased the number of practices scheduled for this week in preparation for his players' exams.
Tremaine sank himself into reading presentation slides early in the morning, before he goes jogging with the crew in an hour.
05:30 am.
The digital clock in the middle of the two beds read.
While Deshaun and his girlfriend slept soundly— unsurprisingly, these two were excellent students that don't need the extra bit of studying to succeed— Tremaine read these concepts he didn't understand one bit.
He snacked on protein bars and some leftover vegetable salad from last night as he delved deeper into his own consciousness.
"So if the first one is true, and the second one is true as well… the third one should be true as well…?" Tremaine was flabbergasted. "Hehe, who am I kidding, fuck this shit!"
Tremaine threw the photocopied presentation slides into the air in annoyance.
"Oh shit I'm sorry, I need to pass! Damn it all!" Before the papers hit his bed again, he panicked and reached out for them one by one.
Tremaine forced himself to read until it was six in the morning, before he quickly dressed up and exited the house to start his daily running routine.
"Damn, early morning is a lot less lively around midterms." Tremaine was now used to the lively mornings in the campus. A lot of active students were running or biking often, late night party goers were usually about to return to their dorms drunk, and some study groups started their activities for the day early.
But the early morning campus life had taken a hit with midterms looming.
One by one, their usual, growing group of joggers had joined them. Six freshmen, two sophomores, and two juniors...
"Don't take midterms lightly, huh, rookies?" Khalil ran at the head of the group. "But don't study too hard, it's not efficient that way!"
"Don't listen to him, you should know he's in the running for high Latin honors!" The other junior in their group, that's actually a junior, Dwayne said. "Just believe me, an average, hardworking 2.2 GPA student, when I tell you to burn the midnight oil if you're not confident enough to pass."
"As Dwayne said, I'm the better student here, so my advice should be better too." Khalil did not even blink about his humble brag. "Think about it as a genius senior passing down his teachings."
Tremaine was not even surprised. In his first life, Khalil Ogwuzeni finished college with flying colors, conferred with the honor of magna cum laude, and got drafted in the first round of the NBA draft the same year.
"If you want advice from a fellow struggling student, you should ask me, rooks." Rugged Quandre Thornton flexed his heavily tattooed right bicep. "My biggest midterm advice is… do the little things."
"Little things?" Kristian Geis is a bookworm, and cared a lot about his academic standing, so he's more sensitive to advice.
"Most of the time, you can salvage your semester by doing the small assignments, tasks, quizzes, sometimes even attendance, you know." Quandre talked confidently about how he maintains his grade. "I'm not good at studying before exams, so I usually get below average exam grades, but I never failed a single class."
"But it's better to focus on exams." The other sophomore, Samuel Andrews Jr. said. "We're opposites, because I'm not that hardworking in the classroom, but I can ace exams, so if you're like me, you should do your best to get the best exam score."
The six rookies at the back had been missing their seniors' input all this time. Of course, they themselves have their own habits to deal with academics as student athletes, however, hearing how their seniors' dealt with it is eye opening.
With midterms, and the college basketball season, just around the corner, every little bit of help would go such great lengths.
Tremaine promised himself, he'd absolutely do well.