Senior Meha Gupta  – 114 grams of happiness

After much debate, senior Meha Gupta was able to convince her dad to buy her absolute favorite food: Chocolate fudge Pop Tarts (the official PopTart brand of course — after all, generic toaster pastries don’t taste the same).

The six-pack was impatiently “calling [her] name” leaving Gupta with no choice but to eagerly dig into her new snack. She ate one, then another one and finally decided to cap it at a third. The marriage between the crunchy pastry crust and gooey chocolate filling was truly a match made in heaven, leaving no ounce of self control in her body — she didn’t even have the patience to wait for the toaster, so eating them cold was the way to go. Little did she know that her three Pop Tarts would turn into four, slyly become five and just so happen to reach six. She had finished the entire box of Pop Tarts just hours after obtaining it.  

19 grams of sugar per Pop Tart, totalling a grand 114 grams of sugar … she knew that couldn’t be good. 

–

She jolted at the sound of her father’s screaming voice from across the house  — her family’s main form of communication since quarantine — and her homework immediately became last priority. Predictably, he wanted to know what had happened to the brand new box of Pop Tarts.

Gupta felt a second chance of getting those rich, flavorful delectables fall right through her grasp as she faced her dad’s thundering question. She opened her mouth to reveal herself, but instead, a jumbled mix of word vomit stuttered its way out. 

“Well, I had the normal serving size of Pop Tarts,” Gupta said. “I just dropped a bunch of them and threw them out, that’s what happened.”

Unfortunately for Gupta, her lack of lying ability betrayed her for the hundredth time, giving her father the answer he was looking for. Disappointed at his daughter for making a horrible health choice and attempting to lie about it, he made the executive decision to never buy her Pop Tarts again, leaving her Pop Tart deprived for the past two years. 

“You know what though, I don’t regret eating those Pop Tarts,” Gupta said. “At that moment I was so happy that I ate all those Pop Tarts, so [I have] no regrets.”

Sophomore Rohit Dayanand – It’ll heal on its own

“It was stupid of me,” sophomore Rohit Dayanand said. “Really stupid.”

Breaking the status quo seemed to be just about the coolest thing back in second grade. A simple task like walking was made cooler by tying your shoelaces together, biking was made cooler by not using the handlebars and for Dayanand, getting to the other side of the school was made cooler by climbing the fence rather than using the door.  

His trendy actions, however, landed Dayanand a trip to the ER and two fractures in his left arm. 

After following his friends to the top of the fence, Dayanand jumped seven feet down and landed heavily on his arms and legs, sending a surge of intense pain throughout his body. Seconds later, he gingerly got up, brushed the dirt off his knees and continued his adventure with his friends, disregarding the climactic event right before.

It’ll probably heal on its own.

In the several hours following, Dayanand’s pain became progressively worse, forcing him to have to tell his parents. However, while jumping fences made him cool in his second grade classroom, Dayanand knew it certainly wouldn’t make him cool to his parents — in fact, he knew his parents would think it was very, very uncool. With this sentiment in mind, Dayanand announced to his parents that his arm was in pain and explained that he had fallen somewhere on the playground. All was well and Dayanand was able to get the care he needed — six months in a cast.

–

A few months later, a strange wave of guilt washed over Dayanand, poking at him to tell his parents the truth about his arm pain. Much to his surprise, his words were not met with anger, but rather confusion and annoyance, with a slight bit of amusement. Although the truth was finally out, Dayanand felt regret. 

“If I could go back in time, I wouldn’t jump the fence — if I have that option,” Dayanand said. “I would tell my parents what happened immediately because it would probably make it easier and the pain [would be] alleviated a lot faster. It would have created more clarity and in some cases, the doctor may have made a different diagnosis.”

Junior Ashlynn Ong – Love Lies

Junior Ashlynn Ong had always wanted to be in a movie, so when she was presented with the opportunity to pretend to be someone’s girlfriend at a Christmas party, all her Hollywood dreams came true. 

What had started off as a joke quickly became a reality when one of her friends’ parents asked who would be attending the Christmas party. Knowing that her friend’s parents were strict about their son spending time with girls, Ong and another friend decided to put up an act that they were dating. This meant that their friend could join them for dinner with no suspicions from his parents since Ong was in a relationship.  

She put on her jeans, crop top — careful that it wouldn’t be too cropped since she was meeting the parents — and red puffer jacket before deciding to dress up a bit more for the occasion with some extra makeup and earrings. 

Upon arrival, Ong and her supposed boyfriend’s parents hit it off, despite Ong’s evident nervousness. Ong followed the parents into the kitchen where his mom proceeded to ask her a series of questions about their relationship.

“We had no plan,” Ong said. “We hadn’t prepared a backstory or discussed any details and since I wasn’t even super close with him, I was making up random answers on the spot. I was convinced that his mom knew we were lying but we somehow got away with it.”

The few things that they had planned included him writing her a Christmas card and giving her his hoodie to wear around the house, which according to Ong, is the perfect thing to do in order to “look super in love.”

As the evening came to an end, Ong couldn’t help but feel in the wrong for what they had done. His family had been so hospitable by serving her a steak dinner, introducing her to their relatives on the phone and even giving her a Christmas gift.

“I would advise that nobody should pretend to be someone’s girlfriend at a family event,” Ong said. “I felt so bad that his family had taken in a random girl and were being so nice to me. His parents never found out about our scam and he ended up telling them that we had drifted a few weeks after Christmas.”

Junior Raymond Tian – Monkey See, Monkey Do

When junior Raymond Tian was in first grade, the character Arthur Read from the children’s show “Arthur” was his absolute favorite icon. His humorous whereabouts were of great interest to Tian, so in an attempt to live a life like Arthur, Tian decided he wanted to dress like him. 

Already having a yellow shirt, blue jeans and red shoes, Tian was avidly trying to complete his look with glasses. Much to his dismay, his 20/20 vision meant that he had absolutely no need for them. However, he didn’t want to let his perfect vision destroy his plan of being exactly like Arthur, so prior to his next doctor’s checkup, Tian crafted a “mastermind plan.”

When the time came for the vision portion of the checkup, Tian stood on the red line taped on the floor and squinted as hard as he could. Not wanting to be too suspicious, Tian recited the first few lines correctly, but proceeded to incorrectly name the rest of the letters on the chart. Leaving his mother shocked at the massive vision decline, Tian felt great triumph when his doctor recommended he go see an eye specialist. 

“I was so excited to hear that because my plan was playing out exactly the way it was supposed to,” Tian said. “I felt so smart to have played my doctor — I could almost feel a pair of brand new glasses fall into my lap.”

Feeling victorious, Tian planned on using the same method at the eye doctor. The “fancy” machines were unable to intimidate him, allowing for an experienced, confident Tian to enter the exam room. He gave arbitrary responses during each eye exam, but became progressively more anxious once the doctor kept asking him to repeat certain tests. 

At the end of his appointment, the doctor sat Tian and his mother down and explained to them that he didn’t believe Tian was, “a genuine candidate for glasses.” He chuckled as he shared that he had witnessed many children doing similar things and suggested that his mother purchase him a pair of fake glasses. 

“If I had to go back in time, I would wish that I wouldn’t watch PBS Kids after school,” Tian said. “If I watched television in the mornings, I would have never seen ‘Arthur’ and never had my first-grade pride damaged.”