Mistook Their Nods for An Approval

So this is a depressing report. I'll tell the tale as a story so I don't sound like I'm whining.

So once upon a time there was this girl. She was never able to do anything right. Acknowledgment and awards were never in her name, and she thought she found something that maybe might get her something worth telling. Finally, bragging rights were going to be in her favor. Months, she spent. Writing and reconfiguring a story she knew she was going to submit in a contest. People supported her, helped her edit, and gave her inspirations to make the story realistic and unique.

Vacation came by, and she had the thirty paged novel in an envelope, all ready to be sent out for ruthless critiquing. The last step was to get a signature from her mother. She had explained everything to her mother the entire time, and the mother knew that she was to sign it and send it out. The signing sheet? That's where the explosions started.

"DON'T YOU KNOW HOW TO READ?" She exclaimed. "FINE PRINT. READ THE FINE PRINT. YOU NEVER SIGN ANYTHING WITHOUT READING THE FINE PRINT. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS FINE PRINT SAYS? READ!"

The girl was stunned. What just happened?

The mother continued with rage and annoyance at her daughter's stupidity. "This... says.. that you are allowing them to your work. It is no longer your work. It also says that your NAME and AGE and LOCATION OF SCHOOL will be released to GOD KNOWS WHO. Your information will be 'out there' for anyone to take. You know that this all means? That colleges will use this to critique your work as an exercise in college. You know what THAT means? Huh? That anyone in college will be able to know exactly who you are! And what if someone says 'oh hey! I can make money off of this!' YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? THAT YOU GET NO CUT OF ANY OF THE PROFIT! THIS, TTHHIISSS is why you never enter anything. STOP DOING THIS SH-- TO ME. I CAN'T TAKE IT. YOUR TEACHERS THINK THEY'RE HELPING YOU WHEN THEY SIGN YOU UP FOR S--- LIKE THIS. LOOK AT THE FINE PRINT. YOU NEVER SIGN ANYTHING WITHOUT READING, AND GOD FORBID UNDERSTANDING THE FINE. PRINT."

So the mother signed the paper angrily, threw it at the table, and burst out of the room.

"Don't ever do anything like this again."

And so she never got to send in the book that took her about six months to write.

The end.