This all reminds me of Johnny, the bright one in the family, coming home with a report card with mostly B's but a couple of C's on it. It's not the end of the world. Johnny is in no danger of failing and he'll graduate without a problem.
Jimbob, his twin, the perennial family underachiever and local bully who managed to get his grades up from D's to C's briefly, and only by repeating the same grade over a couple of times, gets a couple of weeks before his report card is issued to spread tales of how terrible Johnny is doing, not to mention how brilliantly he is performing to anyone who'll listen. By repeating the story often enough, some people begin to believe the tale.
A couple weeks later, Jimbob arrives home with his report card and much to everyone's surprise, his report card has a few F's, mostly D's with a solitary C. His parents aren't happy and he is given a solid paddling.
Poor old Jimbob has to go back to the drawing board. His plan to make it through high school is off the rails and it's obvious immediate changes are required if he doesn't want to repeat 12th grade for a third time.
