Chapter 1 (1)

**July 24th, 2020**

**Friday**

**Jean International High School, Class 3B**

Tick tock tick tock tick tock.

The sound of the analogue clock above the writing board was the only sound heard in the classroom alongside the sound of pens scratching paper, as students of Class 3B of the Jean International High School wrote their last examination as high school students.

Victoria checked the time again for the 4th time.

After answering the last question, she placed the pen down and went through the paper just to make sure she made no mistakes. Confirming there were no errors, she arranged the papers and placed them on the desk.

It was a two-and-a-half-hour paper with only 26 minutes left.

Looking around, she saw Evelyn, who was on her right side, two desks away, with her head on the desk.

"Ahh, it seems she finished early this time," Victoria said with a surprised look on her face. After all, history was considered by some a very unpredictable subject, especially when answering question sets by the history teacher, Mr. John, who was known for setting questions outside the school's teaching curriculum. One had to rely on other teaching materials as well.

Turning her head to her left side, she found other students writing, with some finished. Class 3B had a total of 36 students — 15 boys and 21 girls — and in all, only 25 pupils showed signs of completing the questions, with the rest not done.

Victoria leaned back slightly in her chair, careful not to make a sound that would disturb the remaining students. She glanced once more at the clock. Twenty-three minutes now. She folded her hands neatly on the desk and let her eyes drift toward the window.

responded

Outside, the sky was a pale, washed-out blue, the kind that usually meant the rains were not far off. A mango tree at the edge of the school compound swayed lazily in the afternoon breeze, its dark leaves catching the light. Victoria watched it for a moment, letting her mind wander torespondedest of the day would look like — the first afternoon in three years with no revision notes to read, no past questions to attempt, no sleep to sacrifice.

It felt strange. Liberating, but strange.

A quiet shuffling pulled her back. One of the boys near the front, Samuel, was pressing his pen down with visible urgency, his handwriting growing messier with each passing minute. She almost felt sorry for him. Almost. Samuel ha,d spent most of the revisi"on week playin"g football behind the dormitories, and Mr. John's questions had a particular way of punishing those who underestimated them.

The invigilator, a lean woman named Mrs. Aubrey, stood at the front of the room with her arms crossed and her eyes moving slowly across the rows. She was strict, but fair — the kind of teacher who would not add a single extra second to the time, not even out of pity. Everyone in Class 3B knew that.

Evelyn stirred. She lifted her head slightly, turned to look at Victoria with half-opened eyes, and offered a small, tired smile. Victoria returned it. They had been friends since eighth grade, the kind of friendship built not on loud laughter and shared secrets alone, but on sitting side by side through hard things — through difficult teachers, through family troubles whispered between classes, through the particular exhaustion of wanting to do well and not always knowing if you had.

Today, at least, Victoria felt she had done well.

"Time's up!" Mrs. Aubrey's voice cut cleanly through the room.

The remaining students dropped their pens immediately, some with relief, others with the frustrated slump of those who had not quite reached the end. Scripts were gathered row by row, and the classroom that had been silent for hours suddenly filled with the noise of chairs scraping back, of exhaled breath, of voices returning to bodies that had held them in all morning.

"How was it?" Evelyn asked, appearing at Victoria's side as they filed toward the door.

"Good, I think," Victoria said. "Mr. John surprised us with that last question on the Berlin Conference, but I had read around it."

Evelyn groaned. "I left that one blank."

"You'll be fine," Victoria said, and she meant it.

They stepped out into the corridor, and the heat of the afternoon met them fully. Around them, students from other classes were already pouring out into the compound, some cheering, some still looking dazed. It was finished. High school was finished. The realisation settled over Victoria not like a wave, but like a long, slow exhale.

She said goodbye to Evelyn at the school gate, promising to message her on Mevo later, and adjusted the strap of her bag on her shoulder before stepping out onto the main road.

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