Chapter One

Papers were practically spilling off the sides of Faye’s desk. She didn’t know where to start. She couldn’t make pen meet paper. She couldn’t move at all. How could one concentrate when there was so much noise? Pens scribbling, fingers tapping, mouths yawning, the clock ticking, the patter of rain hitting the roof. A chilling draft through a half open window made her body ache and tremble. Faye felt sick.

It wasn’t the first time. It happened every exam. Faye just didn’t have the temperament for it. She felt so claustrophobic, dizzy from the stench of human odour. She read the questions but her mind wouldn’t tell her the answers.

Faye craved success. She tried hard and should have excelled, but things didn’t seem to come naturally for her. Her best friend Ashleigh could pass all her exams without studying, but Faye had to spend all her spare time going over notes only to gain a lesser grade.

Two rows ahead of Faye sat David. She intently eyed the back of his head, his soft light brown hair, and each individual freckle on the back of his neck. David was two years older than Faye, and at his final year at High School. Faye had never really spoken to him before, in fact she hardly knew him at all, but there are just some things your heart is so sure of. To Faye, David was everything she could ever want, funny, charming and utterly gorgeous. Only Ashleigh knew of her crush. Faye couldn’t trust anyone else with this burning secret.

Faye turned her attention back to the exam. She had barely written anything, and time seemed to be dissolving in the air. The clock ticked second to second, minute to minute, hour to hour. When isolated in that space, time was strange, it fluctuated in and out at different moments, like breathing. The rain fell hard and violent on the roof and the wind rattled the windows. One of the lights in the school hall blew, causing some students to whisper and murmur between themselves. A teacher had to come and settle them down.

Once again Faye found herself having to tear away her focus from David and perform a last ditch effort on her papers. In the last few minutes time stood still. The pace at which Faye wrote made time go slower, until all consciousness of time simply vanished. And then it was over. A whirlwind of handing in papers, talking, shouting and sighs of relief. Faye’s brain tuned back to normal time, where seconds were seconds and minutes were minutes.