Faking Elegance H.S.

LX

TW for implications of suicide and sexual assault.

•••••

Monday, the thirteenth of May, marked the start of the dreaded week of final examinations. It also marked nearly three weeks since I had last seen Harry- though, it felt like three months. But, that was besides the point. It was finals week.

The prospect of taking finals was making me incredibly anxious. I hadn't studied as much as I had before the midterm examinations, so I was ill-prepared, but needless to say, I had other things on my mind.

The schedule for final exams was the same as it had been for the midterm exams, which meant that, unfortunately, the first final I had to take was Shakespearean Literature.

At 7:45am, I stood outside of the door to the exam room, my right shoulder against the door frame as I waited to be let in, wanting to select the same seat I had sat in for the midterm exam. The majority of my classmates- at least, those who weren't regularly late for class- leaned against the wall next to me or across from me, lining the hallway. Some people talked quietly to each other. The guy who stood to my left clicked his pen incessantly. I stared down at my shoes.

I had pulled my hair up into a high ponytail, wanting it off of my neck because it was a particularly warm morning already- it was only supposed to get hotter throughout the day- and there wasn't air conditioning in every room at the university. The only rooms with air conditioning units were the labs, and the rest had oscillating stand fans, but those weren't very effective in a room full of people.

With my neck exposed, I was very aware of a sudden chill- that unnerving feeling that rushes down your spine when you can feel someone's eyes on you. I looked up, scanning my eyes along the line of people across from me, noting that mostly everyone was either staring at their phone or conversing in hushed tones, but as I gazed diagonally to my left, I made eye contact with Rebecca, who quickly averted her gaze to the floor. My suspicions had been correct, though they were only based on instinct, but someone had been staring at me- Rebecca.

She glanced back up at me, offered a tight-lipped smile, and then turned to face Liam and Victoria, who stood beside her.

I didn't have time to truly analyze the subtle interaction because, only a moment later, the door to the exam room opened.

•••••

I left the exam with an incessant hand cramp, but other than that, I thought the exam had gone relatively smoothly.

About halfway through the multiple choice section I realized that, because I actually did read all of the required material for the class, there was really no way I could fail the exam unless I decided to skip questions instead of taking educated guesses. I knew enough about various plays and sonnets to assume that I had gotten at least seventy-five percent of the multiple choice questions correct. However, the essay section was brutal. It wasn't necessarily brutal because of the content of it- I could write under pressure, even a trio of five hundred word essays chosen from eight different prompts- but it was brutal because it required writing continuously for two hours, and my hand just couldn't take it.

I cracked my knuckles and wrists as I walked down the hall and through the lobby of the North Building.

"You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up," someone said from behind me, just as I placed my hands on one of the lobby doors to push it open.

Liam and Victoria pushed through the other door, and Rebecca walked through the door a few seconds later, pacing herself with my strides.

"Uh, hey, Dahlia," she said to me. There was a gentle smile on her face, yet she appeared to be nervous. She was toying with a diamond tennis bracelet she wore on her left wrist.