Accidents Will Happen

Chapter Fourteen

"Ten more minutes," announced the professor as he meandered in between the rows of desks.

Startled out of her reveries, Galinda looked up at the computer screen before her and blanched. Evidently, she'd spent the majority of the past hour in a world of her own, meaning that more than a third of her table was left blank. She hadn't even begun creating any frequency tables or charts! At this point, there was no chance in hell that she was going to catch up and complete her work on time. All at once, the realisation hit her that she'd bomb this test spectacularly, and that there was no way to prevent this.

Overwhelmed by the prospect, she buried her face in her hands. Oz, what was she going to do? This was a disaster. Thoughts were racing through her head, too fast and too meddled to be of any help. The sounds of busy typing and clicking all around her only served to exacerbate her distress. Mere two days ago, she'd tutored a fellow student who'd asked for her help. Now, it was going to be her who'd score the lowest mark in the entire class. Oh, the humiliation, the scandal!

She didn't have to open her eyes to sense the lecturer's approach. His footsteps paused just behind her, and she screwed her eyes shut tightly, vividly imagining his amazement at her lack of progress. It was a good job that he couldn't voice his disappointment right there and then. Seconds crawled by like minutes. When he finally moved on, Galinda sunk down further, only snapping back up due to the pitiful beep the computer gave when her arm squarely pushed down on the keyboard.

Sucking in a shaky breath, she blinked at the screen with misty eyes. Perhaps, the most level-headed solution would have been to buckle down and complete as much of the assignment as possible in the remaining time. But level-headed was not her thing right now, which was the exact reason why she was in this mess in the first place. And what difference was there between zero percent and fifty anyway, when the only acceptable score was eighty percent or higher?

"Time's up. I need you to save and close your work now."

She made the necessary clicks while barely glancing at the screen. Professor Yrickk made his round one last time to ensure that all students had stopped working before he instructed them to hand in their files by placing them in the shared folder.

"Feel free to leave once you're finished," he added and returned to his desk to gather his own belongings.

Galinda sluggishly followed his directions, then stood and shouldered her bag. She picked up her handout and stared at it as if trying to incinerate the paper with her hateful glare alone. When that failed, she tore the sheets into half and crushed them into a small ball.

"Miss Galinda."

She stopped short of dunking the crumpled paper into the bin. Turning around listlessly, she chided herself. How stupid she'd been for not being the first to dash out of the room.

"Yes, professor?"

He motioning for her to come closer, but after a brief look, she shook her head.

"I'm sorry, I'm late for my next class," she muttered. Giving him a curt nod, she spun on her heel and left.

In truth, her next architecture lecture would be in a theatre mere two floors below the computer lab. She avoided the crammed lift on the way there and took the stairs instead. Upon arrival on the ground floor, she immediately slipped into the accessible bathroom next to the fire door.

The door locked. For the next few moments, she'd be safe. Tiredly, she walked three steps backwards and let herself flop into the armchair in the corner of the small room. She cradled her head in her right hand, elbow resting on the armrest of the chair.