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Chapter Four - Zinnia

Even though Zinnie and Dakota had physically left their music lessons, their souls were still in there. They hummed to the beat of the tune they were composing together, their minds enthralled by the rhythm and they were busy figuring out a little bit where the tune didn’t quite fit. Their joy was quickly vanquished when they entered the History room. Mr Wool glared at the two latecomers who quickly took their seats.

“Okay class, so today we’re going to be doing a surprise test which will determine which set you will be in for the rest of the year,” he started handing out the exams, “Usually we have two sets, but with so many of you taking history this year, we’ve had to increase it to three. I’m going to hand out the test papers, but don’t start until I tell you.”

Oh, for the love of…

Zinnie thought before twisting around to see how the other students were reacting. Dakota, who was seated next to Zinnie, seemed fine, she always was fine with exams - the lucky girl did amazingly in all of them, no matter the subject. Ryder was complaining to Sam, as were most of the others. The girl on the opposite side of Dakota was a completely different matter. Her hands were shaking and her eyes wide. Zinnie realised she was the new girl but she couldn’t remember her name. Hey, Zinnie wondered, shouldn’t she be allowed to revise a little? Does she even know what the topic is about?

“Begin.” The sound of the thirty sheets of paper being turned filled the room, as well as the silence. The pupils around the room began scribbling their answers.

Relief. Zinnie could answer the questions - easy as pie. She kept writing, glad for the extra revision she’d done two nights before.  She got to a particularly hard question, she spent some time organising her thoughts before she looked up for a second. No one was moving. Not that it was incredibly odd, but it was just so still and silent. Zinnie looked up at the clock; it too was frozen at 9:51.

Is there any way to describe the feeling that you get when you notice time has stopped? Disbelief was Zinnie’s first reaction, wondering if she was still in bed, dreaming. She glanced up again, rubbing her eyes, and out of the corner of her eye glimpsed movement. Swift as a fox, she turned to look at whatever moved. Two bright blue eyes stared back at her - the new girl. Sky, Zinnie remembered. Sky. The girl who had somehow paused time and was taking the opportunity to cheat, using Dakota’s answers.  

Enraged, Zinnie stood. Her eyes took in the cowering figure of Sky. She raised one long finger and pointed at her.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

If it was possible, Sky appeared to shrink into a smaller space than she had previously been, “What do you mean?”

“You. You were cheating!”

What Zinnie had failed to notice, being so wrapped up in her anger, was that time had somehow started again. The clock started ticking, the students turned to stare and Mr Wool put down his paper and eyed Zinnie.

“Zinnia Daley. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

                           *

Zinnie sat on a chair outside the Headmaster's office, her legs and arms crossed. She held a nonchalant expression; every now and then she would grind her teeth and frown a little in irritation. She pulled the stoic look back on when Mr Wool left the office and beckoned Zinnie. She contemplated ignoring him, but decided the trouble wasn’t worth it, so untangled herself and made her way into the surprisingly small office.

The headmaster was seated behind his desk, as one would suspect, shuffling through some papers.

“Here, sir.” Mr Wool said, and backed away slightly.

“Miss Daley,” Mr Rogan looked up at Zinnie, “take a seat.”

Zinnie wondered what Mr Rogan would do if Zinnie literally took the chair offered and ran away with it. Would she get into more trouble than she was already in?

“Let’s get straight to the point,” as if to emphasise his straight-forward speech, Mr Rogan created a triangle with his fingers, “I hear that you, Zinnie were found to have been standing in your History exam, disturbing the other pupils and claiming that the new student, Sky Chance, was cheating?”

“That was a very long-winded getting to the point, sir.”

Mr Rogan sighed, “Zinnia; am I correct?”

“Well, sir, you had the eye witness of thirty students. I am sure you are most likely correct.” Zinnie’s voice was bitter; she stared at the wooden desk, examining the pattern of the wood chips.

“Zinnie – is it alright if I call you that?” Mr Rogan’s manner became reproachful again after Zinnie shrugged in response. “Zinnie. Was she really cheating?”

Zinnie kept her gaze on the stain on the desk, she had three options. Firstly, she could say that she had seen Sky cheating out of the corner of her eye. But Mr Wool had most likely convinced Mr Rogan that it was, in fact, Zinnie who had been cheating. Her second option was to ‘admit’ that she was lying. Zinnie wondered if she was, maybe not lying, but perhaps she’d been mistaken. Perhaps she’d gotten tired and daydreamed the entire scene. After thinking that Zinnie would remember Sky’s face, Sky knew it too. She couldn’t have been lying. Yet she couldn’t tell Mr Rogan that Sky had stopped time and cheated - Mr Rogan would either punish her more or send her to a shrink.

Zinnie sighed, her last choice.

“I’m sorry sir,” she hung her head, “I’ve been really tired lately and I may have dropped into a half sleep and mistook Sky for cheating, I’m really terribly sorry, I’ll-”

Mr Rogan clasped the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb. “Alright, alright, I’ll tell Mr Wool you are allowed to retake the test. Tomorrow. Now, break time is almost over so I advise you to go now.”

“Yes sir,” Zinnie was off her chair and at the door in the time it took Mr Rogan to blink, “thank you sir.”