Swell (Complete)

Chapter Forty-One (Part One)

"I need to pull myself together,
If we're talking about forever,
Then this room just got a little bit smaller."

....

Adora waited in the library Monday morning, Dodge had taken her to school with him, and she had immediately gone inside the warm library and pulled her psych books out.
The sky was dark outside and the clouds threatened downpours later in the day.
Nightmares had disturbed her sleep overnight; nightmares of Gus chasing her at the waterfalls, nightmares of him driving himself and his car into the waterfalls.
She knew she was going to struggle through the exam. Iain sat on the other side of the table, rereading his own notes from their study session yesterday.
Conversation hadn't found her any time since her mum had woken her up that morning. Edgar had been on the floor beside her bed and she'd nearly stood on him as she'd gotten up for a shower.
She pushed the screen on her iPod and skipped the song. Her headphones kept people from trying to talk to her and gave her a small escape as they waited for their exam.
She was struggling to focus and she was anxious that her restless sleep would break her concentration during the exam.
It felt unreal that Gus was dead, she half expected him to come parading into the library and announcing it was just some stupid joke for attention.
But the more she thought about it, the more she recognised that it had always been his car she'd seen in the water.
She leaned forward and put her forehead on the table, closing her eyes and feeling her jaw tense.
The funeral would be in Gus' home town, how long would it take to prepare? She would definitely go; Gus had been her first relationship, as short lived and shallow as it had been they'd shared everything behind the waterfalls and over summer.
She felt her eyes stinging and sniffed.
He wouldn't have been the one who sent her the notes, there was no way she could believe he'd attacked his cousin.
But she'd rejected him, and he'd killed himself at the place they'd spent most of their romance in.

"Adora?"
Iain's voice made her jump and she lifted her head and looked around in confusion.
The library. "Iain..." She was in the library with her cousin. "I must have dozed off." She wiped her face and shivered.
"Yea, but we've got fifteen minutes til our exam, so lets go." He'd already packed up his books, and she could see he'd done the same for her.
"Oh my gosh." She breathed as she stood up. "I need to go to the toilet and wash my face." She was surprised that she felt better after the nap, but didn't have time to think about it.
"We have time for that. Come on."
When Adora splashed the water on her face she met her eyes in the mirror over the sink. Rain had broken during her nap and it pattering on the windows softly.
Her skin looked paler than she was used to and she sniffed.
She wanted to hide in the corner stall alone, one of the old habit's she'd fallen into during her grief. She closed her eyes and put her hands on the edge of the sink.
"Come on, Adora, keep it together. Just for this week." She felt her cheek getting warm and forced her eyes open. "You can hide when exams are over." She told her reflection.
There was a knock on the door and Iain called her name out.
"Coming!" She answered taking a deep breath and blowing it out loudly. "You can do this."
"You alright?" Iain looked at her with a worried smile.
"I have to be." She forced a tight smile. His smile turned sympathetic and she leaned into her cousin as they walked towards the exam room.
Tom and Will were standing opposite each other, Will leaning against the wall and Tom moving from leg to leg.
"Ready?" Iain asked the twins as they approached.
"As ready as I'm ever going to be for an exam." Tom smiled.
Adora looked from Tom's handsome smile to Will. His smile was a lot less convincing, and the circles under his eyes made him look as though he hadn't slept since their study session the day before.
"Are you alright?" She asked with a frown.
"Just tired." He shrugged off the concern and the door to the classroom opened signalling that the students were allowed to enter and find their tables. Tom led the way and Adora watched as Will turned away from her and followed.
Will looked worse than he had at Elissa's funeral. Adora had never thought that possible.
"Go on." Iain pushed her gently and she stumbled a step or two before she balanced and entered the classroom.
"You have two hours to complete the exam..." Dodge was supervising the exam and he started to explain the rules as Adora sat down at the table assigned to her.
"Good luck, your exam starts in five minutes." He gave her a small smile from the front of the room and she tried to return it before filling in the identification section.

By the time the exam was over, Will's hand was aching from writing so furiously; not because he was worried, but because he kept looking at Adora across the room and wondering how she was doing.
He left the classroom in a hurry, too tired to focus on conversation, too guilt ridden from his nightmare during the night.
He'd eaten breakfast in silence, and studied in his room for the hour before he and Tom left for the exam.
Marti was spending the day adding finishing touches to her art presentation that was due the next day and her door was wide open when Will walked down the hallway.
"Hey you." Her voice caught him as he passed and he froze for a few moments before he turned and forced a smile.
"Hey back."
"How did the exam go?" Marti put her paint brush down and turned her attention from the canvas before her.
"It's a pass, how's your work going?" He stepped into the room and started to head towards the other side to look at the canvas.
"No peeking!" She stood up and held her hands up to stop him from getting close enough to see and smiled mischievously.
Will blinked and frowned. "Wow, OK." He forced a small chuckle and stepped back from her hands.
"It's going to be a present once it's graded." Marti added.
"For me?"
"I haven't decided yet, so you can't see until I do."
Will smiled down at her. "Alright, you're the boss. I'm going for a nap, I'm beat."
"Yea, I can see. You look like you're sick." Marti's hand touched his forehead for a few moments. "You feel... cold." She took her hand away and tilted her head.
"I didn't sleep well last night, exam stress I guess." He shrugged.
"Well, go have your nap, do you need me to wake up you so you can sleep tonight?"
Will looked outside of her window. "Yea, can you come make sure I'm awake in an hour? If I sleep in tomorrow, or sleep through my alarm, I'm fucked."
Marti nodded and laughed a little. "Done like dinner!" She leaned over and kissed his cheek.
"Thanks, sis." He left the room and dawdled to his own bedroom. Closing the door behind him he walked over to his bed and turned his back before he let himself fall onto the mattress.
He laid half on the mattress and stared at the roof for a few minutes. He kicked his shoes off and moved onto his side, his eyes staring at his window.
Seeing Adora before the exam, watching her during the exam and seeing her hair slip out from behind her ears to fall over her face; it made him ache to ask her to the dance.
I'm sorry, Liss, forgive me.
He shut his eyes tightly. Liss would have liked Adora, he was sure of it, but Iain had told him about Gus, and he remembered what he'd heard about Adora and Gus' summer and considering he'd just found out Liss had been murdered, and he knew Adora would be attending another funeral within the next week or so; he wasn't sure if asking her to the dance was going to happen.
Marti had told him that they would be going regardless, Iain had mentioned he'd be their chaperone if Adora still went, but after two funerals and exams, would she?