”Dammit.” Twilight Sparkle cursed quietly to herself as the lead of her pencil broke. She took the pencil out of her right hand and rubbed her index finger. The skin had turned red and sore. She put the finger to her lips and leaned forward.
The classroom was quiet apart from the sound other pencils scratching against paper. Twilight looked over the ones in front of her. They were all leaning over their exams. She was the only one she could see that was looking up.
Twilight took a wrapped sweet out of candy bag. She unraveled it slowly to make the paper rustle less. She put the toffee into her mouth and started chewing. The toffee was hard and tough at first but after a few hard bites it started to grow soft. The taste of sugar filled her mouth as she pressed the brown square against the roof of her mouth.
When the toffee was half melted, she pressed her face into her hands and pushed into her palms. She reached up until the tips of her fingers touched the base of her hair. Her fingers kept creeping up hair. Her hands were about to climb over her face when she stopped them. The bottom of her palms pressed against her eyes. A trembling breath passed her lips. She could feel her arms twitching and hear her heart beating.
The tips of her fingers slowly trailing down the length of her face. They stopped right next to her nose.
Twilight glanced over at the watch hanging over the exit door. The short visor just below the eleven and the longer one nudging just above the two.
Plenty of time left. Twilight told herself. Plenty of time.
A short, sharp breath passed between her teeth. Twilight forced herself to look down at the paper in front of her.
The white paper was covered in rough scrambles and uneven letters. Her eyes darted back and forth as she read through the answer.
By the end, her heart pounded against her barrel and her forehead grew shining with sweat. Twilight buried her face between her palms. “Fuck.”
Nothing on the paper made any sense or formed any kind of answer to the question. It was a blur of hasty letters and crude figures.
Twilight grabbed her eraser and rubbed it across the paper until it became grey and crinkly. Once she was done, Twilight reached back down her bag and took out another piece of candy. This time it was a skull. One half black and licorice, the other half pink and tasting of strawberries. She bit into the top half and tore it off before taking a mouthful of water from her water bottle.
The letters seemed to flow out of easier now.
The tip of her pencil moved across the paper,
filling up the answer sheet.
Next question. Twilight flipped the paper and put the rest of the skull in her mouth. After a quick readthrough, a cold feeling started settling in her stomach.
She knew the answer, what to write and how to write it. But the letters refused to come out on the paper.
What is the answer?
The pencil stayed still at the top of the paper.
The tip just hovering below the question. Her hand trembled slightly.
“What´s the answer?” She asked herself again.
The pen stayed still. The cold feeling grew from her stomach up to her throat. As if a set of icy fingers had wrapped around her neck.
Twilight held her breath and her muscles tensed.
I know the answer. Twilight told herself but the pen refused to move.
The cold sensation started crawling up her head. Twilight put the pencil aside and pushed her fingers through her hair. She scratched the base of her hair, little beige flakes of skin drifted down from her hair. She pulled her hand out and flexed her fist. Her fingers itched.
Twilight put her hand over the fist and squeezed the fingers into her palm. The tip of her nose started to itch. She gave it a few rough scratches with her nails.
Write down the answer. She picked up the pen again and pressed the tip down on the paper. A black spot formed just below the tip. With an angry push, Twilight managed to get the pen moving and after what seemed like an hour, she had managed to form and write down an answer.
Sweat rolled down her nose and gathered up into droop at the tip. By a wipe of her palm, Twilight removed it. She reached down into the bag again and took out a blue bottle covered in white sugar. The bottle was sour with the sugar crystals crackling as she chewed on the sweet.
She pressed her water bottle to her lips and washed the sour taste down with a slush of timid water. The water stirred inside the bottle for a moment after she put it back down.
The page turned without Twilight reading the answer she put down. The next question was easy. Just a simple one-word answer question. She wrote down the answer and moved on to the next question.
This one was from a different teacher, asking for different things in a different way.
Twilight felt a cold lump growing in her stomach when she realized that this question demanded a far more elaborate answer. Her hand started trembling as she read the question. By the end, her breath was shaking uneasily and her lips twitched.
Twilight closed her eyes and her mouth. She took large deep breaths through her nose but her entire body kept shivering as if a chill gripped her. With an unsteady hand, she took reached into the bag and grabbed the first candy that meet her fingers. Hastily she put in her mouth, chewed on it a couple of times and swallowed it in one quick gulp.
A few crystals of sugar stayed between her teeth, crunching and grinding in her mouth. Her nose itched and Twilight scratched it.
She picked up her pencil and read through the question again. “Okay.” A pressure built up against her temples. I can do this.
The first word took a solid minute to write out. The second one went faster. And the one after that faster for the one after that. After a few minutes, she had her answer written out.
It turned a short, five-line paragraph.
Five lines? Twilight almost spoke out loud when she read through her answer. There´s no way that can be enough.
After a quick readthrough, Twilight found the answer wanting. The problem was that she had no idea what. It was just a lingering idea in the back of her head. She rubbed her eyes with the base of her palms and sighed.
Just one more question. Twilight thought, her face resting in the palms with her fingers hiding everything below her eyes. I need at least sixty percent. A few numbers rushed through her head. Sixty percent was the minimum. How many points would she have already?
Twilight flipped back through the pages, hastily reading through the questions and the answers. Every one of them made her fingers tremble, reading through them. She was dead certain on some of these the first time she read and answered them but now none of it seemed to make any sense. It was all just a mess of words and numbers scribbled onto the paper.
The hairs on her arms rose and a cold trickle went under her skin. Like a cold wave of icy water was pushing itself between the layer fat under her skin and the red muscles. It started at her finger tips and spread like a shockwave up to her head. Twilight could feel the roots of her hair flexing and pulling, trying to make her hair rise.
Twilight closed her fist and rose from the chair. She walked up to the man watching over the room and asked for permission to go to the bathroom. He obliged and Twilight rushed over to the closest bathroom. She grabbed the nearest sink and turned the tap to cold. She waited a moment and put her hands under the running water.
She splashed the cold water into her face and rubbed her temples for a moment before doing it again. The water felt colder to her face then it did to her hands. Twilight looked into the mirror and stared into her wide, violet eyes. The skin around her eyes was pale and cold. Strings of purple hair hung from her forehead down to her eye brows. The rest of her hair hanged behind her ears. Water dropped from her nose and chin. Little shinning streams formed around her nose and lips before quickly thinning out.
“Shit.” It was the only word she could form.
Twilight took the strings of hair on her forehead and pushed them back over her head. She put her hands under the running water again and gave her face another splash.
Leaning over the sink, Twilight pulled her right hand over her face and slowly, drew her hand down. A mixture of water and sweat collected in her palm. She took the sink with both hands and stared down into the drain. She turned the sink and the water twirled clockwise before rushing down.
Her head felt heavy. Like a thick piece of lead standing on a soft pike. Her legs felt like soft. Like the bones had gotten soft and flexible. A cold, biting sting wrapped around her legs.
Suddenly her breath grew rapid. Her heart started pounding. Every breath was dry and ragged. Every heartbeat stung and sent a cold wave out to the tips of her fingers.
Twilight sat down on the toilet and put both her hands on her knees. The nails dig into the fabric of her pants and pressed sharply into her skin. It didn´t matter, her arms just kept trembling.
Her eyes closed and pressed themselves together. Sharp, little breaths passed through her teeth. A salty, stinging tear rolled down her nose.
Twilight caught it before it just before it could reach the tip of her nose. Her head rose slowly out of her hand and she blinked. The fist closed and flexed tightly. The muscles tensed and her nails dug into her palms.
The fist opened and Twilight stared down at the little drop. She rubbed her palms together and let her fingers fold into each other.
“I can do this.” Twilight rose and rushed back to the classroom. She sat back down at her seat and reached into the candy bag. It was a pink fish-shaped marshmallow. Twilight chewed down the fluffy candy in two bites.
She picked up her pen and went through the final two questions. The tip of the pen moved up and down on the paper in little jerky movements. From one side of the page to the other. Fifteen minutes later she answered every question and read through them twice.
She took a deep breath and put all the pages together.