Far from one another, two students sit among masses of jittery companions, clutching their mechanical pencils and nervously playing with them.

On Leah’s desk is a thick packet of questions suitable for the rigorous class known as AP Biology, beside a perfectly positioned eraser. This exam had been the subject of nightmares for a while now, but the moment had arrived for her to pick up her scattered pencil and lock eyes with her adversary.

Her eyes land on the very first question.

“If hydrolysis is inhibited, which type of movement across cell membranes is also inhibited?”

Her trusted pencil strides across the paper proudly, scrawling down a fragment of the spring of knowledge that welled in her mind. She silently thanks Sam for drilling her so intently on the process.

As time ticks away, the usual burst of panic doesn’t wash over her. She seems to be on schedule, answering questions carefully and in a handwriting one would have to squint to decipher. Her eyes almost gleam with a joy from knowing many of the questions, only offset by a few concepts that she hadn’t fully gotten the grasp of – but even that wasn’t enough of staunch her renewal. Even her teacher, a strict woman with hair as white as snow, raises an eyebrow at the pace at which she hears paper rustle under her agile fingers.

It is a peculiar feeling, but she enjoys it.

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Sam’s mind incessantly wanders to Leah as he neatly hands in his essay. It is a lengthy, well-crafted piece he is undoubtedly proud of, on the underlying themes in “Hamlet” and how they affect various aspects of the world. He prepared for such an exam for weeks, practicing analyzing text and reading a book on symbolism (to Leah’s delight).

She would be proud, thinks Sam. He leans against the back of his chair, slumping as the final minutes of the exam pass. While he can’t ignore the daunting possibility of his teacher failing him for his uncommon approach, he tries to wipe such memories from his mind.

The timer on her phone begins to blare a peppy tune, the harbinger of death to remaining students. As students rise with groans of resignation, Sam strides to his backpack to find his phone and text Leah. For some inexplicable reason, he wants to excitedly tell her about it and admit how much he’d learned after they’d awkwardly restarted their practice sessions.

And that, to him, is horrifying.