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“Come on!” Kat says, shoving me hard so that I almost fall off the bed.
“Okay, okay,” I mutter and sit up, rubbing my eyes. “Seriously, where’s the fire?”
“You’re kidding, right? We’re taking exams in like an hour, and you still need to get showered and dressed.”
Shit. The exam. It’s today, and this time, I can’t afford to miss it. This is what I’ve been working myself to death for.
I roll out of bed and grab my things, rushing to the showers. They’re packed with students getting ready for class. I find an open shower and scrub myself as quickly as I can, not bothering to wash my hair. I’ll do that later when I can breathe.
My stomach twists in a knot of nerves. When I reach the room again, Kat has a cereal bar and a bottle of water for me.
“You’re a star,” I say.
We leave the room, and I feel sick to my stomach with nerves.
“You’re going to do fine,” Kat says. “You were up all night studying, and you’ve aced every test and assignment so far. You’ve got this.”
I nod, but I’m scared.
When I got here, I cheated my way into college, I lied my way into a class schedule, and nothing I did counted in my favor. The tests I took weren’t marked, and the assignments I did weren’t going to help me with my degree because I wasn’t enrolled.
Now that I’m an official student here, everything is different. I had a lot of catching up to do when Stone got me into the system. He threw his weight around to get me a spot, he paid my way when I had nothing, but the hard work came down to me.
I caught up with every test and assignment the rest of the class had already done. I studied harder than the rest of them. I barely spent time outside my dorm room, aside from seeing Stone and finding food at the cafeteria to eat. That part, by the way, is included in being a student, and I don’t need to steal cash to get food in my belly anymore, either.
God bless Stone. Sometimes, he can be such an asshole, but I love him so much.
When we walk into the examination hall, Kat gives me a quick hug.
“Good luck,” she says.
“You too.”
We walk to our designated seats, and I wait for my paper to be handed out. My fingers are trembling, and my heart hammers against my ribs. This is it—this is where I move on to the next year. This is where the rest of my life really starts.
I just hope I’m ready.
Kat keeps telling there’s no way I can fail. The moment I walked into college, I knew it was going to be a breeze, but when my grades actually count and there’s pressure on me, everything changes. I want to do this right. I want to do well.
The paper lands on my desk, and I wait for the moderator to give us the go-ahead before turning it over. My eyes flit over the work, and I feverishly take in the questions.
When I realize it’s everything I know, I relax. I’ve gone through all of this extensively. I know what they’re asking me. I know how to answer it.
I start filling in the questions, falling back on what I know, and I get lost in the world of psychology.
When the time is up, I’m done, and I send my paper forward to be marked like the rest of them. I let out a breath of relief when it’s all done, and the doors are unlocked for us to leave.
“And?” Kat asks when she catches up to me. “How was it?”
I beam at her. “I think I got it.”
“I knew you would!”
“What about you?” I ask.
“Aced it,” she says with a confident sniff.
I smile, and for the first time since I started here, I feel like I can breathe easy.
