The month went by quickly and already the teachers were piling on homework. The final year grades decided which university would accept you, so the pressure was palpable. Norah relished in the challenge and buried herself in the library. The quietness of the room and the immersive world of books unfortunately dulled her sense of time.

That was why Benny had to burst into the library with urgency, slightly out of breath.

"Norah!" he whispered frantically, "you're late for history! Mr Norman already took the register and marked you down as late."

"Shit," she said, as her eyes darted to the clock.

She snapped her book shut. She was never late. "It's not my day today," she muttered to herself as she hastily gathered her stuff.

In fact, it hasn't been her month either. She struggled with sleepless nights. Today, she forgot her afternoon snack and as bad luck would have it, for lunch they served all the foods she hated. And now she was also late for her History lesson. Norah didn't do late or forgetful normally. So she was right. Rafe had jinxed her, and now she had all these small disasters. Benny, being the faithful friend he was, waited for Norah and walked to class together.

"Damn Rafe and his giant feet," she growled as they power-walked through the empty school together. Benny was half jogging.

"You know what they say about big feet," he wheezed out a joke. He was not made for exercise. The History class was on the other side of the building on the last floor.

Benny had a stamina of a guinea pig.

"People need to stop saying that," Norah said with the shake of her head. "Keep up! We're almost there!"

She was pushing his back to make it easier for him to keep going.

"Just go on without me," he said dramatically. "Actually, can you carry me?"

"We're nearly there," Norah encouraged. They finally made it to the classroom. As she walked in, there was malicious murmuring and booing.

"Miss goody two-shoes skipping class?" Hazel muttered loud enough for the silent class to hear. Norah ignored her, as she did most of the time. The lesson itself was not worth even going to, as their teacher, Mr. Norman, liked to talk more about his own personal history than the history they were supposed to be learning. That man expected a lot of self-studying, which Norah didn't mind, but that tactic didn't work for many people, so most of the class struggled.

Benny let out a sigh after they'd come out of class. "I wish he would just let us do our own studying if he doesn't want to teach us. If I have to hear one more time about his gap year around the world, I will barf."

"If the whole class performs poorly, he will get the boot eventually."

If the teacher's methods affect her grade negatively, she would have words with the headmaster. That afternoon after school, Norah and Benny went over to hers to study. And just when she thought her day couldn't have gotten any worse, as she looked through her bag, she realised she had lost her precious, thoroughly annotated copy of 'Paradise Lost'.

* * *

Rafe looked at the clock again. Much to his dismay, the long hand on the clock hadn't moved an inch. Time seemed to be stretching into an eternity in this town. First half-term was coming up, and it already felt like he'd spent half of his life here.

The days were long as the pasture fields he saw on his way to town. The hours were endless. Ten more minutes until the end of the lesson. He thumped his foot against the leg of his desk restlessly. He looked around and saw that most of the class was finishing up the unexpected quiz and were also watching the time go by.

The only one who was still furiously scribbling away was the geek in sitting in front of him. She had her head bent in concentration; the only sound in the otherwise silent classroom was the fast and violent scratching of her pen. The sound annoyed him. He barely squeezed out three sentences of utter nonsense and here she was still writing as if thirty minutes was no time at all.

"Time is up everyone! Please put your pens down now. During your exam, if you don't put your pen down once the moderator tells you to, you could get marks deducted, so please don't risk it," Miss McGrath said to the class, but it was clear that the message was only for the one person in class who was still writing.

The teacher went around to gather the papers from everyone. She stopped next to Norah.

"Norah, we still need to work on your timing. It's your only setback," she explained, taking the paper from her.

As soon as she stood in front of him, her face produced a disapproving scowl as she saw five pathetic lines of words on his paper.

"Rafe, I must have a chat with you at the end of lesson," she said, taking his paper and walking past. Rafe heard Luke laugh at his expense, so he gave him the finger in response.