The ticking of the clock interrupted the library's silence. Rafe and Norah sat both bent over a past exam paper mimicking the exam conditions- in absolute silence and with a time limit. Norah sat up straight, her hand holding the pen confidently whilst her eyes rapidly devoured the text before her. Rafe's taller figure was slightly hunched, his free hand locked in his hair whilst the other tried to match Norah's writing pace. From time to time Rafe would get distracted by doodling on the paper or would occasionally let out a sigh and look at the clock.

Norah had mastered the art of concentration. Not once had she looked at him or the watch. Her pen didn't linger off the paper for long, save for the occasional pauses she took to gather her thoughts and scribble away again. She was so focused on the mock exam that Rafe was sure if he'd got up and left, she wouldn't even notice. He glanced at the watch, and time was up. She was running out of time, again. In five minutes the alarm on her phone went off, and she was still writing away.

Rafe cleared his throat. "You're supposed to put your pen down. McGrath told you you'd get penalized."

Norah let out a noise of frustration. "I know. I'm trying to squeeze in all the information in my head for full marks. Can't figure out how to prioritize."

Rafe looked at her with annoyance. He wished he had those kinds of problems.

"How did you find it?" she asked, looking at his paper. It was encouraging for him that he answered all the questions. And on the last question, he managed two-and-a-half pages, which was huge progress.

Rafe looked over his work with a shrug, "Fine I guess. You were right, planning does help."

"We should do a couple more of these. Exam questions tend to repeat themselves every couple of years. If we're lucky, you'll get an essay question you already had a practiced an answer for. Pray to Madonna."

She took his papers and her eyes scanned the lines going back and forth. Rafe observed her in silence as she whispered something to herself.

Lately Rafe had begun sneaking more observant glances her way when she wasn't looking, which wasn't hard, because if the girl was reading anything school related, there could be an explosion outside and she wouldn't even notice. She was very cute. Her eyelashes were dark and long. Her lips were heart-shaped, but she had a tendency to purse them into a thin line when she was thinking. And the girl did a lot of thinking. Her face was smooth like porcelain.

"Guess what?" He said, not tearing his eyes away from her.

"What?" she asked without tearing her eyes from the papers.

"You know how you said I should find something that would boost my uni application?"

Norah pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and nodded her head, looking up and ready to listen.

"I'm going to ask the coach to make me captain of the team. That would be pretty impressive on the application, right? Universities love a good sportsman."

Norah frowned. "But William is the captain."

"Haven't you heard? Yesterday at the match William got injured. He's out for the season for sure. I don't even know when he'll be back in school."

Norah's eyes widened, and her hand went up to her lips. "No, I haven't heard... I-Is he okay? What happened?"

Rafe's jaw almost dropped to the floor. It was the closest he seen her show any kind of emotion and it surprised him she cared so much. He assumed she didn't care about anyone in school besides Benny and her favourite teachers. Especially not some football player.

"Broke his leg, sprained his wrist," Rafe explained, "those assholes were playing dirty. I have a giant bruise on my back. One kicked me in the back whilst I was down."

He turned to untuck his shirt to show proof of his suffering, but Norah wasn't even looking in his direction.

"Poor Will... I hope he'll be okay," Norah said, squeezing her hands together and looked surprisingly upset. Rafe's bruise was completely ignored. He got trampled on!

He studied her for a moment with a frown, and then a small, sly smile crept to his face.

"Wait a minute, you like him. You fancy the pants off Will!" he said, triumphant at getting a small secret out of her.

Norah, flustered, threw her pen down on the table and began to untie her hair. "Don't be stupid, you're giving me a headache."

Watching her for the first time release her hair was a new experience. With a sigh of relief, the cascade of black fell around her shoulders like silk. She ran a hand through her hair and closed her eyes in bliss. She then took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes.

Rafe looked at her, slightly mesmerised. "What are you doing?" he asked dumbly.

"I'm done for the day. I'm relaxing," Norah said and leaned back in her chair to stretch. Rafe hungrily took in the way she looked. Her eyes seemed more pronounced and darker without the glasses. Her face was petite and was framed with her dark hair.

She was gorgeous.

"What are you staring at?" she asked, feeling self-conscious. She brushed her hand through the ends of her hair. "Do I have something on my face?"

Rafe snapped out of his daze. Playing it cool, his hand reached out to grab her glasses she placed on the table. "Yeah, these. Why do you wear them? They're so thick. And ugly," he said, looking at the frames.

She squinted and reached to take them back. He pulled away from her hand.

"You will get them dirty! Give them back," she said as she reached out again blindly.

He chuckled. "Man these are thick. Why not get contacts? You know if you ditched the glasses you have a shot with William. You're cute," he said, manoeuvring away from Norah's hand. Her aim seemed way of; she must've been half blind without the glasses.

She grunted. "Give them back. I wear contacts at home."

"Remember how you threw my phone out the window last week? I should do the same to these glasses. I'd be doing you a favour!"

"Don't you dare! Nothing happened to your phone. And that was for your benefit! I don't see how getting rid of my glasses helps me."

"You're hiding your beauty."

"If people can't see my beauty because of a pair of glasses, they're the fucking blind ones."

Rafe burst out laughing. He grabbed her hands, which were tiny and soft, and placed her glasses into them. Gratefully, she took back the glasses.

"And I don't need or have a shot with William," she said.

"You obviously like him. It's okay, you can tell me," Rafe said.

Giving them a good polish, she put her glasses back on and glared at him. "I admire him. From afar. He's amazing."

"He's a cool guy. But boring," Rafe said with a shrug.

"He excels in everything. In sports, in academics, in social life. I don't know how he balances everything."

"You sound like his stalker."

Norah ignored his remark.

"Yeah he's alright," Rafe mumbled, scratching another doodle on his paper. "But doesn't mean he's out of your league."

Norah shrugged. "I think he has a girlfriend in London. He's been dating her for a while from what I heard."

Rafe made a face of disgust. "Seriously? Long –distance relationship?"

"Is that so terrible?"

He shrugged, inking in his drawing. "Just doesn't work. My girlfriend and I broke up once it was decided I'm moving here," he said bitterly.

"Doesn't sound like it was a mutual decision..." Norah said with a frown, observing him closely. He didn't expect that comment and was about to lie, but realised there would be no point. Because she was right. It wasn't a mutual decision.

"I think as soon as she heard that I won't be out in the London nightlife and holidays, she decided she didn't want to be 'tied down' in a long-distance relationship."

Norah reached for his hand and was about to say something when the school librarian came around the corner.

"If you two are done flirting, can you put your stuff away? The library is closed already."

"Yeah okay," Rafe said nonchalantly and stuffed his things in his bag with a swipe of his hand. He wished the topic of his ex hadn't come up. She was history.

Norah seemed flustered at the word flirting and glared at the librarians back when she left. They made their way out and both were startled at how dark it's gotten whilst it was only six o'clock. As winter approached, they saw less and less of the sun. Daylight was scarce. Norah put both of the straps of her bag on her back and began walking toward her home, giving a short wave to Rafe.