Sleep is such a sweet reprieve, but one I so rarely got.

  Once again, I was being awakened by a drop of sweat tickling my face after what felt like a very short period of light sleep. I had a fan at full bst in my bedroom, but it did little to pcate the vicious heat the walls were emitting after having been bombarded by the summer sunlight.

  “Only thirty minutes,” I grumbled after squinting at my phone.

  My house was like many of my little town. Small, white walled, two story high and with a diminutive walled backward for hanging clothes and maybe have a few pnts. My neighbourhood in particur had been built almost sixty years ago and intended to be cheap housing, so insution wasn’t something ever remotely considered. In consequence, it got stifling hot during the summer and frigid when the winter came.

  We were in the middle of July, but the heat had still to reach its peak. People my age, like my cssmates as an example, didn’t seem to mind the heat though. They were all going around town during the day, now free from school, to hang out with their buddies. That constituted mostly going to the pool, camping, or going around the recently build mall. Like I said, we are a small town, so there really isn’t all that many activities to choose from. At least, that was my uneducated opinion.

  Maybe if they went to the city next over, but that would mean a full hour trip by train and double that if you took the bus. With this weather? Yeah, no.

  “…Tsk. Who cares anyway…”

  I couldn’t care less about what my cssmates were doing in their free time. No, I had more pressing matters to worry about. Or maybe I should be saying, “previous cssmates”?

  Again, who cares?

  Like I was saying, there was something more important in my mind which was also taking its toll on my rest.

  While all my past cssmates were having the time of their lives, I was stuck with having to study for the second phase of exams since I failed the first. This was the st chance I had to graduate into high school. Failure would mean I’d have to repeat the ninth year, and that terrified me.

  “Math… why did it have to be math?”

  I wore gsses, but unlike the stereotype, I wasn’t particurly smart. That was part of the reason.

  As it might be obvious by now, there was the matter of my nerves. It frustrated me to no end how weak they were.

  And the coup de grace? My grandmother passed away a week prior to the first phase of exams and that hit me harder than I’d expect. We weren’t even that close, but it still messed with me. Maybe because she took care of me when I was too young to take care of myself? That, and perhaps also because it was all so sudden.

  “…Ah!”

  I was about to fall asleep for maybe another thirty minutes, but then the thought I hadn’t set the arm stormed into my brain, jolting me awake more than connecting me to a battery ever could.

  Are you stupid? You’ve already checked it a thousand times!

  I knew it very well, but my idiot brain was a whole other subject.

  And speaking of subject…

  “Haah… might as well just get up and study some more.”

  There were only a couple more hours I could sleep until it was time for me to get up anyway.

  ???

  It was barely past six when I woke up and sat on my bed. As I stretched my arms and wriggled my toes, I got into thinking how I’d spend my free time until I had to go to school to take my exam. It was at nine o’clock, so there was a lot to choose from to pass the time.

  There was studying, of course, but I neither needed to—thanks to the tutoring lessons my mother forced me to take every day ever since I was six, nor did I like it. In fact, I hated it. I could see equations dancing in front of my eyes every time I blinked because, as a punishment for me having failed math, I was forced to study the whole day every day.

  No, I had a better pn. Today marked the first I’d enjoy some freedom, so I was going to enjoy it to the fullest.

  Going for a run would be nice… then, a bath… some slices of toast with jam for breakfast, and then, off to the exam. Yeah, that was the pn.

  ???

  Somehow, I made it in time. I still couldn’t believe I had fallen asleep partway through my st-minute study session, shut the arm when it rang the first and second time, and only woke up on the third.

  I was always like this. If I wanted or needed to sleep, I couldn’t do it, but as soon as I wanted to stay awake, then I’d be out cold in a blink of an eye. You’d think that was an overstatement, but trust me, it was truer than it sounds.

  I’d think “my eyes are a bit tired, let me shut them for a sec.” More often than not, that second turned into long minutes, hours even.

  As a result of my ck of sleep, my head was now hurting something fierce, and if I had my eyes burning when I fell asleep, they felt like peppers had been rubbed on them as I sat on what would be my seat.

  Always the screw up, huh?

  To try to get my mind out of such thoughts, I started looking around to see if I recognised anyone. I didn’t.

  We were six in total, but they were all from different csses. Still, there was one person in particur looking out through the window she stood by who caught my eye.

  She looked completely out of pce. I was sure she had either walked in by mistake or she was accompanying somebody else.

  She was tiny, and I mean proper tiny. I stood at an average height of a meter-sixty-three, but if we stood together, she’d barely clear over my shoulders. Her hair was a nice golden-brown colour cut slightly above shoulder length with a flower pin on one side, and was seemingly damp. As for what she wore, well, it was… quite childish to tell you the truth.

  A yellow t-shirt with some kind of mascot printed on the front. It had petals around its face, so…

  Is that supposed to be a lion?

  Under her denim shorts I could see tight fitting running shorts and her shoes were kinda in tatters. She did have an average sized chest, so I was split between thinking she was a thirteen-year-old, or someone who was actually my age who was just short and had a… particur taste in clothes.

  She was also very jittery. I mean, we all were, but she was a whole other level. Most of us tried to stay calm, or sell the illusion of being calm, but not her. It was petty, but that made me feel better about myself. I mean, if she was that nervous, then at least someone could possibly get a worse result than me, right?

  All my staring wasn’t without consequence, however.

  We locked eyes for a moment, until she looked around her, confirming I was in fact observing her, and gave me a huge grin after meeting eyes with me again with a deep curiosity shining in them. It would have been amusing how she reminded me of a cat which got excited with a new toy, but it actually terrified me because I was the toy.

  Oh no. Please, don’t!

  My silent plea went unheeded as she came to me almost skipping.

  “You look terrible.”

  I was… dumfounded? I think that’s a good way to describe how I was at that moment. She also had a bit of a dark circle under her eyes, and I had been bracing for a greeting, but that was so left field, I forgot to even get mad at her. That’s a weird way to say hi, was the only thing my stunned mind could articute.

  “Didn’t get any sleep, huh?”, she carried on.

  “Not really,” I stammered.

  “Hmm, yeah, I can see that much. What’s your current math score?”

  “Nine.”

  “Oh! Same as me,” she said, putting a hand on her chin as she looked up.

  I was thankful for the break in eye contact. She had gentle brown eyes, but those were probably the type I had the hardest time dealing with.

  I just hoped she wouldn’t ask anything I’d regret answering next.

  I had the bad habit of answering mechanically, you see. Get me distracted, bored or stressed enough during a conversation, you could ask me something incredibly private and I’d answer in a heartbeat without even realising it until too te. I’d even dare say I’d answer three or four before finally catching on.

  Anyway, my image of her was getting muddier and muddier during that conversation. She kept moving her body, shifting her weigh around, rubbing her knees together, tapping her waist with a finger, and bobbing her head side to side, but her voice was so cheerful and carefree. I on the other hand, was having a bit of a hard time talking coherently and was completely frozen on my seat. And yes, I’m aware, all my answers had been as basic as they could be.

  “So, did miss sleepy head study anything for today?”, she asked, going back to have her eyes fixed on me.

  Her casual way of talking was irking me, and I wondered if we actually knew each other, impossible as it was. I would have remembered if I had ever seen her around my css. I tended to avoid the crowded pces in school and I also would only talk with other people if talked to first, or if I needed and there was no other way around it.

  Even so, I asked whether we had previously met or not.

  “Nope. First time I’ve ever seen you. Or talked. Anyway, did you?” she said, bobbing up and down on the tips of her toes.

  Such a weird girl. Extroverts are weird.

  “Well, yes… since I saw my test score,” I said, sounding more sheepish than I’d like.

  She didn’t seem to notice—or care, how I sounded though, and kept staring at me. I felt like she was trying to see if I was lying or telling the truth.

  My face was starting to feel warm and I was about to look away when she spoke again.

  “Just short of a month, huh? In that case you will be fine. You look smart to me!”

  It wasn’t enough that I was already boiling from the weather, but now she also had to light up a fire in my face.

  “Oh… Erm… t-thanks,” I said as I looked away.

  Because of my gsses, right?

  “Pfft, hehe,” she giggled, further enhancing my embarrassment. “Well, I should go and sit down. Best of luck to you.”

  I tried thanking her, but the only thing coming out was the weirdest sound I had ever produced.

  My god, that was horrible!

  Not as much the conversation in itself, although that was still bad, but the way I dealt with it. How socially inept can a person be?

  “Ah! W-wait! The exam!” I thought when the teachers walked in with the closed envelops containing the question sheets.

  I had to admit, that girl had been such a distraction I forgot for a moment I was about to take the most important exam in my life. My head even felt a bit lighter. Or at the very least, I wasn’t noticing it as much.

  Maybe I should have introduced myself, but the thought never occurred to me as we talked. Not that I believed we’d meet again anyway, hopefully enough.

  JasaNull