She wasn't speedwalking, but walking briskly to the beat of the music pouring from her headphones and washing over the intricacies of her ears, filling every swooping crevice with echoing sound until it spilled over in the form of tinny static just audible to passers-by as she blew past on her way to class. She was thinking of the one when the song she associated with the other came on, and she never even noticed until it ended and she somehow knew she had missed something important. She shrugged inwardly without ever changing her purposeful gait; she had to get to class.

In a week would come The Midterm and two weeks after that The Final. There was so little room for preparation, she too often became overwhelmed at the thought. She wanted to pass. She wanted to pass so badly it hurt. It didn't help that this pivotal class was Pass/Fail, and she would either get full credit or not. There was no option for an easy C here. In a moment of sudden clarity, she blinked hard, pushed the invasive worries from her mind and focused on the lecture.

A week later, she would receive a Midterm grade of an A+. She would celebrate in relief and pure happiness, but the The Final would still loom ominously on the horizon. As an overview of the entire semester, it was far more complicated and involved than the five short answer/ one long essay Midterm. This was going to test all her abilities honed in the past few months and cram it into a few hours of test-taking. She took a sharp, quick breath and uncapped her pen.

She was ready.

ink :: graphite