44. Kate

At least being the most hated person in the Compound has a small advantage. Absolutely nobody will come and wake you up from your sleep, not even if it’s late at night and the library is ready for closing.

A sharp rapping on the desk by the elderly, scowling librarian woke me with a fright. I quickly realised I had dry, itchy bread crumbs on my face and a huge ink stain on my most expensive course book.

Of course. Of course my pen has leaked all over it. I picked up the weighty volume, flustered, flicking through the pages trying to work out the extent of the damage when I remembered, with a thought as clear and brash as gunfire.

I’m done. It doesn’t matter anymore.

I studied the small pile of notepads, stationary and books before me. I clung to this Assessment like a life raft. These past months, I had treated passing this course as the only thing keeping my life afloat.

Yet now I can see, it is the course which is the millstone around my neck.

The Assessment is slowly killin