Never Fear

06

Sitting staring down at the blank paper, Willow sighed. Now was the time to put all the practice of the mock exams to work. Only problem was her mind was a blank. She'd been sitting at this desk for the past twenty minutes just staring. "Come on," she muttered to herself and picked up her pen again.

Science, more importantly: chemistry, her old nemesis. Jonathan had kindly given her a crash course of things which were most likely to pop up which weren't in the mock exam. Even still, with his help her mind was still a blank. Everyone seemed so concentrated on the paper in front of them. Willow was finding it a little hard to believe she was the only one struggling.

Although, across the hall and leaning back in his chair, Jonathan sat with his arms loosely crossed and took to counting the tiles on the ceiling again. He was bored and finished with this exam and he'd like nothing more to do than to leave. But no, the teachers who were observing the students in front of them, to make sure none were cheating wouldn't let him.

Apparently whether he'd finished forty minutes early or not, and had checked his paper five times, he couldn't go. So, to try and counter his boredom he took to counting the ceiling tiles. Every so often he'd glance at the surrounding students and smile triumphantly to himself. They all looked so troubled, he sat smiling to himself happy to know that he wasn't having any trouble unlike some.

There was one person who seemed to have given up, Willow laid with her chin against her crossed arms. Her eyes were shut, Jonathan frowned. That trait of sleeping on desks decided to crop up at the wrong time. Although her eyes did eventually open and she scribbled something on her paper. It seemed like unlike the others who were rushing, she was taking her time.

Slow and steady won the race after all, considering there was another forty odd minutes left what was the point in steam rolling through and possibly getting the answers wrong Jonathan though didn't like to admit it but Willow's chances of actually succeeding in passing the chemistry part of the test was slim to none. Her and science just didn't mix. The rest of the test time slipped by horribly slow.

By the time everyone was allowed out he walked over to where Willow was crouching down beside the wall outside of the room. "How'd it go?" He asked crouching down to her level.

She looked up at him and smiled lightly, shaking her head she pushed her hair over her shoulder. "Nah."

"Really?"

"Yup," Willow nodded. "That was horrid. I've failed, I've accepted that. Now to prepare for English." Jonathan couldn't help but smile quickly at her frank point of view. The fact that she almost immediately knew she'd failed was interesting to him. He was about to voice something up when he was suddenly shoved to the side. Looking up he wasn't surprised to see that Bo thought it'd be hilarious to push him from his crouching position. Willow looked up and narrowed her eyes. For once she hadn't got a wise comment to say. Picking himself up Jonathan brushed himself down. Willow stood up beside him and nodded, "I'd be glad to get out of here. Get away from idiots like him."

"Willow, I wholly agree with you." Looking quickly at her the two walked steadily out of the school.

Parting ways when Jonathan needed to walk down the opposite street to where she lived. He readjusted his grip on his bag and walked towards the huge structure which he called home. Unwillingly, cold and empty but it was home. There was honestly nothing in this building which he could consider homely though. Noticing how he was contradicting himself, Jonathan turned the key in the lock and pushed the door steadily open. The darkness of the small foyer greeted him, shutting the door he shuffled forward and listened to the footsteps which were steadily getting closer to him.

There was nothing here which could be considered homely, Jonathan noted again. The woman in front of him, hunched over, grey haired and blank faced was his grandmother, apparently. There was nothing in her character which could be roughly considered 'grandmotherly'.