As soon as I flipped over the front page, I knew. I knew I’d find it too hard. I tried to appear calm, although I could feel my heart beat quicken in my chest, and my breath started to get caught in my throat.
‘Just try it,’ I told myself. ‘What MORE could they possibly do to you?’
I leant forward, in order to see the page closer up; a part of me hoped I’d misread it the first time. I hadn’t.
I glanced up at the clock. About thirty seconds had passed. I decided to read it again before I put pen to paper.
‘2x²+3x-9=1’ I carried on. ‘2x²+3x-4=0’
So the trap they had set for me was laid bare. But I was yet to find out what they wanted me to do. What it was, in fact, that they wanted from me.
‘Solve this simultaneous equation.’ And that was that.
I felt eerily calm, actually. Neither dead nor alive. After all, what difference would it make; whether I added, or subtracted, I’d be wrong. I’d ALWAYS be wrong.
I was afraid to look up from my paper. I didn’t want to be thought a cheat, and yet, the more I stared at this swirling abyss of letters and numbers…I felt sick.
I decided to look upwards- it was a safe direction. I must have been looking directly into a light, but I don’t think I noticed at the time.
A single tear rolled down my cheek.
So, A Bagel Loves A Doughnut 