Page 1 of Caught in the Middle

Chapter One

‘...if you have your mobile phone or any other electronic device on your person, please surrender it to one of the invigilators now. If you are caught during the examination period with an electronic device, it will be confiscated, and your paper will be awarded a zero.'

Lucy Davies brushed a finger past her phone in her jean pocket. There was no way she was going to give it in. Not only did she hope to go to the bathroom halfway through the exam to Google some answers, but she was so hungover, that the thought of having to make unnecessary conversation with anybody right now made her feel nauseous.

'...I will now hand out the papers, row by row. When your name is called, please say 'yes,' as another invigilator will mark you down on the register to confirm that you have attended this exam. Lucas Aberdeen?' The bony woman clutching a stack of papers slapped one down on the desk in front of the first student when he responded to his name.

The sound, Lucy believed, was unnecessarily loud, and the stuck up invigilator was handing out the exams with such force on purpose.

Her eyes began to burn under the harsh lights of the University hall. She looked around, taking in every row of perfectly groomed students, who had probably studied for months for this history exam - and rightly so. This was Lucy's final University exam, one which determined whether or not she would get a degree. But, instead of realising how life changing this very moment was, Lucy had decided to go out to the club last night, drink three gin and tonics, two tequilas and the jagerbomb the hot bartender gave her for free, before being sick down herself on the cab ride home.

She had managed to convince herself that she'd only go out for one beer with her friends - who didn't have their final exam in the morning - just to calm her pre-exam jitters. Then she would come home early evening, do an all-nighter to learn nine months’ worth of history classes, smash the exam and sleep for the rest of the day.

But the only thing that Lucy learned was that she was an idiot. A very hungover idiot.

'Haley Campbell?' The invigilator was only a few tables in front of her now, and Lucy became paranoid about whether she smelt like tequila or not. Too drunk to set an alarm last night, she only woke up an hour ago. She didn't even have time to change her pants, let alone shower.

A frantic movement in her peripheral caught her attention. When she turned her head to see what it was, she instantly wished she hadn't.

Elena Riddings. Waving at her with a huge grin plastered across her perfectly made up face. Lucy groaned internally. Elena was one of her house mates, a little goodie two shoes, who also happened to be on the same course as her. Granted, Elena would attend every lecture and just give Lucy her notes, as well as signing her in so she didn't get in trouble, but Lucy still detested her. And her shiny blonde hair, and a figure that she could have only gotten from years of ballet classes her rich daddy paid for.

She signalled a thumbs up sign at Lucy, who stared back at her, deadpan. Looking at her organised pencil case - with six spare pens just in case they run out of ink - neatly aligned on her desk made Lucy want to stab her. She had probably studied so much that she could teach the module.

'Lucy Davies?' Her head snapped back to the thin invigilator staring down at her.

'Yes,' she murmured, bowing her head in the hope that she didn't notice the ugly, purple love bite on her neck. Not that she had any idea who gave it to her.

The invigilator stared at her for a moment too long, making Lucy squirm in her seat. Slowly and softly, she slid the exam across her desk, very different from the loud thump she had used for everyone else.

This made Lucy extremely nervous.

Maybe she had been warned that Lucy had a tendency to cheat? Maybe, she had seen the bulge in her faded skinny jeans, and knew that she was concealing a phone? One things for sure, she definitely would be keeping an eye on her throughout the exam.

Lucy had to endure another fifteen minutes of heavy exam papers slamming against the desk before the prim and proper invigilator strode back up to the front of the exam hall.

Taking a deep breath, she peered at the nervous students over her half-moon spectacles, as if she was enjoying the suspense.

'The time is 9.08am,' she boomed, spreading her arms dramatically. 'You have two hours. You may not leave the exam hall before an hour into the exam, or half an hour before it finishes. Good luck. You may start.'

The whole hall began to fidget as eager students ripped open their papers, scrambling for pens. Lucy in her hypersensitive state could have sworn that she could hear their eyeballs dramatically swishing from side to side, not being able to read their paper quick enough, making sure that it was exactly what they had studied for.

Lucy let out her billionth groan of the day. Her mind wandered towards her parents. How ashamed they would be if they could see her sitting here right now, having wasted all their money on three years of education that amounted to nothing.

Three years of drinking, having sex with the best and the worst of the rugby team. With nothing to show for it but a weakened liver and the ability to sleep well into the afternoon, Lucy could feel herself beginning to well up.

How the fuck was she going to tell her parents that has she failed? She was the first in her family to go to university, and they'd been so proud, moving her into her dorm, her grandparents had even given her the money for her textbooks.

She'd spent the money in the first week on alcohol and makeup. She didn't even bother buying the books - what was the point if she wasn't even going to attend the classes?

It was slowly beginning to dawn on her what she had been trying to block out for the last three years.

She had fucked up. And she had fucked up massively.

Wiping a tear rolling down her mascara-stained cheeks, she reluctantly flipped over the first page of the exam paper.

'Assess the impact of Catholicism in Hitler’s...'

She flipped the page. There was no way she’d able to write a whole essay on that.

---