As my alarm went off, I groaned out loud into my pillow. It was the day of the first exam, and as it was a morning one Bob had suggested getting round to his for 6am for some last minute cramming. Personally, I hated cramming - I always felt if you didn't know it by the morning before, then there wasn't much chance of you learning it then.
However, I knew that Bob was really stressed about these exams so I figured if I was able to help him calm down by doing this, then it was worth it. At least, it had been worth it before I realised how much getting up at half 5 would hurt...
After showering and getting dressed in record time, I crept across the hall and tried to open the front door as silently as possible.
"For fuck's sake, Jane."
I muffled a shriek and spun to see Dave standing in his door.
"Jesus, Dave! Don't do that, I'd have thrown something at you!"
"Like I'm not used to you throwing things at me by now." He gave me a half-grin. "But seriously, what the hell? It's before six!"
"Well, Bob suggested last night that we should do some early morning studying before the exam at nine..."
"Oh, sure he did. You only got back in at eleven last night, Jane! Do you jump every time he clicks his fingers now?"
I couldn't help it - the stress of exams, my exhaustion, and the fact that Dave thought now was a good time to accuse me of being any man's puppet - I couldn't hold it back any longer and I exploded.
"Oh really, says the guy who's girlfriend has him wrapped around her finger. You considered not even going to America because she told you to! And actually, I'd do this for anyone, you know I'll go any distance for my friends to help them out. Or have you forgotten how many times I've been there for you when Jess has messed you around? How much time I've spent helping you find accommodation and plan for America? Do I jump for you too Dave, or are you just jealous that it's not just you I'd do that for?" I whispered savagely, taking an angry pleasure in seeing him flinch.
He stood there silently, looking like I'd slapped him. Which in a way, I had.
I slammed out of the front door and stormed down the stairs, furious. I was halfway down the street when I felt something drip onto my hands. Looking up at the clear skies, I suddenly realised tears were pouring down my face.
I didn't even think about it - before I knew it I was back at our building and flying up the stairs, careering around the curve of the stairwell and almost running smack bang into Dave chasing after me. Our apologies immediately started running over each other.
"Dave, I'm so sorry, I'm just so tired and stressed about these exams, I didn't mean to take it out on you-"
"No, Jane, I shouldn't have said that, I know you care about your friends, it was wrong of me to make that into a bad thing-"
"And I just can't deal with arguing with you too on top of it all, you're my best friend-"
"I'm so stressed about America, and leaving you and Jess and everyone behind, and not knowing anyone, and I've barely seen you at all in the flat these last two weeks-"
"It's been these exams, you know what I'm like, I have to do well, I can't let anyone down. I'm a revision robot, nothing else matters. And wait - you know I'm visiting you before you go abandoning me for America, right?"
That made him pause. "Wait, what? As in you're coming to Lancashire?"
"Yes! You spoon! I know I'm a nightmare to be around at the moment, but I wasn't letting you run away without some proper quality time together before you go!"
A massive grin spread across his face as that sank in. "Besides, it's a fantastic excuse to finally meet your dogs, and make them love me more than you so they'll come home with me." I added, teasing.
"Well, that makes everything much better. And you can have the dogs, they're a pain!"
"Don't go making promises that I'll take you up on... But I'm sorry, I'd completely forgotten to tell you that I'd come visit. If that's OK with your parents, of course?"
"Don't be silly, Jane, they adore you. Is there any chance you'll get home at a decent time sometime this week so we can sort out dates and things?" He smiled as he said it, making sure I knew that wasn't another dig.
"I'll be back around lunchtime after the exam for a few hours today if you're around? I'll be revising late afternoon and evening for the exam tomorrow, but I'll need at least a little break after today's."
He nodded and said he'd be in all day, and promised to have his signature lunch dish of fish finger sandwiches ready for me when I got back from the exam. Giving him a grin (as we always had a joke of being one of the few friends in our group who 'didn't do hugs'), I turned and properly headed over to Bob's this time.
As soon as I sat down, he noticed my red eyes. "Hey, are you OK? What's wrong?"
"You are far too perceptive for this time in the morning." I grumbled to myself. "Nothing, it's fine, just the exhaustion and stress getting a bit too much for me."
He nodded, looking exhausted himself. "You're telling me. I could barely sleep, I ended up reading past papers at half three this morning. There's just so much I don't know Jane, I don't feel ready for this at all, every year they ask this weird bizarre question that I'm certain wasn't even in the notes..."
"Shhh, it's OK, I have a plan." I tried to calm him down as his voice rose higher in panic.
"So, each paper has three questions. There's the standard one that repeats each year, a slightly harder one that still seems to repeat in variations of three or four different approaches, and then, as you noticed, the insane one. Don't even worry about the insane one - that only counts for 30%, and unless you know the course back to front or are very lucky, I wouldn't focus on that one right now."
He gave half a laugh. "The crazy question - also known as, the one that only Jane will be able to answer because you have a photographic memory. It really winds me up that we've spent exactly the same time revising and you're still ahead of me on every course!"
I blushed slightly. "It's not photographic, I'm just really good at remembering patterns... and as I said, going to the lectures and tutorials at the time helped! Anyway, let's focus on getting the method down for that first question, there's no reason for you to drop any of the easy marks..."
Two hours later, I'd coached Bob though the methods for the first and second questions, or at least as I'd predicted them.
"OK, and then after we differentiate, what do we do...?" I trailed off, raising my eyebrows at Bob.
"We stick the limits in! Um... the limits being..." He paused, frustration creasing his face.
"It's OK, just think. Is this a quick or a slow reaction?"
"Oh! Yes, it's what we said, it's a quick one and zero to thirty seconds is quicker than zero to an hour, so that reminds me that the limits are 0 and 30, but if it had been a long one, the limits would have been 0 and an hour, which is 3600 seconds. And then we 'put it in a box', which means that that we have to multiply the three values I have together like working out the volume of a box, and then I imagine yelling at you at that window -" He stopped, laughing briefly, before continuing. "- but instead I'm yelling 'THE UNITS ARE WRONG', which reminds me that I need to convert it back into per second instead of per day which it's currently in."
He looked at me for confirmation, and I grinned. "You've got it! Perfect!"
He grinned broadly. "You know, you'd make the weirdest but most amazing teacher. I don't even know how your brain links all of that together, but it's working!"
"Like I told you, I'm good at patterns - it's all about making the patterns memorable!" I looked at the big clock on the wall and realised that we only had ten minutes before we needed to be heading out.
"Time to get everything together! And I'll keep running all of those processes through with you as we go to the exam, so you've really got it down in your head." I started gathering all my things together, running through my exam checklist in my head. Calculator, student card, two pens plus third emergency pen, emergency pencil, ruler...
"Jane." His serious tone made me look up. "I really, really appreciate all this help. I just wanted you to know."
Embarrassed, I tried to brush it off. "Look at you getting all serious on me. Let's wait until after the exam before you start thanking anyone, OK?"
He laughed. "Actually, great point. But I have faith you've prepared me well. I know you sacrificed your sleep to come help me when you're normally sleeping before an exam, and it's really decent of you."
I blushed harder. "Seriously, stop it! Who are you, and what have you done with the Bob who spends his life being mean to me?"
"I think the exam stress sent him into hibernation... but don't worry, he's been thinking up heaps of great insults, he'll be back to brighten up your life soon enough!"
"Fantastic. I can't wait." As Bob went through to find his student card in his room, I closed my eyes and breathed out slowly. I knew I was prepared for this exam - time to empty my mind of everything non-exam related, and get out there and kick this exam's ass.
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