Chapter 4

CRASH!

The desk and chair clattered against the floor with a deafening bang.

Every head in the testing room snapped up.

The proctor’s face blanched. She lunged forward to catch her, while the second proctor sprinted down from the podium—one kneeling beside Chloe, the other flinging the door open to scream for medical backup.

When they hoisted Chloe up, her lips had turned an alarming shade of deep purple. Drenched in cold sweat, her eyes fluttered halfway open, completely incapable of forming coherent sounds.

Back in row five, Brianna couldn't hold it together either. She collapsed forward onto her desk, burying her face in her arms, her chest heaving with violent dry sobs.

Within seconds, test coordinators and emergency staff rushed in. Two adults hoisted Chloe out by her arms, while another staff member helped a staggering, shaking Brianna down the hall.

I kept my head down, my pen never stopping.

At eleven-thirty, the bell signaled the end of the Literature section.

I submitted my booklet, grabbed my pencil case, and walked out into the corridor. A crowd had already formed outside, buzzing with frantic whispers.

"Did you see that girl in row two? She literally passed out cold! Her lips were blue!"

"I heard she drank something crazy before the test. Chugged a ton of Red Bull."

"I saw it! She brought two whole crates into homeroom!"

I walked downstairs. As I passed the ground-floor clinic, the doors were flung wide open, packed with teachers, test monitors, and school nurses in white coats.

Chloe was lying on a cot, deathly pale, hooked up to an IV drip. Her eyes were squeezed shut, blood crusted on her cracked lips where she’d bitten through them.

In the adjacent cot lay Brianna, looking just as ghostly. A nurse was wrapping a blood pressure cuff around her trembling arm.

Our homeroom teacher, Ms. Miller, stood at the foot of the bed, her face paler than the patients'.

The school doctor jotted notes on a medical chart, his voice carrying clearly into the hall.

"Classic acute caffeine toxicity. Severe tachycardia, tremors, cardiac arrhythmia. In severe cases, it leads to cardiovascular collapse and shock. Exactly how much of that poison did your students ingest?"

Ms. Miller’s voice shook. "She... she brought twenty cans of energy drinks and a giant tub of concentrated espresso powder."

The doctor’s pen froze. He glanced sharply at Chloe, then back at Ms. Miller.

"Twenty cans? How much did she drink by herself?"

"I don't know for sure, but there were fifteen or sixteen empty cans left near her desk."

The doctor exhaled heavily, shaking his head without another word, scribbling furiously on the chart.

Ms. Miller pulled out her phone, dialing frantically.

"Yes, Mrs. Davis, you need to get to the school immediately. The nurse says she might need an ambulance... Her condition is critical, her resting heart rate is over a hundred and forty..."

Whatever the parent said on the other end, Ms. Miller just hung up, looking hollowed out and completely defeated.

Just then, Chloe’s eyelids fluttered open.

"Ms. Miller..." she croaked weakly. "I have to... I have to take the math exam this afternoon..."

Ms. Miller stared at her, eyes welling with tears, unable to find the words.

The doctor stepped in, his tone blunt and unyielding. "You are not sitting for any exam this afternoon. Your heart rate is dangerously erratic. You could collapse again at any second."

Panic flared in Chloe's eyes. She tried to push herself up, but her arms gave out instantly, the IV line swinging violently.

"No! I have to take it! I studied for so long..."

The doctor firmly pushed her back down by the shoulders. "Listen to me, young lady. What matters more right now—an exam, or your life?"