The problem is she was no hero; ready to cry, trouble breathing, and too many conjugations racing through her head to put anything concrete on the exam. She'd tried putting earplugs in to cut out distracting white noise in the room, but they only made it awkward when the teacher leaned down and said something.

"ca va?"

could she see the fear in her student's eyes? Smell the anxiety attack waiting to come out?

The girl hesitated, stumbled through some sounds, but settled on,

"yeah."

15 minutes passed, the exam wasn't complete when turned in.

Then I dropped out of school.