Taste of Victory

Alice tapped her yellow pencil a few times on the exam papers as she contemplated her answer. The neat graphite circle that went around the lettered answer with most of her mirroring the same.

She was ninety-nine point nine... nine... nine... percent sure but that fraction of the doubt was going to haunt her much to her dismay.

She circled the question once more before moving on from it since she had no time to waste, leaving that one problem to be the one out of the ordinary. Alice had already finished the exam and was going through reviewing it all with the minutes that were ticking down faster than she had anticipated. 

The questions that she had predicted to be on the exam were happily presented to her, but every single problem was a chore that she knew how to deal with. Keeping her mutters to herself, she was already listening to the person sitting behind her thoughts of the each and every single thing on the exam.

Huh, it seemed as though they had the same thoughts. Alice tended to show them alone at home or to her parents when they were lounging in the kitchen. Claudia was another great option to vent her anger to only for Claudia to stare at her blankly as if Claudia had no idea what she was speaking about while laughing at her.

"Time!" the teacher at the front called.

Alice immediately shuffled her papers together, tapping them on the desk to get all of the edges aligned as a long breath puffed out of her cheeks. In terms of confidence, she would put it at ninety-nine percent so she was feeling good about it. The studying that she had with Noah the other day did pay off no matter how she wished that was the case.

She wasn't one to study with other people. Not that she wasn't able to retain her attention, she just found it more productive to be alone in her time. But it was nice for a change whenever she went out with Claudia or was in a cafe with quiet music playing in the background along with the comfortable ambiance.

Passing the papers of the person sitting in front of her, the rest of the row was also doing the same and the teacher in the front eventually picked up all of their tests.

Alice glanced over to the side to see that Claudia was trying to get her attention the whole time. Claudia tapped her pencil on the desk again, and Alice waved at her to let her know that she got it.

Alice peered to the corner of the room where Noah was sitting only to be alarmed that he was looking right back at her. She tilted her head to silently ask how it went for him.

He was still talking with the other guys, but she didn't need his answer since she could see it written all over his face which was passive with a slight brush to his lips.

"Oh man," Claudia pouted. "That test isn't going to look pretty."

"Didn't I tell you to look over the review material?" Alice chided.

"Still, that test started speaking jargon at the end."

Alice laughed. "I do agree with you on that part."

Claudia's expression suddenly turned sly. "Maybe you'll finally be number one."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Why are you saying it like that?"

She did fill Claudia in on the details that Noah was working at the convenience store but that was all that she told Claudia since she wasn't too sure if Noah would like her speaking lightly