Chapter One
(June 1997)
The old Temperance Hall was packed with anxious sixth form students from three different schools, a lot of them ready to take their last-ever A-level exam. The final Physics paper kicked off at 9am. Two and a half hours later, in many cases, it would be the end of the trail.
Well okay, so would-be chemists had another sitting to endure tomorrow, but that was their hard luck, wasn't it?
Angie wasn't a chemist and wasn't particularly anxious. Today was definitely a last-ever for her as far as A-levels were concerned. It was also icing on the Physics cake. She was sure that she'd already done enough to pass; for her this final paper only served to decide if she got an A or a B.
Naturally she wanted an A but her future didn't depend on it. Consequently there was no need to fret.
No, while most of her contemporaries sweated nervously, waiting for the off, she fretted about her sex life instead.
Sex had become very important to Angie, so her concerns weren't exactly irrelevant.
Officially she had one girlfriend. Sandra was black, athletic and the nicest girl she could ever hope to meet. In theory she couldn't have asked for anything more. But in practice she had other girlfriends, both of them top secret.
Yes, not one extra lover on the side but two. Greedy or what!
Or was she just incredibly lucky?
Juggling the trio was tricky but fun, even if it was sometimes difficult to remember who knew what. Not in the heat of the moment, anyway. It was easy enough to work out what to and what not to say when she wasn't on heat but, in the throes of passion . . .
Well, it was only too easy to shout out the wrong name.
Not that she ever had.
Not yet.
'Thank you ladies and gentlemen,' the Invigilator said, breaking into Angie's rambling thoughts. 'Your time starts now. Please feel free to turn over your papers.'
Being an exemplary student Angie had worked her way through all of the exam questions set over the last decade, answering them in depth again and again. The usual format was more familiar than the back of her hand. But today something was wrong. For an agonizing moment or two she simply sat and stared. Then she looked at the cover sheet more closely, expecting to find she'd been given her copy in some foreign language; Latvian, maybe, or perhaps Swahili.
She swallowed a groan as she realized the text was in English. And, glancing around, she saw other examinees were already pulling their hair in despair.
Be rational, she told herself sternly. You only have to answer five of the questions. Pick out the ones you know best, and give them your all.
And try to forget that your banker . . . the one about vectors that's been in all the last ten papers . . . is nowhere to be seen.
You're good enough, girl; just do it.
Duly motivated she began and time flew by until she hit the wall. Checking her watch she found she had forty minutes to answer one more question. But the remaining options were lousy. Hedging, she re-read the answers she'd already written, making amendments as she went along, perhaps saving herself a couple of lost points.
Looking up for a second she noticed that the hall was more than half empty. Most of the hair-pullers had already given up and gone.
But bugger them. She was on the verge of an A and wanted it so badly it hurt. She wasn't going to cut and run. No, she needed to pick the easiest of the unanswered questions and attack it as best as she could. Half of a correct answer would get her the grade, surely.
Ignoring the increasing flow of departing students, she studied the questions again.
And Number Seven smacked her between the eyes.
It was her vector question, heavily in disguise.
And now, seeing through it, she could answer in full.
Fuck, there were only twenty minutes left!
Writing manically, ignoring spasms of cramp, her hand whizzed over the paper. It was as near a run thing as the Battle of Waterloo but, in the end, she prevailed. Just as she entered her final full stop the Invigilator called time.
Even without chance to read through her answer Angie knew that she'd nailed it. Gratefully dropping her pen she punched two clenched fists into the air.
'Yes,' she cried.
The Invigilator smiled at her. 'I'm glad I've got at least one satisfied customer,' he said as he collected her answer sheets.
By then there were less than a dozen examinees left in the enormous hall. The mathematical part of Angie's brain told her that guaranteed her the A. Guys and gals who couldn't finish couldn't be in the top ten per cent, could they? It was as simple as that.
Grinning, she went out into the street and bumped into Abigail, the school's most popular girl and her supposed rival in love. Not that Angie saw her as a rival. On the contrary, by "stealing" her boyfriend Abigail had opened up all sorts of new frontiers for her, all of them good.
'Ange,' Abs said in greeting. 'I've been looking out for you. How'd it go?'
'I nearly missed Question Seven,' Angie replied, 'but I got it just in time. Maybe it pulled me through.'
Abigail laughed. 'Spoken like the straight-A girl you are. You'll have sailed through, as per always. But stuff exams. Is that it for you?'
'Yep, I'm done with them.'
'It was my last one too. Fancy a drink?'
Angie considered for perhaps five seconds. It was lunchtime and there was a Wetherspoon's not fifty yards away.
'I'm not exactly flush with cash,' she warned, 'but I could stand a couple of rounds.'
'Sounds good to me,' said Abigail, linking arms. 'What are we waiting for?'
*****
After some of the less demanding exams 'Spoon's had been packed with Angie's schoolmates . . . but it wasn't packed that Thursday. With most examinees fleeing halfway through the ordeal there wasn't one face that she recognized.
Well, not from school, anyway. A lot of the battle-hardened boozers did look familiar but she struggled to put a name to any of them. They were, she reckoned, part of the everyday fixtures and fittings.
Abigail insisted on buying the first drinks and continued to be charm personified. That unsettled Angie because she equated "popular" with "bitchy". But their conversation was light and cheery and Abs was drinking Guinness, matching her pint for pint, so she couldn't be all bad.
'What's on the cards for this afternoon?' she asked when Angie got them refills. 'Sandra's got English Lit, hasn't she?'
Angie nodded and tried not to look glum. Being exam-free at last she wouldn't have minded a romp or two. But nobody was free to oblige before teatime.
'I'm seeing Sand later,' she said. 'We're wining and dining tonight.'
'Lucky Sand,' said Abigail.
'I think we're both going to get lucky.' Angie clapped a hand over her mouth. 'Sorry, I guess you didn't need to know that.'