70

Things however were not working well for Tahti, even after a week later. Her piece was still in he same shape, all week and she had trouble sleeping and eating, which worried her greatly as she was concerned about her performance in the upcoming exams.

"You seem to have lost weight, recently." Sol told her, one morning while she was gazing into space, inside the locker and she turned back to look at the lovebirds, who were just arriving.

"Hey." She greeted, sounding miserable.

"Is something wrong?" Jennie asked.

"No." She lied, blithely. "I just haven't been getting enough sleep lately."

"You must be working a lot." Sol said and Tahti wished it was true.

"Come to think of it, I haven't seen Demir these days. That little... He was acting like he was working hard to help you and now he's..."

"Jennie." Sol called in a whisper to stop her from saying anything further, but Tahti already heard her.

"It's not his fault." She said, when Jennie glanced at Sol. "I was the one who told him, I'll finish my piece myself... It's almost over, anyway."

"Really?" She asked. "I thought he was working hard so he could..." Sol raised her hand over Jennie's shoulder before she could complete her sentence, to give her a gentle squeeze, which sent her looking up at Sol, who shook her head gently, in response.

"We'll head in first, Tahti." Sol told her and she nodded before the girls turned to walk in.

Sighing, she reached out for a textbook in her locker to prop it on the other textbooks she was holding in her arm before she turned to head in, as well.

There were whispers and mumers in the studio, by the time she just walked in, but she was hardly concerned as she thought her course mates had found a recent gossip to keep them busy, for the day as usual.

She was raising her head from a textbook to see there was a little crowd, gathered somewhere around her table and a frown knitted on her brow as she wondered what the subject of gossip could be as they hardly found reasons for gossips right there in the studio.

The look on her course mates faces worried her for a reason, she could not place and she was just about to approach the crowd to find out what had happened, when Jennie's head whipped back to look at her. "Tahti."

There was this sympathy in her voice, she noticed and she confirmed something was wrong when the rest of the crowd, turned back to look at her, all wearing apologetic and pitiful looks on their faces.

She was about to ask what was wrong but her voice failed her when a part of the crowd broke open to reveal bits of shattered art pieces, which she recognised to be parts of her piece along with the ceiling fan, which had been over her table on the ground, destroyed without any possible form of amendment.

The textbooks she had been holding, slipped out of her arms and the air around her seemed heavy, which sent her short of breath.

Her knees buckled from under her and the earth gave way under her feet as she dropped to the floor with a dull thud.

"Tahti." Jennie called, running towards her as she started gasping for breath, with air unable to flow through her lungs.