A day. 24hrs. 1440mins. 84600 seconds. Tick tock. Tick tock. The clock chimed 12o'clock. Rita lay in her bed. The next day the test papers would come out. Her throat felt dry and her mind was whirring with the mistakes that she might have made in her exams. Forgot to mention solar with radiation in geography. Forgot to write AD and BC before the years in history. Subtracted instead of adding in Maths. Made grammatical errors in English language. Wrote the 'referred' question in English Literature wrong. Quoted the wrong lines in second language. All this possible mistakes seemed to group together in her mind taking the shape of a huge demon wielding a gigantic red pen and an answer script with all answers marked wrong. Now this would have been ridiculous but it was her bane. Her greatest fear. Failing academically. To take her mind off these thoughts, she had started calculating the number of minutes and seconds in a day,which was done in seconds. Now she stared at the ceiling and concentrated on the fan. It was hypnotising. Gradually she fell asleep.

    She was standing in a sprawling field. A huge mountain lay in her path. She knew that she had to climb it. It was do or don't. She did not stop to ask herself why as there was no one giving orders. However a figure soon appeared which had taken the form of the monster of failure in her imagination. She shivered as the monster's presence itself was enough to inspire fear. The monster chuckled,"Afraid, even before starting,eheh?" Inspire of her feelings,she replied, "No."" Good. You have a task to do. If you succeed you are alright. And if you don't then be my prey." And then disappeared into thin air.

She stared at the mountain again. She took a deep breath and started climbing. The first hurdle soon presented itself in the form of Maths. Solve an equation in 3mins. Fine. Maths was her strong point and she solved it in 2mins30seconds. She then climbed up and was met with a wizard. Atleast, he looked like Dumbledore and was wielding Gandalf's staff and had an Eye of Aggomotto hanging from his neck. She said,"What should I say? Wizard,I have come to give a test." The wizard's eyes flashed. He didn't take too well to this insult. She gulped and directed this fault to her tongue. However presently he said,"My name is Gandore Strange. And I will be your Geography examiner. Tell me the effects of El Nino and the effect global warming has on it." She took a deep breath and rapidly recited everything she had studied rapidly. The wizard rumbled,"Very good. I give you 20 points.""For?""If I tell you what will happen, it won't happen,"said the wizard shaking his head sadly."Okay. "She shook her head continued. She stopped then said," How many did you see?""14,000,605.""And in how many did I make out alive?""1.""Okay. Fine." The wizard gave a most dramatic bow and tripped over his own robes while she went over to her next task.

      She walked or rather trekked up to her next task as the land around her morphed and changed into something which did not resemble the mountain which had been before. A chill filled the air and she shivered. A feeling of familiarity came and she realised that she had ended up somewhere during the ice ages. "Well hopefully there won't be mammoths,hopefully." Well she spoke too soon for presently a hoard of mammoths charged past her. "Uhuh,atleast there are no mythical beings outta here." She silently congratulated her on her optimism. A figure in red and black approached her and she looked up to see the haughty face of Adolph Hitler. She took a step back as he sneered and said,"Well tell me how much you know about my achievements little girl or else I will send frost giants after you." Wow a threat made inside a threat. She rattled off at top speed the entire life and works of him and when she finished he looked quite impressed. "Well good to see that someone has learnt her lesson well," he said and went into a rant glorifying himself as the dreamscape changed and she stood in front of a cave.

Stalactites and stalagmites hung and rose respectively from almost everywhere. She took a step into the cave as a voice greeted her from seemingly nowhere. It was soft and had a musical quality to it."Little girl,there will call upon you now a gentleman who wishes to test you on a matter of the very deepest moment. Your recent achievements have shown that you can be tested on matters of a certain level of difficulty. So be in this cave then." Suddenly she sensed a presence entering the cave wearing a mask like the king of Bohemia from a 'Scandal in Bohemia' from 'The adventures of Sherlock Holmes.' She got a feeling though that she knew exactly who he was though which became apparent once he started speaking. "You will excuse this mask for the august person who employs me wishes his agency to remain secret."" I was aware of that,Cassius." He looked at her and threw his mask off and in a very un-Cassius like manner went on to declare his identity. Well it must be her perception of the character but he looked a lot like a certain Asgardian Trickster from the MCU. Well. Very well. "So care to tell me Caesar's weaknesses and a certain incident at the Tiber, in my own words,mind you." So she rattled off the exact lines which was rewarded with a pokerfaced Cassius. He said in a regretful voice,"I see that you know. Good enough. Now I must depart for I have a noble purpose to accomplish. Till then think of the world." And with a dramatic sweep of his doublet he was gone.

Her dreamscape changed again into a dungeon. She cursed and spun around to find a looming figure of Professor Severus Snape standing by one of the tables. As soon as she spotted him he began to speak, "Here you learn the delicate art to giving a Chemistry test and I hope that you are not a dunderhead." Then he proceeded to ask her questions which she answered correctly. "Good enough I suppose," he said though he looked very sorry to not find even a single mistake,"Be lucky that I have not deducted points from your house." She nodded as her dreamscape changed again into an aeroplane hanger.

A person was standing there beside the plane. He began speaking, "I am Hans Christian Oerstead. Tell me what I have done and an everyday use for it." She told him about the electromagnet and the electric bell. "Good now you may take your plane and fly to the summit",he said pointing in the distance. She did so,however as soon as she got in the plane,the entire place crumbled and she felt like she was being drenched in cold water.

     She woke up to find her mother shaking her."You have to wake up dear,it's 6o'clock and you will be shown the test papers today." She blinked and sat up as her mother left to prepare her breakfast. She rubbed her eyes and stared at the ceiling remembering her dream and wishing that she could have got to the summit.