Lyra dreams of a recurring childhood memory: a calla lily in one small hand, the remains of a candy necklace in the other, and a looming shadow that belongs to her biological father. In the dream, someone whispers, “A Hawthorne did this,” and Lyra senses that her father has a gun as he walks upstairs.

Lyra wakes suddenly with her head on a desk and realizes she is in a nearly empty lecture hall. A professor tells Lyra she has ten minutes left on a test and assumes Lyra slept through it because she was partying, which irritates Lyra and pushes the nightmare’s fear aside.

Because Lyra reads quickly and understands how multiple-choice tests are structured, Lyra begins decoding the questions by analyzing patterns among the answers rather than relying on course knowledge. The professor grows more visibly annoyed as Lyra completes the exam with a minute to spare.

When Lyra turns in the test, the professor grades it immediately, expecting to prove a point. Instead, Lyra scores a ninety-four percent, prompting the professor to criticize Lyra’s effort based on Lyra’s appearance and the fact that she slept through the exam.

Lyra calmly reveals that the professor has never seen Lyra in lecture because Lyra is not enrolled in the class at all; Lyra had fallen asleep during the previous lecture. As Lyra leaves, the professor asks how Lyra scored so well, and Lyra explains that trick questions fail when someone knows how to recognize tricks.