I officially took my first bar exam at the end of April.
By the second month, my belly was already starting to show rather obvious signs of my pregnancy. But because of the cold weather, I was bundled up in a jacket which hid my belly quite well. Ashton was so worried that someone at the exam hall would mess up that he insisted on fetching me to the door of the exam hall. He only left reluctantly when the invigilator stopped him from entering.
It had been a while since I had taken an exam of any kind. I looked at my ID and the stationery I had prepared and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm my nerves.
“Hi,” someone suddenly said. I turned to see a smiley young man standing next to me. When our gazes met, he bent down a little lower and nodded at me in a friendly manner.
“Are you talking to me?” I pointed at myself.
“Yes,” the man replied politely. He was standing about an arm’s length away from me, so I didn’t feel threatened at all. “It seems like you may have taken my spot.”
My smile froze and I felt my cheeks begin to heat up. “Is this not desk number 021?”
We both looked down at the number stuck to the corner of the table. The font they had used for the numbers was rather thin and stretched out, so I accidentally mistook the “7” for a “1”.
I quickly got up and let him have his seat back. “I’m sorry, I didn’t check properly. Here you go.”
The young man smiled, seeming relaxed. He pointed to the seat right next to desk 027 and said, “No worries. 021 is right here.”
I couldn’t believe that I had actually mistaken “7” for “1”.
I gritted my teeth and tried to act like nothing happened. After walking toward my seat and sitting down, the man’s voice rang out again.
“My name is Zander. Looks like we may be working together in the future. Nice to meet you.”
I wasn’t exactly looking to get a career in such a political field, but I was still rather proud of myself for representing my country in a course like this. In order to keep the peace, I smiled and turned to greet him as well. “I’m Scarlett. It’s nice to meet you too.”
The awkwardness couldn’t really be helped. In fact, I was starting to worry about whether I could still remember all the things I had memorized for the exam, so I couldn’t really think of anything else to say.
Zander shook my hand politely before turning back and sitting up straight, waiting for the exam to begin.
Soon enough, the examiners started checking each attendee for any possible cheating that would be against the rules. After a near-psychopathic level of thorough checking, they finally started handing out the papers.
The moment the exam ended, Ashton walked in. He approached my desk and asked, “How was it?”
I lifted my chin in glee. “I think I did pretty well.”
Ashton smiled and was about to pat my head when a voice called out.
“Scarlett?” Zander called. He walked toward me and passed me a business card. “Let’s exchange our contact information. We’ll be working together in the future, so it’ll be good to have a friend.”
He placed the business card on my desk without giving me a chance to turn him down. I looked at Ashton’s rapidly souring expression and said awkwardly, “I’m sorry, I didn’t bring my business cards with me. Maybe next time?”
Zander seemed to think that over for a while before nodding. “Alright. See you at part 2.”
The bar exam was split into two parts. Only those who passed the April exam would be qualified to take part 2 in September. His words were basically silently wishing me luck.
