Chapter 31 - The Bar Exam Results
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The Thomas Bennett Foundation office was completely paralyzed.
Nobody was answering phones. Nobody was filing briefs.
The entire staff was crowded into the breakroom, surrounding Maya, who was staring intensely at her laptop screen.
Arthur stood directly behind her, his hands resting firmly on her shoulders.
Ethan was pacing the length of the room, biting his fingernails.
“The website crashed,” Maya groaned, hitting the refresh button for the twentieth time. “The state servers can't handle the traffic. This is actual torture.”
“Just breathe,” Arthur said, though his own heart was pounding rapidly.
“If she fails, I’m suing the state for emotional distress,” Ethan muttered from the corner.
Maya hit the refresh button one more time.
The screen flashed white, then loaded a sterile, official-looking PDF document.
The room fell dead silent.
Maya leaned forward, her eyes scanning the massive list of identification numbers.
She scrolled down to the 'M' section.
She stopped.
She stared at the screen for ten agonizing seconds.
“Maya?” Arthur asked softly.
Maya slowly turned around in her chair.
Tears were streaming down her face, but she wore the biggest, brightest smile Arthur had ever seen.
“I passed,” she whispered.
The breakroom absolutely erupted.
The staff cheered, clapping and hugging each other.
Ethan let out a triumphant yell, running over and picking his sister up out of the chair, spinning her around in a massive hug.
“I told you! I told you!” Ethan shouted.
Arthur stepped forward as Ethan put her down.
Maya threw her arms around Arthur’s neck, crying into his shoulder.
“I did it, Dad. I’m an attorney.”
“You did it,” Arthur smiled, kissing the top of her head. “I never doubted it for a single second.”
Ethan suddenly pulled a massive, poorly decorated cake out of the office refrigerator.
The frosting was bright blue, and written in terrible red icing were the words: 'CONGRATULATIONS ON NOT BEING A FAILURE.'
Maya burst out laughing, wiping her tears.
“You are the worst brother ever,” she beamed.
May you like
“But I brought cake,” Ethan countered.
It was a perfect, chaotic, beautiful victory.
