When Lisa pulled into her parking spot, she groaned. For the last two weeks she'd had the privilege of driving to work, but it was about to be over. Driving took longer than the Metro, thanks to traffic, but not having to walk in the suffocating heat was an easy trade-off. When they returned to the main building on Monday and morphed back into the enormous group of sixty-two for the last part of training, it would be back to public transportation.
As she grabbed the gray jacket that matched her pencil skirt from the hanger in the backseat, she reminded herself that it was only for two weeks. After that, training would finally be over, and they'd be back in the DV building full-time. The excitement was short lived, as thoughts of the future inevitably included thoughts of bar results.
Once inside the conference room they'd been training in, Lisa was greeted by the smell of coffee and bagels.
"What's all this?" she asked Dongwook, one of the few others who'd arrived early.
"A little tradition," one of the relatively older prosecutors said as she set out cream and sugar for the coffee assembled on a table at the front of the room. "Come help yourself."
After dropping her bags off on her chair, Lisa did just that. "Thanks so much for this," she said to the woman, jumping in to help her finish setting up while trying not to judge the others in the room just sitting there.
"Hey, I remember being in your exact same spot last year and being scared shitless," she replied with a laugh. "I'm Jessie," she added, extending her hand.
"Lisa," she replied, offering a firm shake.
"I'm heading off to Juvenile next week, so our paths might not cross again for a bit, but hopefully I can answer some questions for y'all today."
Lisa smiled as she poured herself some coffee. "Thank you. That's really generous."
Jessie was joined by a handful of other prosecutors, and when the rest of the newbies arrived, she made good on the promise to answer their questions. Despite being told the conversation was off the record, Lisa didn't dare ask anything that made her look worried or weak.
Roseanne didn't ask anything at all. She wasn't even polite enough to eat something despite the fact that the prosecutors had paid out of their own limited pockets to buy them food.
"My best advice," Jessie said before sipping coffee out of a University of Texas mug, "get plenty of rest this weekend. Next week will be grueling. You'll spend the first four hours of your day observing court and after lunch, another four hours doing more training." She quirked an eyebrow. "And if you're paying attention, that means no time during the day to prepare for your moot courts on Thursday and Friday."
"And if that's not draining enough," another attorney said as he smeared cream cheese on a bagel, "that next Monday is bar results day."
Lisa swallowed the lump that formed in her throat. As if any of them could forget the day looming over them.
Jessie nodded. "Doyeong usually starts class around ten on the day bar results come out. I would tell you all not to check the website until you get home, but there's no chance of that." She grinned as if remembering her own experience. "So all I can say is no matter what, keep your chin up. Hold it together and don't puke."
"The don't puke part is probably more important than you think," the male attorney added. "If I were you, I'd skip breakfast. But that's because I saw a kid blow chunks our year and haven't been able to eat oatmeal since."
Lisa dropped the bagel she was eating onto her paper plate when the visual turned her stomach. To be fair, the fear of failing hadn't helped her appetite much either.
