February 1st
Adam Little didn't know whether he was nervous or excited. Today was the day when he would receive his results from his year twelve exams he completed last year. It wasn't that last year was a bad year, sort of, and it wasn't that he didn't study (he did), he was just a born worrier.
It was his caring nature kicking it when he didn't want it to.
And then Adam found himself wondering if his girlfriend, Tasha Miller, had looked at her results yet.
Tasha and Adam had an extremely strong relationship and they stuck by one another through everything.
Last year proved to be no different.
They had a few ups and downs last year and a couple of scares, big scares like the possibility of parenthood, but Adam assured Tasha that there was nothing their relationship couldn't handle, and he was right.
And he was glad of that.
"Hey," said Adam, happy that Tasha had finally called. She would definitely be able to distract him from his thoughts.
"I got my results! I got a great score," Tasha beamed through the phone.
"Lucky you," replied Adam.
Adam wasn't jealous, but it wasn't surprising that Tasha's work had paid off. She did a lot of work last year and she had done the best she possibly could. And now what she did had given her the results that she wanted. Adam only wished that the same thing would happen for him.
"Oh," Tasha said worryingly, "have you, well, not done as well as you wanted to?"
"No, I mean, I don't know. I haven't looked yet," replied Adam.
"You haven't looked?"
"Nope."
"Why not?"
"I don't know."
"Are you scared?"
Adam paused the conversation there. He didn't want to admit that he was afraid when he was because it would have made him sound weak and he was most certainly not weak. In his opinion, he was a strong man and there were many things that he did last year that proved that; like acting like a fool on muck up day and getting his first tattoo.
"Adam? Are you still there?" Tasha brought Adam back from his thoughts.
"Yeah," replied Adam, "yeah, I am still here."
"You didn't tell me why you haven't looked at your results yet."
"I don't know if I want to."
"Adam, com on, it is just a number. You are just as afraid of it as you of horses."
Adam laughed at the joke but he did think it was a bit of a drastic comparison. It was true that he was really scared of horses but, really, a number? Adam wasn't sure what to think but he knew that he wasn't scared of a number; he was just scared of the fact that there was a chance that his hard work last year didn't pay off.
"What if I come over and hold your hand while you have a look?" Tasha suggested. It was a serious suggestion.
Adam smiled, knowing that Tasha would have wanted to do anything to help, "okay," he said, "you can come over."
With that sorted, Adam and Tasha hung up from each other and Adam got back to focusing on what was going to happen if he didn't do as well as he wanted to. He needed to do well. He wanted to study Egyptology this year at university and he needed to have a good score to get in. He had worked hard in hopes of getting himself to where he needed to be so he really wanted it to pay off.
