A Closer Look

Chapter One: First Impressions

A weight was lifted off Sam Rostrevor's shoulders the moment she clicked 'Submit' on Quinn Engineering Co.'s website. It was her twentieth application for graduate jobs, with many more to come.

It went like this every time: after much procrastination and two cups of coffee, she would dive into an application, spend hours perfecting it like her future depended on it because it did, then finally submit it. Rinse and repeat. This was her life now - the life of a final year engineering student who was terrified of not finding employment upon graduation.

The sun peeked through the curtains on her window. 7:30am. God, she had been up for three hours. She grabbed her phone and texted 'Good morning' with a heart emoji to Tom Murray, the long-distance boyfriend who is on the other side of the country, studying marine biology in a Queensland coastal town.

Sam opened up Excel on her laptop to mark this application as 'Completed' on her growing spreadsheet of engineering graduate jobs, local and interstate. One day, she would get a job with one of these companies and finally, finally start her career as a mechanical engineer.

.

It was tough getting back in the swing of attending lectures in a new semester, but it was Sam's final year and she was going to make it count. This year was going to be different from the rest; for one, Haley was not going to be around now, she was all too happy to put engineering behind her as she now started her first year as a nursing student.

Sam admired Haley's courage for dropping her program after four years, with just one to go. She could never do such a thing herself, although sometimes she dreamed about it. All in vain, of course -- being an engineer was something Sam had envisioned for herself since primary school. She was not about to quit just because her best friend decided something else was better for her.

She sipped on her third cup of coffee as Dr. Simmons' voice filled the auditorium, relying on the caffeine pulsing through her system to get through the morning.

Simmons did not waste any time in banter and jumped right in, just the way Sam preferred it. He brought up their final year project, to which Sam smiled in satisfaction, as she had already outlined her project plans and scheduled her semester to complete submissions on time. All seemed to go on as normal until...

"...some changes have been made to the curriculum. You may have seen this in an email I sent last week, but you'll all be put into groups of two or three for this project," Simmons paused for a second as the students groaned quietly in protest. Clearly, no one had bothered to check their university emails during the break, Sam included. She blamed it on job applications. "You'll receive an email after this lecture with information about your group members for the year. I suggest that you all arrange to meet up as soon as possible to discuss the project plan."

It was as though Sam was in a terrible dream, similar to those where she realised she had forgotten to study for an entire subject the day before its exam -- "Fuck," she said under her breath.

The many hours she had spent in planning over the summer were flushed down the toilet just like that. To be punished for thinking ahead...

The bright side was, things could only look up from here. Or, at least, Sam very much hoped so.

.

Tom replied to Sam's morning text just after lunch, although she could see that he had been up for hours on his Instagram story. She rolled her eyes. Tom had been slacking when it came to communication lately. She would worry about that later. There were more pressing issues at hand --

"There it is," Sam said as she opened the latest email from Dr. Simmons, adjusting her laptop screen to make out the words as the sunlight reflected off the glass.