Page 8 of Spoonful

“Aren’t they?” Hiro took his own cookie with relish. “I get these so often here that they usually ask if I want a plate whenever I order.” He took his own bite, chasing it with a sip of his cocoa. “Now then, why don’t you show me what you’re working on?”

Jaylin nodded, and fumbled for his textbook, opening it at the second yellow sticky note,Milton Industries vs BreccherInc.He turned the book so that Hiro could read it before opening his workbook to the corresponding section. “I’m supposed to deconstruct Breccher’s defense,” he said. “It’s a three page paper.”

“Gotcha,” Hiro said. “Do you have the paper done? I can check your work if you want.”

“Oh, um.” Jaylin looked at the table. “It’s not, um, written yet.” He had intended to start dictating it to his laptop last night after he’d finished doing his reading, but…

Brent.

“Okay.” Hiro nodded understandingly. “Notes then? I could help you get started?”

Jaylin swallowed his discomfort, stomach clenching. “I don’t really have notes.”

“Okay,” Hiro said again, but now he sounded obviously confused.

This had been such a stupid idea. Forget impressing Hiro, the man was going to walk away from this meeting thinking Jaylin was totally incompetent. “Could I, um… tell you what’s going to be in the paper?” Jaylin tried.

Hiro brightened. “Oh, sure. Yeah, we could outline it together.”

“Right,” Jaylin said weakly. “Okay.”

Hiro’s next nod was encouraging, his expression open.

Jaylin set his jaw. Might as well just get it over with. “Okay, so Milton is trying to sue Breccher for defamation, after Breccher released a statement alleging how a buzzsaw manufactured by Milton seriously injured a Breccher employee. Milton is further alleging that the buzzsaw wasn’t faulty and it was a misuse of materials that led to the injury.” He glanced at Hiro, who gestured for him to continue.

So Jaylin did.

He went over the entire case as best as he could under pressure, and actually didn't stumble as much as he expected to. He did have to close his eyes a few times in concentration in order to properly recall the citations for cases used in Breccher’s defense, but he was able to continue along okay anyway. Hiro didn't interrupt the entire time. Instead, he alternated between bending his head over the textbook to follow along with Jaylin’s “paper” and staring at Jaylin.

Jaylin tried to ignore the staring. He could only imagine what Hiro must be thinking, this high-powered lawyer listening to some dumb college kid who couldn't even read his own textbook for reference.

When he finished with his closing statement, he was met with silence. Instead of trying to deal with Hiro’s obvious disappointment, Jaylin ducked his head, taking a gulp of his cooling cocoa.

“Um,” Hiro said after a long moment. “Wow. Okay, uh…”

Jaylin winced. He must have really sucked. “It’s just a rough draft,” he offered feebly. “I, you know, I haven’t written the paper yet.”

“Uh, no,” Hiro said, still looking a little stunned. “You definitely did. That’s—I’m a little surprised? Because you wrote the whole paper.”

Jaylin waited for the ‘but.’

“Jaylin...” Hiro said slowly. “You… cited all those cases and quotes from memory. You didn’t reference your textbook or workbook at all.”

Jaylin bit his lip. He probably hadn’t cited something correctly then.Fuck.It was just so hard sometimes to keep it all straight. There was so much material to go through. “I’m sorry if I messed up.”

“Messed up?” Hiro’s expression was a mix of bemusement and disbelief. “Jaylin, you just presented a whole paper, sources cited, orallyfrom memory.”

Jaylin wished he understood what the problem was. “I’m sorry. I didn’t have time to type it up yet.”

“I’m sorry you didn’t,” Hiro said, making Jaylin wince again. Then he continued. “Because that was excellent. If you had typed it up, you’d be done. It was well thought-out, well organized, you had a good delivery…” he tapped the textbook. “You clearly have a fantastic understanding of the subject matter, and it’s obvious you did a lot of research into how the laws were being applied in the case. It’s going to be an excellent paper.”

“Oh,” Jaylin said, cheeks heating. Hiro had liked it then? He’d thought Jaylin had donewell?“Th-thank you.”

Hiro gave him a wry smile. “No wonder you were surprised when I showed up. You don’t need help at all, do you?”

“Aditi meant well,” Jaylin said, shifting awkwardly. “I mean, I guess I mentioned that studying took up a lot of my time. And she knows how much I’m struggling with statistics. She probably extrapolated from there.”

“Your studying really shows,” Hiro said. “I can’t even imagine. I’ve been studying law for over a decade and I don’t think I could present something like you just did without at least referencing my notes.”

---