Immaculate Spirit 56 :

"Alright. Even if your LSAT was impressive and it give you a nice amount of notoriety, we have still huge reservation about you. You are obviously extremely gifted in law but it's your general knowledge that worried us. h.e.l.l, your last cla.s.s was 7th grade! You missed a total of 5 grades and you didn't even graduated from high school. In the history of this university, we never encounter that situation before."

"I understand sir." Nathaniel answer. He knew that it was going to be a problem at some point.

"That's why we have arranged a series of test for you. It regroup basically all of what you learn normally on each grade and each domain. You will have ten hours to complete all of these tests starting when your feet leave my office. I urge you to take those test seriously as i would ask that at the end of semestre you can complete them all with a good score. If not you will be expelled."

"Mister Curtis, can you…" Start Karine before being interrupted.

"Reconsider? I'm sorry but no. This is Columbia here, we have a reputation to uphold. I can't have a genius in law knowledge who didn't even know when the french revolution happen!" He exclaim inflexibly.

"But…"

"No mom, it's ok. He is right, even if i perform okay on LSAT, he can't have someone wandering around with no high school knowledge." He smile lightly, his eyes twinkling.

Karine knew her son very well and she recognize the expression that he use when he was about to pull a prank on someone. Hiding her smile the best that she could, she turn her head to the side.

"I will take the test right know sir. I presume Joshua would be in charge of monitoring me?"

"Indeed i am. Since i was the one who advocate to accept you, this is my responsibility."

"Thanks Joshua, i hope i would convince you that you made the right choice. Sir, can i advocate for an amendment?" Nathaniel ask.

"An amendment? Speak soph.o.m.ore." Richard said curiously.

"Can the chrono start when i have the first test on my hands? It seem more fair that way."

"Hummm… I will allow it. Joshua, i trust you to take good care of your charge." The dean said dismissively.

"Of course, let's go Nathaniel."

Once the two had leave the room, the dean focus on the mother of Nathaniel.

"I'm sorry about that but i needed to be inflexible on that matter. He is obviously smart and even if he don't succeed this time, he would succeed the next. If not, i trust that you or him have the mean to hire a private tutor to brought him up to speed." Although he was apologizing, he did show no sign that he was really sorry and Karine did not expect him to be.

"You know when Nathaniel was twelve, a week prior the accident, we made a bet together. If he could learn french in two weeks, i would pay him violin cla.s.s as he wanted. He succeed in one week. He learn one of the hardest language on the planet in one week and his accent is almost flawless." Karine explain softly.

"This is indeed impressive. I did four years of french in college but i can't barely speak it today. Wait, he is fluent in french? That was not in his application."

"Yes, almost no one know about it beside his family, he don't like to boast. What i wanted to say is that he like to be challenged. And you just did. Mark my word, he's going to ace those test." Karine said proudly.

"Of course you would say that, he's your son so it's normal for you to expect great thing from him but i think he would fail this time and it will motivate him to work harder on the future."

"Want to bet?" Karine ask with a cats.h.i.+re smile, fis.h.i.+ng two bills from her purse. "I would hate to take too much money from you, how about two hundred dollars?"

"You are on." He said smiling. They both put the bills on the desk, not touching them again.

"How did your son became so knowledgeable about law?"

"Since he was eight he was looking threw my case file. He always loved books and could immersed in them for days. You learn about the Droski case?" She ask.

"Yes i read about it in the newspaper. Nicely done by the way." Even if he was in corporate law and her in criminal law, he knew that what she had done was not easy.

"I was talking about my a.s.sistant tempering with case files." She said bluntly.

"Yes i heard." He said in a cold voice.

Word go out really fast between lawyer on case like that and it come to no surprise to someone as well connected as him heard about it. Even Richard knew that what he had done was grave hence his cold tone.

"It was Nathaniel who found out about it. He was coming back from LA after an interview and drop by the office to see me. When he saw the state i was in, he propose to help me.and i accepted. He found out the proof i needed in two hours in the files that i was inspecting for a week."

"Still impressive but this is not the law part of his knowledge that worry me but the rest." Richard said. This was not the first time that he listen to parents who glorified their children so he did not put to heart what she was saying.

"That was not my point. I'm 80% sure that if Nathaniel took the Bar today, he would get it and at the end of this semestre, i'm sure at 100% that he will get it. He is a genius but he has a problem. He has almost no friend and none of his age. When he was younger, he was being bullied constantly because we are lesbian. He always hide it from us but we knew. A mother always know that kind of things so he become a loner. Today he can pa.s.s his day alone and be completely fine with it but we are worried."

"You hoped that with young people as smart as him, he will find it easy to make friends?" Richard pick up quickly. He ignore for the most part of her crazy talk about Nathaniel pa.s.sing the Bar already and focused on the princ.i.p.al matter.

"Yes, it is our hope." She answer truthfully.

"I can affirm that we have an amazing atmosphere here so don't worry. If your son is as amazing as you say he is, he will make friend easily." Richard rea.s.sured her.

"Thanks." She said softly, still not entirely convince.

*****

Three hours later, Nathaniel enter the dean office again and was surprised to find them still talking. Their topic of conversation seem to be environmental law which made him smile. It was a pa.s.sioning topic albeit a sad one.

"I finished! Joshua is grading my last test, This is for you." He said, dropping an enormous stack of paper on his desk.

Seeing that, Richard lift an eyebrow. He could not help to sneer inwardly, If he finished in three hours, he must have fail at least half of those test. Taking the first test, the letter A in red was plainly visible. Thinking this was luck, he pa.s.s to the second page, then the third, the fourth…

"What the h.e.l.l?" He exclaim.

He could not help but to pinch himself in the hope that he was dreaming. He had looked at twenty test already and they were all A! It was unbelievable. The mind of Richard was in turmoil as he was looking through all of these tests.

Seeing the four hundred dollars on the desk, Nathaniel turn to his mother.

"Mom you bet on me again?" He ask bitterly.

"Yes, the dean thought that i was exaggerating so i was forced to make a bet." She said almost apologetically.

"I confiscate it! We would give them on charity." He said, taking the money on the desk.

Seeing him take the money, the dean could not help to voice his disagreement.

"Hey not so fast! I'm not finished yet."

"They are all A sir, i a.s.sure you." Nathaniel said to the dean who just grumbled and continue going through every tests on his desk. Soon enough, he was finished and he realize it was in fact all straight A.

"There are still a test missing." Richard grumble, talking about the one Joshua was finis.h.i.+ng grading.

"It is a A as well." He said in a absentmindedly voice. "Let's go mom, i'm famished."

"Okay sweetie, it was a pleasure Mister Curtis."

"Goodbye sir." Nathaniel said before leaving.

They had not exit the room for more than five seconds when Joshua enter the room with the last test in hand. Looking through his face, Richard could see that Joshua was shocked still.

"It is an another A is it?"

"Yes Richard, it is." He confirmed. "That was unbelievable. He managed to get hundred percent of good answer on all the test except this last one."

"He made a mistake? On what question?" He ask, feeling better.

"You are not going to like it. The question was when the french revolution happen and he just crossed of the proposed answer and write something in french on the side. 'C'est une perfection de n'aspirer point à être parfait' No idea what it means though." Joshua said. he did not study french in college but german.

"Give me that." He order, taking the test and reading the phrase in question.

"I recognize that phrase. It's a quote from a french priest who live a few years after the revolution. It mean 'It's a perfection not to aspire to be perfect'. He's trolling me." Richard said bitter. He was the dean of one of the best law school in the country and he was being taunt by a sixteen years old. He could not help but to feel wrong.

"Well at least he fail to have the perfect score test." Joshua said to cheer up his best friend.

"Look at the bottom right of the page." Richard said, giving the test back.

"1789." He read out loud and then laugh.

"I'm going to hate that kid." Richard said, crossly.

"I'm going to love that kid." Joshua exclaim, laughing out loud.