I have to spend the whole morning helping Ma clean out our storage room and put all the food items neatly in our pantry. Apparently, we had been hiding quite the mess during my exam. Ma is more of a rebel than I thought. We aren’t quite finished, but Ma decides we can take a break to prepare and eat lunch.

Thankfully, Ma remembers my exam results without me having to tell her, so she allows me to leave after lunch without helping her to clean up. My next-youngest sister is forced to help, and I’m very glad looks cannot kill.

As soon as Ma lets me leave, I pull my sweater on and tie my shoes as fast as possible. If it were possible to run without getting in trouble, I would have done it. As it is, I walk as quickly as I can until I get to the government office.

“I’m here to pick up my results,” I tell the woman working behind the counter, “My ID number is 5408643. First name Maria.”

She flips through her cards until she finds my identification number. I’m itching to see my results as she slowly walks over to another cabinet and searches through it for the file containing my results. That seems wildly inefficient, but what can I do except wait?

It’s very hard to keep my foot from tapping as I wait for her to hand me the envelope that contains my exam results.

“Sign here,” she hands me a pen and a paper with more lines than I can count. She doesn’t look up or give me any indication of what I’m supposed to do.

“Sign where?”

She points to a line halfway down the page, “Here.”

I still have no idea where to sign, so I guess which one she must have pointed to and just hope I did it right.

“Have a pleasant day,” her monotone voice rings out as I turn to leave, “Thank you for accessing your government services.”

Like I would do it if I had another choice.

I hold the envelope to my chest as I walk towards the park where Alexei is supposed to meet me. He told me I could open my results and tell him later, but I want him there when I find out. Though he can’t hug me if it goes poorly, I crave his reassurance.

“Hello, Maria,” Alexei waves to me from the bench across the pathway and beckons me over. He brought us sandwiches.

I pick up my pace and walk over the Alexei, sitting down beside him on the bench.

“Hello, Alexei,” I offer him my gloved hand to kiss. I only wear them so he can kiss my hand. I’m sure he knows.

I ignore the sandwiches sitting on the bench between us, slide my gloves off, and open the envelope in my hands. I slide the paper out of the envelope, but I can’t bear to look at it.

“Tell me what it says,” I hand it to Alexei.

When he doesn’t say anything, I look over to see his face. His smile tells me everything I need to know.

“I passed?”

“You definitely passed,” he handed me back my score sheet, “superior pool.”

“What?” I snatched it back from him, “I did not!” I read the score sheet as he chuckles and opens one of the sandwiches.

“I did,” I finally admit when he is halfway done his sandwich.

“My boss is going to be over the moon,” Alexei laughs again, despite the sandwich in his mouth. “Congratulations!”

“I don’t know how I did it, but I have to tell my Ma,” I start to gather my things to go.

“Wait!” Alexei practically shouts though his mouth is full of food, “I have to talk to you about something else.”