Time with Christina in court

Yesterday when I got to work, I saw Wendy A had left a voice message the previous day at about 5:36pm. She wanted to talk about a matter I had emailed her about, so I thought it'd be better if I just went to see her.

I went down to level 10 and saw her in Darrell's room. When she saw me she greeted me and we went into her room. She joked about me having gone home when it was only 5:30pm the day before, and then asked if I wanted to come back.

Eh???

I laughed, not knowing how to answer. I then just said "it's very different" and the conversation moved on. That was the most diplomatic (read: sitting on the fence) response I could come up with. It's not that I didn't want to come back, but how bad would it look to level 11? I go there for a few weeks then piss off? They'll think I didn't like them.

We talked for a while about how to draft a letter in my matter, and then I returned to level 11 to do work.

Just when I thought I would have plenty of time and cruise to the end of the year, I was told by Michael that there'd be a bail app the next day, so I spent the rest of the day preparing for that.

After work I went home, then walked to the gym. I did my exercises, then walked back home.

Today
I woke up somewhat nervous about today's bail app. I went to the gym in the morning, then went to work. It was at 2pm, so I had the first half of the day to finish preparing.

I had that all too familiar feeling of being scared shitless about appearing in court, not really sure why.

I had to amend a document, which was approved a little too quickly. This job really forces me to be extra extra careful, because I know if I make mistakes, no one will pick it up until it's too late. I actually did discover a few mistakes I made in the amended document, and I was very very lucky I spotted it, or else I would've handed that up.

Anyway, I saw that Imad and Christina were at the court as well, and I wondered if they would be there watching me. That made me even a bit more nervous. What if I really fuck up, and Imad regrets choosing me for level 11?

At about 12:30pm I went out for lunch, on the way out I passed Imad and Christina coming back from court. I spoke to Imad briefly about a call earlier, which made it seem like I had just ignored Christina.

I grabbed a Subway sandwich and headed back to the office, and at the lifts bumped into Christina and Imad again as they went out to lunch.

At about 1:40pm I headed out to court. I walked up the stairs looking for the officer. I looked to my left and saw a tall handsome guy in a suit. I said his name and he replied. I don't know why, maybe it was just a guess, but officers seem to have this 'look' about them - they're dressed too nicely to look like a crim, but and too good looking to be a lawyer.

We talked a bit, before Christina seemed to appear out of nowhere and joined us. She mentioned that level 9 has a rule that LO1's aren't allowed in this court, so I might be the first. The three of us talked for a bit before she walked off, and I heard her speaking on her phone in Korean. I wonder if it was a boyfriend. She returned again, and then we all went into court.

At the scanners, AJ asked me if I was in his matter. I actually couldn't believe I'd be going up against him. Luckily, he wanted an adj and the other guy pulled his app.

In court, I watched Christina do her bail app, I think she's pretty decent. She's not perfect, but that just kinda brings me back to reality as to what is expected of me. Sometimes I think I'm expected to be a silk and I put too much pressure on myself.

I wondered if she would wait for me and watch me, or if she would just head back to the office. I didn't feel any pressure now as it wasn't going ahead. When she finished, I took her place and didn't see where she went. In the middle of mine, I think the judge was looking at me, probably thinking I looked familiar and surprised I changed sides, lol.

After it finished, I went out to see Christina talking to her officer. I spoke to mine a bit and we all walked outside together. We split, and Christina and I crossed the road. I joked about the judge's face which made her laugh. As we crossed amongst cars, I thought we were going right but she was going left, which made us run into eachother.

We had a good, flowing conversation was we walked back. She was talking about how she thought the judge wouldn't ask her anything, and I said "maybe he wants to see your advocacy skills?"

In the lift, she was telling me about how the lady that spoke to me at court used to work here as a para. I then began to ask if she was private before, only to realise that, duh, she was a para, so no. Fuck I'm asking some dumb questions in front of her.

When we got back into our office, she asked me about my case, and I spent a few minutes telling her about it. I don't know, I think I'm getting the feeling that this might be the start of something. But the whole Katie thing stays in my mind to remind me about the troubles that could follow.