I tapped my foot impatiently as I watched the wall mounted clock tick away seconds devastatingly slowly. It was an interview.
Scary. It was always scary trying for something you really needed. Like how Jace really cared about winning first place in the races, he got nervous right before the competitions. Lucky for Jace he performed well under pressure. I was more likely to freeze up.
I did not want to freeze up in the middle of an interview.
Both of my parents and I had done a lot more arguing about what I was going to do with myself if I didn't continue on to college. They were determined that I had to further my education, I wasn't quite so convinced. Really, what was the problem with going straight to work? It wasn't like people couldn't survive without degrees.
Work or education, work or education... We landed on both.
It had been a stroke of luck, finding the advertisement in the paper. I was circling want ads in thick marker again while my Mother eyed up the pages from behind my seat. She'd taken to visiting Father's apartment too, recently. I tried to tell her it was probably safe for me to go home now but between you and me, I think she wanted an excuse for the whole family to be together.
Anyway, one of the Museum's 'Resident Historians' was offering an apprenticeship. He was a graduate by name of 'Dr Zachariah'. I wasn't completely sure why this Doctor would need any help – it seemed that studying old artifacts wasn't really a team activity – but I wasn't exactly going to complain. It was a great opportunity.
There was hardly anybody around waiting for their name to be called in to meet with the Doctor. One girl with dark, thickly braided hair was reading a book about ancient weaponry, tapping her manicured nails against the cover. I smiled at her but she just twisted her body away from me.
I was used to the antisocial, bookish ones from all my Library trips. Or maybe I had her all wrong and she was just super competitive. I was used to that too.
I was called before her, the person before me stepped out of the office looking like a weight had been lifted. He must have been nervous too. His walk out was brisk; I slipped into the office as Book Girl watched him go.
The office looked like everything I expected. The walls were practically lined in encyclopedias and the desk was full of paper. Dr Zachariah sat behind it in a leather spinning chair like the one our Headmaster had. He was... Much younger than I expected. Only a small strip of grey in his black hair.
"Mr Lightwood?" He asked with a smile. He had a kind smile; pleasant and genuine looking.
"Alec," I said, extending my hand over the desk a little too quickly, "people call me Alec."
Dr Zachariah's handshake was firm and he seemed happy enough. It wasn't much comfort that he seemed the type to treat everybody nicely. I had no way of gauging how I was doing compared to the other applicants.
"Take a seat Alec." He said. I sat. He told me not to be nervous as if that ever worked on anybody. I was going to be nervous right up until I got a rejection letter or phone call.
Damn. It wasn't the time to think like that. Positivity was key. Just because I'd had bad luck the last few weeks didn't mean it would always be that way. The Doctor hadn't recognised me, that was good, wasn't it?
"Why don't you tell me something about you? What brought you here?"
The add in the paper. But that wasn't the right answer; though that was the start of it. When I first saw the notice I couldn't keep the idea of it out of my head.
"I could already talk about half the exhibits in the museum for hours on end... I'd love to learn about the others." I said honestly. Sometimes it was difficult for my family to shut me up. It was all fascinating to me.
"You have a deep interest, then?" Dr Zachariah asked indulgently.
"I have a passion for History." I blurted. The Doctor stopped twirling his pen around his fingers. He focused his full attention on me.
Why would I say that? The words had just appeared in my mind. Magnus had said it. I'd thought he was being dumb at the time, but the Doctor actually seemed impressed.
"Seeing the new, ancient things here," I continued, hoping I could keep myself from sounding so generic, "I think it's more valuable than anything a lecturer in a classroom would try to teach me."
"My lecturer at University was the dullest man..." Dr Zachariah laughed. "I can't promise not to bore you, though."
He didn't seem like the type to bore anybody. He gave me the feeling that he would always be easy to listen to, and what did it matter if he wasn't? One person who'd never heard of me was better than a room full of kids who could easily have.
"I'm not easily bored." I said. It was kind of true. I got bored by some things, usually pop culture, and stayed alert through other things that put Izzy and Jace to sleep. I didn't see us analysing the latest hits in the chart as part of Dr Zachariah's studies so my downfall wasn't going to be a problem.
I was surprised by the fact he didn't ask me much about the actual subject in the interview. Surprised and a little worried that he'd already written me off and was just killing time asking me about my character. By the end of it he knew that I was the eldest of three siblings, the professions of my divorced parents and everything I'd studied at school.
He still seemed pretty happy with me, but he also seemed glad when he asked me to send in Book Girl. Who was actually named Cleo Maker. She had her nose up in the air when she passed me in the doorway.
Whatever. Only time would tell if either of us got the position.
Until then I had to be patient and find another way of getting income. The apprenticeship pay wasn't advertised as the greatest, so another job would always have to be on the table anyway. I had no problem with that. Maybe if I got work at the Museum I could pick up shifts in the gift shop or something. Or tour guiding. Anything.
I had to get out of my parent's houses. I had to pay them something for letting me stay with them at the very least. I was done being a kid a while ago. It was time to move on to more.
Oops; I almost forgot to post this. Funnily enough because I had my own interview today (mine was for college), and right now I'm trying to write up a bunch of application stuff which is time consuming and bleh. I don't want to make excuses but you'll have to forgive me if my chapters are slow.
Also, sorry if you were expecting Magnus drama here; I just had to show life going on. I hope you liked it anyway. On that note I haven't named the next chapter yet. We'll see what happens there. Thank you so much for reading and putting up with the schedule being out of whack.