Note: This serial is fictional.
Fenno’s heart stopped when he saw it. The “LP” next to “Torts” was tiny, yet it seared him. A thousand thoughts ran through his head, and his tiny dorm room spun. He lay on the floor, wishing it would just swallow him already. He remembered his college friends teased him about becoming president one day. “Good luck with that now,” the positively gleeful voice in his head said. He tried to straighten the room, plot a new path, and count all his blessings, but it didn’t work. All he could see was that LP. That mark that would live with him forever.
And then his computer started dinging. G-Chats flooded the room, “How’d you do?” “Bar Review to celebrate?!” “Yes! H in Crim!” He shut off his computer and climbed under his covers. He reached for his phone, but then he realized there was no one he could call. He couldn’t tell his parents; they had been so proud of him. He couldn’t tell his friends; they would think less of him. So he just sank into his bed, hoping someone would run into the room and tell him everything was going to be alright. But no one did, probably because it wasn’t going to be.
Fenno was awake long before his alarm blared at 8:30 a.m. the next morning. He wondered if he should even go to class or just walk straight off campus and keep on walking until he could find a place to hide and simply disappear. He eventually decided to strategize his day. He would have to walk into class late and leave early to avoid questions from class mates. But maybe that was too obvious. Maybe he could enter class normally but feign a sore throat. He was still contemplating his options while brushing his teeth in the dorm bathroom when Raj walked in.
“Hey, how’d you do?” Raj said.
“Yeah, good, pretty good. You?” Fenno replied, surprised at the stillness in his voice.
“DS’d in Contracts! Can you believe that? I barely went to class. But I’ll take it.” Raj said.
Fenno heard himself congratulating Raj as he slinked away.
“No one has to know,” he thought.
“Fenno” is a fictional serial written by an anonymous law student. The main character is always named Fenno and is always a 1L, but his or her character changes every school year. This installation is part of the series for the 2011 to 2012 School Year entitled “The Uncertain Fenno, 2011 to 2012.”