Aria let out a long breath and said, "I can't decide if I want to take water precision and earth bending. Both of them are theory this month. And it's the last theory paper for earth bending so it's bound to be earth shatteringly difficult."
"Ha ha." Jacob mock - laughed at Aria's bad joke as he said, "I though Joseph coached you on the theory subjects." Aria nodded, "He did. But he doesn't take earth bending, do there was only so much he could do. So I'm not really sure."
Jacob popped the last piece of the sandwich in his mouth and chewed for a couple of seconds, lost in thought. "Do you understand the concepts?" he asked.
Aria nodded, "I understand them in my mind. But I don't have the level of confidence I usually have before taking the exams."
Jacob laughed and flicked Aria's forehead. "Just write the exams if you understand the concepts. You can cram everything you don't understand the night before the exam like us mortals. It'll be fun to see you riled up." He streched out into the sun as he continued, "And if you fail, you can just take them next month. No big deal."
Aria blinked as realisation shot through her at Jacob's words. Of course she could retake them if she failed! It wasn't like failing an exam was the end of the world!! But failing had actually always felt like the end of the world to Aria, and she had never realised this before! Aria wondered how and where had her phobia of failing originated.
"Probably when my grandfather considered failing at anything to be the mark of a good for nothing." Aria muttered to herself as she completed the exam form.
"Huh? What?" Jacob asked, not quite catching what Aria had said. Aria just shook her head with a smile and said, "I'm done. I'll just quickly run and hand this to Professor Iris. Thank you so much Jacob!" And she had hugged and deposited a quick peck on Jacob's cheek before he had registered anything, and was running back towards the castle.
"What. Just. Happened?" Jacob muttered, and shaking himself out of his reverie, he asked, "Hey Aria, you wanna practice with me before the next class?"
"Can't. Sorry. I have something I really need to take care of." Came Aria's reply floating on the wind as she disappeared into the castle.
"Hmm. Wonder what she's up to?" Jacob mused aloud to himself as he settled down on the grass for a nice nap.
After quickly submitting her exam form to professor Iris, who reprimanded Aria for cutting it so close to the deadline and asked why she wasn't in the class along with worrying if it was okay for Aria to take three exams, Aria once again rushed out of the castle. She reached the kitchen and headed in.
"Hey Aira." "Hi Aira." "How's it going Aria?" Came a lot of greetings from around the kitchen and Aria smiled at them before heading in.
"Hi Mrs. Josh. You look absolutely breathtaking today." Aria said, greetings the head cook and wiping a little flour that had settled on Mary's cheek. Mary blushed, but waved off her compliment as little Ella came bounding and launched herself into Aria's arms.