REBEL

-4-

Fourteen days earlier.

Jody all but ran into the spacious office which also served as a mini library for the law volumes and books in Jordan's and Co. Law Agency. She was early so most of her colleagues hadn't resumed for the day, and somehow she was grateful for that. She was not in the mood to deal with their cat calls and errands which they usually coat with please but sounded like it was her job. She also did the cleaning of books and their stacking, and the ordering of files, like she was a secretary and not an attorney.

One day, two weeks ago, when she'd arrived at her normal 9am, holding her coffee in one hand and her briefcase in the other, she had been hit with the usual:

"Jody there has been a fault in my system could you give the engineer a ring for me? Thanks." and "Could you help me throw this in the bin?" and "Morning girl, I need the book 'Anatomy of a Trial: a Primer for Young Lawyers' from the library, could you perhaps get it for me?" and "Hello, Jody I need these files put in order for submission pronto, I'll appreciate your help!", she'd sighed wearily and knew it was another usual day.

But funny enough, the day hadn't quite turned to be usual when Solomon Fanning, one of the oldest lawyers in the firm had walked up to her and said, "Hey, Jody could you please help me get a cup of coffee? I want it black. Like your skin." He winked.

Jody had seen red at that.

She had meticulously gone to the coffee shop across the street and had gotten him exactly what he wanted: a cup of coffee that was as black as her skin – except it was scalding hot and she didn't consider herself as hot. She'd had to use a coffee holder to carry it because it could burn her palms from the Styrofoam cup. When she got back to him, he was, thankfully where she wanted him to be; standing in the hall where all lawyers had a desk and a table, and was speaking to someone whose face she couldn't see because he had his back turned to her while Solomon was facing her. He spotted her coming towards him with the coffee holder with a big smile on her face and he returned the smile in expectancy.

"Oh thank you Jody, you're such a good girl."

A god girl? Not very wise, king Solomon.

Jody removed the cup from the holder, her phony, stiff smile in place as she handed the coffee holder to whoever it was that Solomon had been talking to. He stretched his hand to receive the cup but she shifted it out of his reach and yanking off the top, dumped the contents on his hair. Solomon let out a pain-filled yell that startled the whole room so much that one of the lawyers knocked his book flying as he turned to the commotion.

"What was that for?!" He bellowed, all the while groaning in pains.

"Listen to me you nitwit, the next time you talk to me like the way you did, the next coffee will be dumped on your," She looked disdainfully at his zipper. "Family jewels."

Jody didn't know what had possessed her that morning but she knew she had been running on adrenaline and must have been very high to work up the courage. Every single employee in the room had witnessed the scene, including –

"Judge Connors!" She had given a startled cry when she had turned to the person Solomon had been talking to in order to collect the coffee holder and saw who it was.

He had smiled, as if impressed – now that Jody thought about it as she stood in front of Jones office trying to work up the courage to knock, and thinking about it again, she realized his smile had been more like "Gotcha, we've been looking for an excuse to wash off your stain from our white garment precinct and you've given us just that."

The judge had handed the coffee holder back to her and had left without saying a word, only his smile in place but she had felt like dying right that moment so she had apologized to Solomon. Throughout that day, shed been given judgmental looks from every corner – not like she hadn't had those before but they had been quadrupled that day.