The Gruesome Death of Judge Judy

Chapter Three: Ramy

The crowd cheered as each person crossed the stage, each one now a professional cook. Ramy was a short girl, with brown hair which fell past her shoulders, with two small braids on either side. She was thin, but this facet of her looks could be deceiving, because she had the strength which comes from years of work on a family farm.

It was a December graduation, and outside at that. The sun deceptively shined on the ceremony, which was freezing. It was almost enough to blind the audience Everyone was bundled up. Ramy enjoyed watching their breaths fog up in the cold. As she patiently waited for her turn to cross the stage, her mind wandered.

Growing up on a farm, she had experience with food. She was practically prodigious. Her parents always praised her cooking, and soon she had the whole town praising her skills. She was able to get most of her ingredients right from the farm. The milk, the flour, and the eggs were all from her. She even started her own personal garden at the age of thirteen, encouraged by her parents, to grow her own fruits and vegetables that weren't from the farm.

After being accepted to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park at the age of seventeen, she was now about to graduate two years later. She thought that her farm life would prepare her to be a chef, but like many other things in her life, it had turned out to be more struggle than she bargained for. She went from a 4.0 to forcing herself to get up each morning.

This boy named James had been the worst part of her day every day. He was handsome and had a nice smile and didn't even seem that bad at first, but as time went by he became more and more infuriating. No matter how hard she tried, he was always just a little better and would never let her forget it. It was so unfair. She bet that James would cry if he ever had to work on a farm like she did every day for years. It was enough to make her cry a few times.

But it was all over now. Ramy was about to graduate, just the same as James was. None of it mattered anymore. She would even have the last laugh. Just the day before, she had received an email. She was going to be the personal chef of Judge Judy. She figured that James hadn't gotten a job nearly as prestigious, or even a job at all. If he had, he surely would have rubbed it in the way he always did.

Few people get to be private chefs. There are only so many celebrities in the world, and not all of them want to be catered. Yet Ramy was one of those private chefs, and to someone as popular and wealthy as Judge Judy. She felt so happy she could sing.

When her name was called, she walked across the stage, feeling like she was walking on clouds. She picked up her diploma and walked back off the stage. She noticed James in the audience. He was smirking at her. Was there something to that smirk? Was he just trying to make her uncomfortable?

Ramy brushed all of this off. She wouldn't let James ruin her moment. She smiled back at James and returned to her seat.

Ramy was going to cook for Judge Judy.