Chance Upon A Tempest

Chapter 1

Today is the beginning of the life that you've dreamt about since you realized that you were all alone in this world. You have been working almost your entire life to get to this point. So, the fact that you are running so late this morning (so very freaking late!), isn't ideal. Here you are, hopping around on one foot, trying to put on your heels by the kitchen door to your garage. Your cellphone is nestled between your ear and shoulder, and you've been trying to get your best friend off the phone for the past few minutes.

"I know, yes. I said I would. Owen, Babe. I must go. I'm going to be late for my first day on the job and I can't be. I don't want that kind of first impression.... I promise, I will call you as soon as I can.... We'll hang out here this weekend. You won't be able to recognize the place. It's looking really swanky. Right. Yes. I love you too. Bye."

You end the call and stick the phone in your jacket pocket. Placing your morning coffee atop the driver's side roof, you open the door to the back seat of your car and toss in a couple of boxes full of things for your new office. You close your backseat door and reach for the travel coffee cup on the roof of your car. But you suddenly realize that you've forgotten to grab your purse. So, you run back into the house, at full speed to grab your purse and run back out. As you run through the door to your garage, this time with your purse, you check your watch to see what time it is. It reads 8:02 AM. Tossing your purse on top of the two boxes on the back seat, you quickly slide your bum into the driver's seat and start the car. You play your favorite morning commute playlist and drive out of your garage, making your way to your first day at the Law firm of Reed, Jackson, Park, Alvarez, and Kim as a licensed, full-fledged lawyer.

The two principal partners of the firm recruited you, right out of law school. The only stipulation that they had for hiring you was that you pass the bar exam as soon as possible. You graduated law school in June and sat for the bar in July. To be completely honest, as you were leaving the testing site after completing the exam, you really weren't sure whether you had passed the exam or not. People told you that this State's bar exam was more difficult than the surrounding States, so you were just praying that you did well enough to pass it. Because if you didn't pass in July, you'd have to wait until February of next year to take it again. So, for six weeks, you essentially locked yourself in your room and studied.

You met Jordan Reed and Clayton Jackson through your law school's mentorship program. Experienced local attorneys would volunteer their time to mentor motivated law students. This mentorship program was offered only to the third-year law students, and now that you were in your third and last year of your law school, the opportunity to be a part of it was available to you. You knew that your friends, who were years ahead of you in school and participated in the mentorship program last year, were all able to get a job at a reputable firm right out of school. This made you more than excited to take part in it. Not to blow your own horn, but you were really killing it in your last year of law school. You were the editor of your school's law review, you clerked with one of the most revered judges in the district court, and you were in the top 1% of the graduating class.

Your mentor was Clayton Jackson. You'd put him in his late thirties to early forties in age, and tall. Whenever you tried to describe him to people, you would say that he looked just like Idris Elba, but a bit fairer. He had an easy way about him that made you feel comfortable right away, and you knew that he was one of the two principles in one of the most prestigious law firms in this town. So, when Clayton introduced you to Jordan Reed in your last semester of law school, you knew that you were on a short list of possible recruits. When the job was actually offered to you, one week before your graduation, you couldn't believe it. And now that you actually passed the bar, you are a legitimate and licensed lawyer, and an employed lawyer, at that.