Exhibit Laws - JB

Chapter 1 - Welcome to the Glasshouse

I took a deep breath before I entered the large building made out of complete glass. If there was a day where you were supposed to be worried and nervous, today was it.

It was my first day of work at Exhibit Laws, the famous company I had heard so much about, and I think my nerves had gotten the best of me. Maybe I drank too much coffee this morning and that was the reason to my unstoppable shaking as I walked up to the front desk, a lady sitting with a black headset on and a ginger colour on her hair that was tied in a neat ponytail.

She looked so professional that it scared the living hell out of me and for a second, I really did think about calling in sick and returning home.

"You are?" The lady, who I read as Sandra Lee on her nametag which was attached to her neatly grey business suit jacket, said and only for a second looked up to meet my eyes from her computer. She seemed busy as the phone kept ringing throughout our conversation. Once again, I thought of returning home. After all, I didn't want to bother anyone.

I tried to clear my throat yet my voice came out as a small tiny hesitant whisper, "I'm Jessica. I am supposed to start working here, today is my first day."

"Well, Jessica, get to your office then."

"I don't know where my office-"

I stopped talking once I realised she had stopped listening and had a new person on the phone in her headset. She had completely ditched me and was quickly typing something on her computer again. I watched her fingers move smoothly across the keyboard as she hummed to the person on the other side of the line. She nodded her head repeatedly times even though that other person could not see her.

I thought of interrupting her to ask her if she knew anything about my office, where it was or where I should go to ask someone else but she looked slightly annoyed and from the tone of her voice earlier, she wasn't amused by my existence. I decided not to bother her further and instead went to look around. This was supposed to be my own new working place and it was way bigger than my last one.

"It's huge," I mumbled quietly to myself as I tried to catch up with all the people running around. Almost every single person was wearing headsets and they all had each a station where they could sit down at the computer to answer calls and make notes. I was wondering what exactly the calls were about and who they were talking to. Stuff like that made me realise I had no idea what I was actually doing here.

I had moved from a small city outside of New Jersey to the big New York, only to be able to take this job. I had been lucky enough to find a place rather quickly and I could start within a few days of getting applied to the job. That led me to not have ever visited the office since the interview was held over videocam (ps, gotta love today's technology) but it also led to the fact that I was standing here without a single idea of where I was.

Everyone had always told me that this office was big but never did I think it was this big. Wherever I looked, there were people looking all kinds of stressed and if I tried to look further away, all I saw was hallways and glass offices. Were all offices made out of glass? Mine too? I wasn't sure how I felt about that, in a strange way, I didn't want people to be able to look into my office. I need my privacy whenever I work on my cases. I need to be unbothered and definitely not feel watched.

"May I help you?" A voice said next to me and I turned around in a quick motion, almost dropping my laptop that I had carefully brought with me just in case I needed it. I was met with a pair of big brown eyes that looked slightly kinder than the vibe I got by looking at his body language. He didn't look too old, certainly around my own age, and seemed almost annoyed by my presence, "You seem a little lost?"