Dressed in her finest black pant suit with her hair pulled back, Zephyra found herself in the plaintiff's seat of the smallest courtroom she had ever seen. The judge was directly central, and she could see the jury from the corner of her eye. Taking in their faces as the lawyers spoke to the judge. This was the case she had brought forth against the Upper Management Union as a fraud and misrepresentation suit due to their constant use of spam mails across the country. Just before she had brought the suit to the courts she thought she was about to lose her own mind with the amount of time that was wasted opening these damn letters. It costs her precious times that could have been busy making money with drug deals or some other little task. The funds she was missing out would amount to a nice little fund right about now. 

Currently the judge was speaking to the defendant's attorney. Zeph wondered what his name was again. Could it have been Mr. Stevenson? Or was it Harris? They had gone through a few lawyers during the pre-trial motions stage and even through the discovery so it was hard for her to keep them straight in her mind. Her face remained neutral but her thoughts were starting to travel out of boredom. 

"My position, your Honor, is that this case should be dismissed as nothing more than a nuisance. Clearly our clients have every right to send out mails country wide however many they wish on whatever topic they wish to." 

"That is the stance of your clients, Mr. Jackson?" The judge asked. Studying both parties closely. Zephyra assumed it was to see if surprise would be on her face but she gave nothing away. She was surprised though that her memory was so bad to completely miss the mark on the lawyer's name but I suppose that was bound to happen. Caught up often in her own world that others played very little importance outside of close friends. Her eyes darted between the speakers even if she didn't move her body at all. 

"Your rebuttal Mr. Yannetti?" Now was the turn for her attorney to give his best or the suit would be thrown out. 

"Yes, your Honor. The defendants do have the right to send out mails as they like within reason. There are many topics that do not need to come to every single mailbox though, especially when there are other means to share the information such as word of mouth in the coffee shops, or even dragging up some soap box on some corner and like the good old days raising their voices to get people's attention. Those of interest will surely listen to what they have to say. Just because you can do something does not mean that it does not become a nuisance, time consuming and even financially damaging to others. There are plenty of other things that my client could have been doing other than carefully opening a letter that she thought would be of importance only to find a flyer that could easily have just been sent to a recycling bin for scraps. Imagine the money Zephyra could have been making at her job, or even in some off the books work for a couple of bucks. It adds up." 

Her attorney looked at the jury, knowing that some were picked solely for the fact that they would understand the struggles of needing to make ends meet and what losing out on money could mean for someone. They did not need to know that she had a bit of a savings already as that was irrelevant to the case. She tilted her heads towards the jury in a barely noticeable way trying to read them. 

The judge sat back in his chair for a moment to give the arguments a bit of thought. His fingers tapped the bench in front of him before shuffling his papers and leaning forward. "Mr. Jackson will we proceed with opening arguments now, the case is going to go forward."

As the words were spoken the jury perked up to pay better attention knowing that they would need to look attentive for their deliberations. As the case proceeded with the opening arguments it was clear that some of the jury were growing bored with the lawyers long drawn out explanations of their respective sides. When witnesses were up, Zephyra took notes for her lawyer, and each one was presented with the best information of the way of the world and how mails were sent. There was one witness who was more character related. 

Mrs. April was quite memorable as she told stories that painted Zeph as a little more likable than she would seem in the court room. Talking of her traits such as her dark and dry humor, and how some of her failures turned out to be wins later on in her life. At one point there was a blush creeping over her face that she was sure would be mistaken for embarrassment but it was the fact she had known some of these stories would be shared. Zephyra did not enjoy being talked about at all. It didn't sit right with her but she knew Mrs. April was needed to appeal to the jury and to portray her as someone would not make frivolous cases just for money. 

The defendants brought in people that mainly stated they did not care how many mails were sent that the Upper Management Union had every ability to send whatever they wanted when they wanted. It was her responsibility to bite her tongue and respect them regardless of how meaningless they were. They came across as very entitled and she could see that some points annoyed the jury. One woman on the jury looked as if she was trying really hard to keep her mouth shut during this testimony. Zeph really liked her for it. Another woman not willing to sit down and look pretty amongst the men in the room. 

The case was not a long one and did not take much more than a day or two for the cases to be made, one way or the other. Then the jury was handed the case. After 3 hours they had re-entered the court room. Not sure whether this was good or bad for her, Zephyra could feel a growing sense of dread. She always had that reaction when she never knew what was coming next. Once the foreperson gave the verdict to the bailiff and the judge read it they all stood expectantly. Clasping her hands in front of her together, she looked up at the judge. 

"The verdict is in. It is unanimous and the jury finds in favor of Ms. Zephyra. They found that the mails were often sent in bad faith and affected her financially. They have awarded her $85k in damages and her lawyers fees. With that the defendants have a month to appeal, otherwise the money is expected to be paid by the years end." Gavel bangs.

Zephyra smiles at her lawyer as they leave the courtroom. She didn't think for a minute that she would receive a payment from the Upper Management Union but it was nice to gain a win after all the hassle and nuisance of those waste of time mails. 

A Glimpse Into Deliberations

The Juror Foreperson took out the charge sheets and a blank piece of paper where they would write their notes onto. Getting set up while the rest of the jurors sat down and then turning to them all. 

"Should we see where we stand? All those in favour of acquittal raise your hand."

He took down the names, it seemed that everyone was almost in agreement except for 1 person. Turning to Juror 3, he nodded and began to speak again. 

"Could you tell us why you are not in agreement with the acquittal Juror 3?"

Juror 3 shrugged and looked like they were going to be sick. He was a nervous guy, had greasy black hair and was twitching. One could assume nerves or drugs or a combination of both. Either way the group seemed genuinely curious to their opinion so he took a deep breath before he began. 

"In this type of life it has always been taught that you do as you are told. If you didn't you were dead. How Miss Zephyra seems to get by challenging this is beyond me. I worry that if we acquit her something bad might befall us or my family as we run closer to this group than the rest of you clean cut fellas. Upper Management Union is no joke. If you don't toe their line they tend to find one way or another to help you meet your maker. I have a family."

The room erupted in a bit of a panic. You could hear mumblings of "Swimmin' with the fishes", "an eye for an eye", and "cement shoes". It took a good half hour before a silence befell the room and the foreperson was speaking again. 

"You would allow them to win out of fear? Is that it? Have you never thought something was so unreasonable and pushed for change to better a system? Make it work a little more? These people have gotten lazy in their time, pushing their will into the mailboxes of all and yet they have soap boxes on corners they can make their announcements. They could bother us, the jury, but I think they would more likely go after Miss Zephyra, after all she did bring the case against them. We were merely bystanders in the process. I would rather see the young woman walk out here victorious if it's the last thing she gets to do."

After his speech, the jurors went back to discussing it. They whispered in case there were eavesdroppers outside the door. 

A Glimpse into Judge's Chambers

"Finally!" The judge sighed to himself as he walked into his chambers. 

Tossing the robes onto the hanger that he kept just for them, he headed straight for his desk. There were not many Chambers like his but a thug had built this desk specific for him. It was solid and would not move easily since it took two people along to get into it this room of his a couple of years ago. He had a bottom drawer that he could lock and was big enough to hold a bottle of whisky and a small glass which was what he was looking for just in this moment. 

Once the bottle had been opened and a drink poured, the judge walked over to the door and locked it. His assistant would let him know when the jury was back and until then he chose not to think too much on the case. Instead he picked up the latest law notes and turned his attention to reading those in the meantime.

A Glimpse into Upper Management Union

"That woman drives me crazy!" exclaimed CL1. "Is she just that stupid to take us to court?"

"Actually, that makes her brilliant Sir, and before you start cussing me out at least listen first." Mr. Jackson, the lawyer said. He could sense the tension in the air as Zephyra had just won the case. "What would you have done if she brought her complaints to the soap box like so many others have done time and time before? You would have brushed her off and brought up her line as a means to ignore her. Some of you claim to want to listen to members ideas about improvements but as soon as criticism comes up you find some past thing from someone's line to blow them off. In the court system that cannot be done quite so easily. Like her or not, Zeph found a loophole and used it."

"Dammit to hell! You actually admire her." RH3 exclaimed. 

"You would too if you understood half of how her brain her worked, Ma'am." 

"She isn't terrible as a member, but she is by far not the easiest to get along with at times. A little different is the best way I could put it to those that do not have a real knowledge of the woman other than her name and the stories that circulate around her."

Many of the upper structure turned to the speaker and he could only shrug at them. Some in the room knew Z, and majority didn't have the first clue about her. There was no arguing with those that were shut out and those that still knew her were here on the opposing side.

"Would it kill you guys to put some more merit back into the streets? Place those announcements that belong in them actually in it?" Mr. Jackson asked. It was his attempt to lower the temperature in the room. 

As soon as the words were out of Mr. Jackson's mouth there was a palm slammed onto the table they all sat around. 

"We won't be paying her a cent. No matter what."