A familiar smell wafted past her nose and she paused on her walk.
Coffee. It was coffee. She hadn't had coffee since she had landed in California five months ago. In New York she was always moving and would drink mocha frappucinos constantly. Instant coffee during finals as she bargained with her body on how much sleep she could forfeit.
Now it was finals and she was still feeling like she had energy at the end of the day. It was all so different....
"Anna!"
Anna turned at the sound of her name. It was Lee Ann, a few steps behind her. Anna slowed down they could walk together to campus. They had their second final tomorrow and had been spending every second that they weren't in class in the books. Even on the weekends. It was Sunday.
"Water this morning?"
Anna nodded. She had taken up surfing right when she moved here. The first time she had gone to San Diego, when she first saw the university and fell in love with it, the taxi driver who drove her and her friend back to the airport had told her how waking up early in this state was never hard. He would drive all night, then go straight to the waves. She had determined, right there and then, as her heart was breaking from leaving California, that she would do the same.
Now she, who had never awoken before 11 or noon unless she had to, was up at 7 or 8 every morning to surf. She still wasn't good, but there was something cathartic about being with the ocean so early.
Anna's thoughts were ripped back to the present as campus loomed ahead. At the corner was a smoothie spot where her and Lee Ann got tropical fruit smoothies before the trek upwards to the library. Smoothies in December. That would ever have worked in New York.....
Reality:
BERRRR BERRR BERRRR
The sound of the iPhone alarm ripped Anna awake from a dream that she wasn't even having. Her body hurt and she looked at the time. 8am. It was Sunday. Why did she have to be awake right now? It was so cold and her bed was so warm....
Oh, right. Finals. She rolled out of bed and stomped to the bathroom to get ready. Half an hour later, she was on the train headed to school. So tired. When was the last time she had slept? It felt like months ago. She grabbed an iced coffee on her way into school. The second the sweet liquid touched her lips her eyes opened past slits and she was able to shake her head, dusting some of the drowsiness off. She had two three this semester.
She walked into school. It was eerily silent, and everywhere she looked people were bent over books. Even as she walked, she flipped through the index cards she had on her phone.
Equal protection clause: No person shall be the denied the right....
The words kept repeating as a mantra in her head. So much so that she barely noticed when JP sat down next to her in the conference room and opened his book.
The conference room look inhabited. There was a bowl of candy in the middle and someone had left a blanket in the corner. At this point, she was going home only to shower and sleep, and barely sleep at that rate. Being in this building made her insides want to scream, and she couldn't think of anything except the law.
JP tapped her shoulder and she nodded as they stood and began to walked around the room. He started.
"Fourteenth Amendment"
She responded rapid fire.
"...Nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction equal protection under the law."He repeated what she had just chanted, and they continued.
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