What kind of day would it be without some Joy?

We got to work, and the start of the day rolled by, and you had two open spots at the table in the conference room. It became a bit of a betting situation between the four of you of whether Andy would make it in before Joy or not. You hadn’t mentioned to the others that Joy looked down the most on Andy since he was already the butt of enough jokes, but it did make you worry for him. He wasn’t a very good worker, and you doubted he would ever make it through law school (if he even made it in), but you didn’t have any ill will towards him.

Joy arrived 30 minutes late, sweeping into the room like she owned it and not offering any explanations as to why she was late. Instead, she immediately went in on her ‘supervisor’ schtick, grilling us on what we’d been doing for the morning. She stacked additional work onto each of our plates - not that we hadn’t known that the things she was saying needed doing. She was just micromanaging who would do what and clearly leaving herself with only some token tasks to work on.

That was when she noticed the doughnut box sitting in the middle of the table. “Oh, don’t mind if I do,” she said to no one, not even bothering to ask who brought them.

The rest of you all glanced at each other because you all knew that the box was empty.

When Joy flipped open the lid her face immediately fell from her self-satisfied smirk. She clicked her tongue loudly and started to sneer. “Who did this?”

“What do you mean?” you asked. “I was on the coffee run this morning, so I brought them.”

“No, I mean who ate mine?” she demanded.

“They weren’t labelled or anything, Joy,” Sabrina said.

Joy immediately turned her glare on Sabrina. “Well, clearly there was enough here that one should be left for me, and if you brats had any respect you would have made sure to save your direct superior something. Now I’m going to have to do something about this.”

“Joy, they got eaten before you got here. And you came in late,” Gemma said.

“I’m allowed to come in whenever I want,” Joy said. “That doesn’t mean you can take things from me!”

“Joy, you weren’t here,” you said. “How could someone take something from you that wasn’t yours, and you weren’t here to accept?”

She narrowed her eyes at you, and you could practically see the steam coming out of her ears as her self-entitled attitude boiled over. “No one leave this room,” she growled, and grabbed the empty box and stormed out of the office.

The four of you were silent for a minute before Eric piped up, “So, she’s acting crazy, right? It’s not just me?”

“Just be happy we didn’t point out you ate two,” Sabrina smirked across the table at him.

“Yeah. Uh, thanks,” Eric said.

A few minutes later Mrs Bellagamba strode up to the conference room door and stood with her hands on her hips, frowning at you all, while Joy smirked at you over her mother’s shoulder. “Well, I’m quite disappointed in you kids,” Mrs Bellagamba said. “Apparently things were a bit of a mess while I was away and certain important notes didn’t get passed on to you all. When you are doing the morning coffee orders, it is entirely inappropriate for you interns to purchase food or drink for yourselves on the Company dime. Have I made myself clear?”

You all nodded, which seemed to make her angrier. “I said, do I make myself clear!?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” you all muttered, passing looks between you.

“Good,” she said. “In that case, who did the coffee order this morning?”

“I did,” you said, immediately owning it.

“Well, you will not be reimbursed for the purchases this morning as a corrective measure for this overstep. And you will go out and purchase a drink and snack for Joy immediately to replace the ones that she didn’t receive this morning. Now, why didn’t you bring me my coffee this morning?”

You were thrown off by the rollercoaster of ridiculous that just hit you. “Um,” you said. “Uh, you didn’t send in an order on the Slack chat for coffee this morning and you haven’t told us you want a standing order. And you can’t just **** me to buy things for your daughter.”

Mrs Bellagamba’s face went completely neutral, which wasn’t all that different from the pleasantly aloof look she’d had before, but was subtly less positive. “You’re excused.”

“Pardon?” you asked.

“You’re excused,” she said again, more forcefully. “Your services are no longer needed.”

You could see Gemma and Sabrina immediately begin to speak, but you spoke louder and first. “We should probably go talk to HR then,” you said.

“Yes, let’s get your exit interview underway,” she smiled with a false syrupiness.

“Great. I’m electing to bring a witness for my own protection,” you said.

This made that fake little smile drop a bit. “That’s certainly not necessary, but you can certainly choose any of your little friends. I’m sure they’ll be happy to accompany us to your termination meeting.”

“Oh, no,” you said. “My witness isn’t here. I’ll go get them.”

“I’ll accompany you,” Mrs Bellagamba said through pursed, disapproving lips. “Joy, you get the rest of the kids back to work, please.”

“Of course, Mother,” Joy said, walking in past her and sneering at all of us.

You resisted the urge to wink at, or even look at, Sabrina or Gemma - you didn’t want to bring any more attention to them. Stiff backed, and ass clenched in an adrenaline-fueled panic, you walked out of the conference room. “He’s just down this way,” you said, walking down one of the halls.

“And which Associate in particular do you think is going to want to take the time to sit in on this?” Mrs Bellagamba asked. “They all have better things to be doing, and you may think you’ve made some friends but I assure you, you mean very little to them.”

“I’m not asking an Associate,” you said, glancing over your shoulder at her. “I’m asking Mr Garrison.”

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