"My life is over," Miss Angie moaned, draping herself dramatically across the couch. Her new taffetta gown spread out so far, it almost hid the entire couch from sight.

Shari fought to keep from rolling her eyes, instead demurely pressing her hands together in front of her. "Is there something I can get for you, Miss Angie?"

Miss Angie didn't even look her way. "What do you care? You're probably happy to see me like this."

At that, Shari almost turned on her heel and marched right out of the room, but she resisted the urge. She adjusted the blue shirt that signified her as a member of the servant's class and cleared her throat. "Of course I care, Miss Angie. What happened?"

Not that she needed to hear about it from Miss Angie. The highbornes in the colony couldn't pass gas without all the servants knowing it. Miss Angie had been making eyes at Mister Phillip for months now, but he'd been secretly seeing Miss Doretta.

"I'm not telling you," Miss Angie sniffled, a few locks of her bleached blonde hair falling into her face. "You'll just run off and laugh at me with all the other servants. I want chocolate!"

There was a moment of awkward silence, then Shari cautiously stepped closer and picked up the remote control that sat beside Miss Angie. "Please allow me, Miss Angie." She pressed the power button, activating the food processor set into the wall. "Go ahead, Miss Angie."

Miss Angie gave her a dour look, then glared at the processor. "I want chocolate!"

The processor whirred and a tray emerged, extending on a robotic arm to Miss Angie's side. She snatched the plate of chocolates from the tray, which quickly returned to the processor, as though sensing her turbulent mood.

Shari was silent as Miss Angie shoved five chocolates into her mouth, one right after another. Sad.

"He dallied with my affections," Miss Angie finally sniffed, pushing her hair out of her face. As she grabbed another chocolate, one fell off the edge of the plate and vanished into the folds of the dress. Shari would have to check the dress and the couch for melted chocolate later.

"Who did, Miss Angie?" Shari asked.

Miss Angie glared at her before popping another chocolate in her mouth. "Don't play dumb. I know you servants shirk all your duties so you can sit around and talk about us."

Shari didn't answer that. The standard excuse they gave when caught gossiping was that they needed to know what was going on to do their jobs properly, but she doubted saying so would help matters much in this situation.

Sniffling, Miss Angie leaned her head back on the couch, looking like a mannequin that had been tossed carelessly aside. "I don't dare show my face outside again. I might as well die."

"I'm sure it's not so bad, Miss Angie," Shari offered. The door slid open behind her, letting in a dull hum as one of the cleaners whisked in.

"Sorry, Miss Angie," Shari said as she quickly crouched, resetting the cleaner's cycle. The little robot would come back to this room later. She was starting to feel a bit sorry for Miss Angie. Regardless of their differences, getting rejected hurt. And Mister Phillip hadn't exactly been gentle about turning her down. Nor had he waited to do so in private.

Miss Angie wasn't paying a lick of attention. "Just bring me some poison already. What works quickly? Arsenic? Cyanide? I don't want to suffer any more than I already am."

All traces of sympathy Shari had felt flew out the window at that. "Come on, Miss Angie. He isn't worth getting so upset over."

"I want more chocolate!" As the tray extended again, Shari realized that a few more chocolates must have fallen into the dress. She would be up late cleaning the material if they melted and set in.

"Miss Angie, you have every right to be upset," Shari said as Miss Angie began scarfing down the next batch of chocolate. "But you shouldn't want to hurt yourself. After all, you're not the one who did anything wrong here."

Miss Angie paused with a chocolate halfway to her lips, then popped it in. "What do you mean?"

Shari took a slow breath, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. She'd had a feeling Miss Angie might turn out to be useful. "Well, Mister Phillip was most unkind to you. Don't you think there should be consequences for such unseeming behavior?"

More chocolates vanished into the dress. "You're right. There should be!"

"Men shouldn't be able to publically humiliate a lady and get away with it."

"That's right!"

"Something should be done about it."

Miss Angie set the plate aside and stood. Several chocolates thudded to the floor. "Something should be done!"

"But what?" Shari continued, making a show of tapping a finger against her chin in thought.

Miss Angie faltered.

"Well, of course, your father is a member of the council," Shari said. She could see Miss Angie would need a lot of guidance.

Miss Angie stared at her blankly.

"Which means," Shari pressed, fighting to keep impatience from her tone, "that he has a say in the forming of new laws..."

The same blank look.

"Including the laws of public decency and behaviors..."

Miss Angie's eyes lit up. "Father could make a new law!"

Shari widened her eyes. "Why, you're right! He could! And I bet he'll be furious when he hears how that despicable boy treated his darling daughter."

"That's right," Miss Angie said, the fire of vengeance in her eyes. "I'm going to talk to him right now!"

Shari watched as Miss Angie marched from the room, then quietly bent down to clean up the fallen chocolates. She hardly dared hope that this was really happening, as though her belief might pop the fragile bubble and return her to reality.

"Shari?" Kendra whispered, entering the room. "Did we just hear what we think we heard?"

So the other servants had been listening in. Which meant it really had happened.

"You did," Shari said, unable to stop the smile that spread across her face.

Kendra's eyes were alight with hope. "Finally, after all this waiting, we have a foothold!"

Shari clasped hands with Kendra. It seemed like a such a small thing, gaining this little touch of influence over a highborne, but they both knew that this little step was going to lead them all into much greater things. The colony would never be the same again.

And the highbornes would never know what hit them.