GB96 - Ask about working for CCL

You spend some time working because you know that Kris won’t talk if you don’t work. After a good, solid thirty minutes of effort, you turn your attention back to her. She doesn’t seem surprised, although she is a bit tired today.

“Yes?” she asks suspiciously.

“How would I get hired by CCL?” you ask her bluntly.

“Hmm.” Kris frowns. “It would be informal. They’d pay you in cash.”

“But how do I get the job?”

“I guess you’d need someone to introduce you.”

You see where she’s going with this, but she doesn’t know about Lily. But… you can’t ask Lily for this kind of favor. It just wouldn’t feel right. You have to play ball with whatever she has in mind. You aren’t sure what you have with Lily, but whatever it is, you want to preserve it.

“How do I get that intro?” you ask, resting your chin in your hand and gazing at Kris.

“Intros are for people who ace tests,” Kris says.

Damn it. You knew it.

You listen grumpily as Kris lays out her demands. It’s a lot. You’ll need to do heavy studying if you’re going to have a chance at this, but if you deliver the grades, Kris will guarantee you a job in CCL House.

It bugs you that to become a CCL party girl, you have to be a nerd. But that makes you think: there’s more than one way into CCL House. You could just… go to college and join the sorority. Ugh. You don’t want to think about that. The end of the school year is a month away. A month is a long time, right?

“Hey,” Kris says as you put your books away. “Have you applied to any schools yet?”

You are well aware that most kids started doing that months ago. Honestly, you are surprised that your mother has tolerated this much foot-dragging from you on it.

“I’m not sure I’m going to college,” you tell Kris seriously.

“What else do you have in mind?”

You don’t have an answer for that. Kris senses your discomfort. She’s not coming on very strong, but she doesn’t give up.

“Do you want to stay local? Or do you want to go back west?”

“I don’t know,” you tell her flatly. Kris hasn’t done anything wrong, but now you’re annoyed, so as politely as you can, you get out of there. Thinking about your future is the last thing you want to do. Everyone else seems to have something to keep them on track.

Stef’s dad is a mechanic and Stef is good with that stuff, so it makes sense that she would be planning to do something like that.

Someone like Mary does cheerleading as an extracurricular to look good on a college application. She’ll probably be a doctor or something someday.

And you? You kind of like to draw, but you aren’t good at it. You dabbled in skating, but you aren’t good at that either, and you wouldn’t want to do it seriously. You can’t think of anything that you want to do seriously. The only thing that you really want to do is… party. Like that night with Lily. Socialize. Meet new people. Drink. Get some action.

Maybe you should go to college. That buys you four more years to party before you have to get a real job. Or if you get a job, can’t you party at night? Those are your thoughts as you park your mom’s car, trying not to look at the missing window. At least the weather’s good.

Maybe you should’ve taken Ellen’s money. Maybe you shouldn’t have forgotten to take your ADHD meds this morning, but the whole Stef situation made the morning weird and messed up your routine.

Your mom is cooking dinner, and you remember what Kris said about maybe working for CCL. They’ll probably want you to cook. So you go in to help your mom, which shocks her, but she doesn’t complain.

Are you being responsible? Or are you just finding excuses to do something other than studying a book? You know which one it is…

After dinner, you **** yourself to sit at your desk in your room, the same one where… you know. That happened last night. And you get out your textbooks.

Barely five minutes later, your mom knocks on your door.

“Yeah?” you say.

She opens it and sticks her head in. “Pick up the phone,” she tells you softly.

“Oh. Sorry.” You were actually paying attention to your studies for once; you didn’t hear it ring. You grab it and lift it to your ear. “Hello?”

“It’s me,” Stef says.

“Hi,” you reply distractedly, cradling the phone with your shoulder and going back to your books.

“Can I come over?”

“Huh? Oh,” you reply. “Stef, I’m studying. My tutor wants me to ace some tests.”

There’s a pause. “Oh, uh, yeah. That’s what I want to do too. Can I come over and study?”

Let Stef come over to study?

Or work alone tonight?