They meet and paperwork is signed.

By the time the alarm goes off at 3, you've figured two things out. Here in La Grande used car salesman seem particularly skeevy and a local big dealer is probably your best bet. There's no way you can get a loan with your questionable employment history at the moment so a couple of thousand dollar clunker is probably your best bet. You spend the last 15 minutes surfing around and paying off various bills. These three jobs have made a huge difference in your financial outlook. You still owe quite a lot but for the first time in a long while aren't worried about how to juggle things to stave off angry phone calls at the end of the month. You also figure you can squeeze out as much as $5,000 if need be for the car. So it'll be dealer time tomorrow morning, then hopefully you can get a job this weekend and let your account balance build some. Life is looking up.

You throw the cell phone in your purse and head down to the car. You hop in and motor over to campus. You park in the visitor parking lot and head inside. Ten minutes later, you have your visitor's placard to put in the front window and are parked in the lot for the Arts building. Having never had a car, you'd never picked up a placard but without it, the tickets would take a bite out of your budget. $50 for the rest of the school year felt like highway robbery but that's just two fines. When you get a permanent vehicle, you can swap the sign for a front window sticker and not have to worry about misplacing it. That'll be nice. What a racket they have running here!

The building itself is petty boring, just a large three-story brick structure with a 50 or so spot parking area out front. The decorative trees that border the lot shed their pretty flowers a month or two back and look pretty barren now. You walk inside and head to the offices on the second floor. You follow the signs to pod four since you know that's where Edward's office is. Each is a group of four offices set off a small waiting room with a shared receptionist watching the phones and handling visitors. It may not be a lot but you know the instructors consider it one of the few perks left after cost-cutting over the summer.

You walk into the reception room at the end of the hallway, Mrs. Olaf is at her desk on the phone. She's an older lady, maybe late 50s you think. She has curly white hair and a blue blazer on and is stationed behind an old, wooden desk. The room itself is maybe 12' by 12' with a threadbare brown rug, blue walls and a copy machine shoved in the corner. Four doors to the offices are present, two on the wall behind her desk and one each to her right and left. You sit down in a bare wooden chair in the cluster of four set up in the room for visitors. Then pull your phone out to get in more Sims time. As you play, you can hear her jovial voice giving directions to whomever she's talking to. About five minutes later you hear the receptionist address you.

"Can I help you, dear?"

"Yes, ma'am. My name is Simone Stewart. I'm here to pick something up from Professor Edwards."

She nods, picks up the phone, and hits a few buttons. You hear her announce you are here and stays on the phone for just a moment before hanging up.

"The professor is in his office to the right, dear. Go right on in."

You walk over to the door and slip inside.

The office is small, maybe 6' by 6' with the same rug and wall coloring. There is a small bookcase to your right and a small desk in front of you. The professor stands as you enter. He's behind the desk of course with his old gray suit on. He has tight curly blonde hair and blue eyes, he's in his late 40s and has a pleasant smile plastered on his face. He offers his hand across the desk. You grasp it gently and offer a quick shake before sitting down.

"Welcome to my humble office, Simone. I have another student due in ten minutes so we'll have to keep this short."

You nod and he gestures for you to join him at the desk. You scoot the little wooden chair to the side of the desk where you can see the monitor. He puts a folder with a couple of sheets of paper in front of you.

"Ok. In the folder is the paperwork that will withdraw you from your philosophy and sociology classes, move you to my virtual class, and put you in work-study. They are going to assess you a 20% penalty for pulling out of the two classes but since it is the first on your record, it'll be forgiven if you complete the semester successfully."

You nod and he draws your attention to the screen.

"When your profile gets updated, you'll have access to the timesheet portion of work-study. Make sure you fill your hours in within a day otherwise Marsha or I will have to do it for you. We'll sign off on each day and at the end of the week, you'll receive your paycheck. At the end of the semester, you'll receive credit for the class assuming you've logged all your hours. It's easy stuff. For the online class, just log in at least once a day and do the assignments present. For two hours a week, I'll email or call you with tasks that need doing. It'll mostly be grading papers and such but I may need you to come out to the coffee house and help set up props and stuff. Again this should all be easy tasks, nothing requiring any great skill."

"I'm most worried about tonight, to be honest," you mention, wanting answers here before his next appointment shows.

"That's easy. Show up at the coffeehouse at 7-7:30 and ask one of the employees to point you to Marsha or me. There isn't much to say. We have the game room rented out to Tyler Lawrence and a few of his friends from 8-10 Tuesday and Thursday nights. They get together to play some card games and practice for something. I really didn't pay too much attention to that part. Your job will be to hang out in the room and help out. Sometimes furniture needs to be arranged but mostly it's just fetching coffee and snacks for them from the kitchen. Boring stuff really, at least the baristas that have filled in so far have said so."

"Dress code?"

"Pretty lax. Nothing loud or super short but you'll be wearing the branded white apron and a ball cap over whatever you have on so it works to make employees look pretty uniform. The first night a barista will help you set up but after that, you'll be on your own. You can always ask for help if need be from the staff."

"Sounds good!"

The phone beeps and he picks it up. He talks for a minute and says he'll meet her in the reception room to Mrs. Olaf you assume on the other end of the line.

"Sorry, Simone. My next appointment is here."

He stands and you follow suit.

"Welcome aboard, Miss Stewart. We'll see you sometime after 7."

You nod and wish him well. Then you walk out the door and over to finaid. As you pass through the waiting area, you can see a cute blonde you recognize in a chair. You recognize Brenda from the same drama class you just transferred out of. She has a very good memory for lines but has trouble with her delivery. Not that the boys in class mind, she has other. . . assets they think offset that. It's always nice to have one of them in a class, it keeps you from having to deal with many guys yourself. That's the blessing of being a bit under-endowed yourself. You see them shake hands and greet as you turn the corner, go down the stairs, and out to the parking lot. From there, the main building is only a five-minute drive. The councilor in finaid is more pleasant than you expected. Inside of fifteen minutes, she's explained pretty much everything the professor did. Still, it's nice to have a second opinion to make sure he hadn't goofed something up.

After that, you get in the car and head home. You have a few hours to hang out, eat, and relax before you need to rush off to your new job. You're still a bit nervous with the arrangement but you figure the butterflies will settle after this first shift. You pull up to your apartment building and head inside hoping for a smooth, uneventful night.