City Girl
Chapter One
"I wish you weren't doing this," Lucy said, staring mournfully at her sister as she got ready for work. "It could be dangerous."
"I'm working in a warehouse, not stripping in some seedy bar," Lois said. "Besides, aren't you supposed to be getting ready for school?"
"Aren't you?" Lucy challenged. "Why do you get to skip school, if I have to go? It's not fair."
"I'm older, and life's not fair," Lois retorted.
"I thought this was supposed to be a graveyard shift job, anyway," Lucy said.
"It is," Lois said. "But, they're short on workers, again, and they need me to come in, and I can't very well say no. We need the money."
"Dad sends us money," Lucy insisted, stubbornly. "Why can't you just use that?"
"I do use the money the General sends us," Lois explained, patiently. "But, this isn't like living on the base where I can convince Dad's CO to send his paychecks straight to us, or to give us a few more days on the rent. If I don't pay the bills on time, we lose things like water and electricity, and if I don't pay the rent, we get evicted."
"And Child Services gets called in," Lucy finished.
"It was hard enough last time fending off nosy social workers," Lois told her, earnestly. "We can't afford to take the chance that it'll happen, again."
Lucy was quiet for a long moment, and then she dug a crumpled piece of paper out of her backpack.
"You gotta sign this," she said, handing it over. "It gives me permission to watch porn during school."
"Sex Ed is not porn," Lois replied, rolling her eyes and grabbing a pen.
She scrawled 'Sam Lane' across the page, thanking God that her father's chicken scratch was easy to imitate, and handed it back to Lucy.
"Have fun," she said, as she heard the bus pull up, outside. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"You mean, like, play hooky?" Lucy asked, grinning.
"Out!" Lois snapped, hiding her answering grin behind her hand.
Lucy grabbed her bag off the table and started toward the door.
"Be careful," she called out, as she stepped outside.
"That's what the steel-toed boots are for," Lois quipped. "No more broken toes for me."
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"Lane, I want to talk to you for a minute."
Lois grimaced as the words came out of her boss's mouth. In that tone, nothing good would ever come of the conversation.
"Yeah, Chief?" she asked, stepping into Bruno Molson's cramped office.
Wordlessly, he passed her an envelope, and she opened it, hands shaking. When she saw the flash of pink, she pressed her lips together, tightly, to keep from crying.
"Your last paycheck's in there, as well," Bruno told her. "I'm sorry, kid-"
"I need this job," Lois interrupted him. "I cannot afford to not work."
"You know how it goes," he said. "Last hired-"
"First fired," Lois finished for him.
"We've got too many people, and I was ordered to cut the slack," Bruno explained.
"I am one of the best damn people you've got!" Lois snapped, eyes flashing furiously. "Fire one of those morons out there if you've got to fire someone."
"I'm sorry," Bruno repeated, his tone implacable. "There's nothing I can do."
Lois didn't say a word; she didn't think she could say anything without screaming, or crying. Instead, she grabbed the envelope off the desk and marched out of the office, determined to hold onto whatever dignity she had left.
She spent the rest of the day driving around, trying to find a new job, but too many people were unwilling to overlook the fact that she was only seventeen, and she returned home unsuccessful.
She walked in the door to see Lucy bent over the table, textbooks open all around her.
"You're late," she remarked, without looking up. "There's nothing for dinner, there's a bill with 'Final Notice' on it, and I have bad news."
"Fuck," Lois growled under her breath. Tearing open the envelope, she scanned it, quickly.
"What could possibly be worse than the power company shutting off our lights?" she asked.
"Lowell County is drawing up their school district boundaries, again," Lucy told her. "We're not in Granville, anymore, Toto."
"Where are we?" Lois asked, unable to even muster a grin for Lucy's attempt at a joke.
"Smallville," Lucy said.
"That's over half an hour away," Lois said, stunned.
"And they're not providing bus services, either," Lucy finished. "Go Crows."
Lois could only stare at her sister in shock.