Here's chapter 14, and happily it didn't take me a month to update this time. This one's a little on the shorter side, but the next chapter will be much longer (I was actually going to combine the two at first, but that would've been way too long). Anyway, hope you enjoy!
The clinking of the glass jar was the only noise that filled the silent void within the apartment. All else was quiet except for the coins that jingled at the bottom of the glass container, the ambience so meager that the pennies, nickels, and dimes were like an alarm. Strawberry emptied her paycheck into the pickle jar, which sat on the worn counter, and carefully placed her dollar bills on top of the coins.
"There, that should cover this week's rent. I do wish that the bills weren't so expensive: I don't have any extra money left over to pay for groceries, supplies, or anything else. Wait" - she stuck her hand into her pocket - "I found another five dollars." She sighed to herself. "If only we could find another hundred of these."
"Well, that's what you get for living the city life," Blueberry chimed, wiping their plastic dishes and putting them in the dishwasher. The plastic cups and silverware contained warning labels advising their users not to put them into dishwashers, but the girls didn't heed the warning. If the dishes didn't melt, they were fine - that was their standard.
"But it's hard paying for everything myself. I'm the only one employed, and it isn't easy for me to support six people, six dogs and a cat, and pay for the additional costs when I'm only making minimum wage: the medicine, toilet paper, food. Most of the extra money is coming from tips I've made, so some help would be nice." Strawberry glanced at Lemon and Raspberry, who were both still pouting on the couch. "Any luck with any of you yet? We've been here for almost a month and a half now," she added.
"No, not yet," Lemon admitted. She absorbed Strawberry's defeated expression. "We're trying, Strawberry, really. If only some of these salons and boutiques would budge and stop being so picky with who they want to hire; apparently they only want people who are experienced in their trade, and Raspberry and I are, of course, but I guess they don't believe us since we've never attended any schools in relation to our jobs. This just stinks," Lemon placed her hands on her cheeks.
"Well, perhaps you can look for occupations in a different field. It doesn't necessarily have to be what you're the most experienced in. Take it from Orange: she isn't as tech-savy as some others, but that isn't hindering her from applying for a job at an electronics store. We should hear from her in a little while," Strawberry said.
"Oh phooey!" Raspberry complained.
Strawberry sucked in her lips. "Blueberry, Plum? Any luck yet?"
"Huck and I should start working on our story as soon as possible - he just needs to get some things sorted out at his job before we can begin. Once we write it, we should be able to pull in a few checks," Blueberry replied.
"What a relief." Strawberry turned to her purple-haired friend. "Plum?"
Plum still sat hunched behind her laptop computer, the same area she'd sat for most of their stay in Berry Big City. She was too occupied with looking up dance sites that she'd entirely blocked out what her friend had said and too bored with her life to separate herself from the internet. Their complex wasn't the most entertaining place in the world: while Strawberry worked and the others left for job interviews, the remaining girls at home were stuck with doing whatever household chores the others couldn't complete. What joy it was to iron clothes, sweep the floors, and clean up after their pets' waste - not. No, Plum had better things going on in the cubicle of her mind, things that made her feel like she was accomplishing something with her life. Dancing was the priority of her heart, and she would give almost anything to teach a class or to take one herself; to slip on her pointe shoes and dance her troubles away, presenting herself as a different person besides herself, one that had a far more interesting life, a fantastic tale to tell, a daring adventure. But Plum's life was just, how should she put it? Boring.
"Plum?" Strawberry repeated a second time.
Her friend's vocals successfully traveled into her ears this go round. "Oh - right. Sorry." She closed her computer. "Still haven't found anything yet either, but I'm sure I'll find something soon."
"Not at this rate," contradicted Blueberry.
"Huh?"
"Don't think I don't know what you've been up to on that computer. You're still researching dance sites, not looking for a job! Plum, do you want to be able to go home and see your studio again or not?"
"Well, look who's been snooping around once again! Detective Muffin, checking other people's browsing history when they're not looking! Very clever, Blueberry, very clever," Plum spat.
Blueberry gave Plum a nasty look that Strawberry had never seen her give before. "Ha, well excuse me for trying to be the responsible one around here." She swiped Plum's computer away and tossed a newspaper in her lap. "I would advise you to start job-hunting now; your computer is coming with me."
"And what do you plan to do with my laptop?" Plum countered.
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe I can clean Custard's litter box with it. Or even better, we can sell it to make a bit of money since you don't want to contribute to the household funds. I'm sure anyone would love a nice laptop with a high resolution screen and a five hundred gigabyte hard drive to boot."
Plum froze. "You win, Detective Muffin. You win." She held up the newspaper and, for the first time, began to read it.
Orange entered through the screened front door.
"Oh, did you get the job?" Strawberry piped.
Orange shook her head. "Negative. After making me stand on hold for an hour-and-a-half, the owner of the store decided that he didn't need any more employees at the moment. I tell you, these people over here are complete jerks!" Orange roughly shut the door.
"I'm sure there's something out there for you, Orange, and for the rest of us, too. You just have to keep looking," Strawberry reassured.
"Huh, right." Orange went to the walk-in closet to retrieve Marmalade.
Plum, on her punishment, skimmed through the newspaper that was forced upon her by Blueberry. Some baseball player hit a record home run, some dealer was selling used cars, blah, blah, blah. Nothing remotely interesting at all, which is what she expected from reading such an old-fashioned mechanism of the news. How could Blueberry put up with reading this junk? All it contained was sports, articles on government officials, and crossword puzzles, all of which she never fancied. Not even the ad on the Berry Big City Ballet interested her - wait, hold up. Plum put on her imaginary glasses to focus on the image. Was it real? Was it really real? She stopped drooling over the image to read the piece of information displayed beside it. If the newspaper was telling the truth, the dance school was holding company auditions that afternoon, and to make things better, they were only charging a ninety dollar audition fee, a pretty sweet deal in comparison to the usual one hundred fifty dollar participation fee. Plum had to take up this offer, there was no doubt about that. She'd need a new leotard, a brand new pair of pointe shoes, probably a pair of soft shoes for good measure, oh, and some pink tights, too. It was official, she was doing it. But one thing made her thoughts spiral backwards. Where would she get the money?
"Wow, Plum, you're eating up that newspaper like it's cake," Raspberry commented. The others suppressed giggles.
Plum stealthily raised her head, wiped the bit of drool coming from the corner of her mouth. So she actually was drooling. "Uh, no, I think I just found a job, that's all. One that I think will benefit us all."
Strawberry was beaming.
Okay, now back to her secret plan. The money issue. She'd emptied her piggy bank back in Berry Bitty City to help offset some of the expenses, so that wouldn't work. She certainly didn't want to take up on Blueberry's offer and sell her computer, so she automatically chucked that out the window.
A ray of the sun's beams shined through the glass jar on the counter and hit Plum in the corner of her eye. She moved to get out if its tracks but moved back into it when something else hit her. The pickle jar was just sitting there, showcasing its fancy bills and coins. She could spot about five twenty dollar bills just from where she was sitting, and there were still bills of other values to be had beyond that. Where she and her friends lived, money was color-coated according to its value, so twenty dollar bills were pink, five dollar bills were lilac, ten dollar bills were blue, one hundred dollar bills were golden, and so on. So if Plum just sorted it all out in her mind, she'd be able to figure out how much Strawberry had put into the jar. Her eyeballs scrambled like eggs trying to count all of the money inside the jar with her mind, trying to see around its rounded corners without letting her friends notice her looking at it as if it were prey. Strawberry placed a total of three hundred twenty dollars in there, just barely enough to afford the costs for the audition. But it would have to suffice.
Strawberry grabbed the jar, sat it on top of the refrigerator, and pushed it to the very back. No! The precious treasure! "Say, I need you guys' help with a little home improvement. The window in my and Blueberry's room is entirely too creaky, so I need someone to fix it before the moisture seeps in. I'd hate to call the repairman."
The other girls followed Strawberry as their nonchalant chatter echoed down the hall and into one of the bedrooms. Plum perked as if she'd just worked magic. They were gone! She could grab the jar!
Plum tip-toed to the fridge to fetch the jar; she kept an eye focused behind her back to watch for her friends in case they came back, but that never occurred. Just that easily, the jar met her fingertips, and it silently scraped the top of the refrigerator as it made its way down.
A surge of guilt rose in Plum's stomach. It was wrong to take Strawberry's hard-earned cash. It'd taken her weeks just to earn this much, and the bills really did need to be paid: they were running very low on the money that Princess Berrykin had given them. Maybe she should put it back... Oh, nonsense. If Strawberry knew what Plum was going to do with the money, she'd understand, wouldn't she? Strawberry was the kind of person who hardly ever became angry, and she was aware of how much of a passion Plum had for dancing. If the situation were switched around and Plum were the one with money and Strawberry desired to buy new cookware to appease her appetite for baking, Plum wouldn't mind if she dipped into her savings a bit. Plus, they were friends after all, and this is what friends did for one another, just like lending and borrowing clothes and makeup. Same thing. Sort of. On the bright side, by becoming part of Berry Big City's dance company, Plum would earn a substantial amount of money, more than enough to pay Strawberry back and to pay off some of the other bills. Yes, that was quite true.
Her decision final, Plum slipped through the door, not once to be heard by her friends.
Huck scratched some items off his checklist while he observed the utilities in his pet hotel when Plum suddenly came bursting through his front doors. The hairs stood on his neck when he heard the abrupt noise, but he relaxed when he saw that it was only Plum, who was red as an apple and panting for breath.
"Plum, what are you doing here? I thought you would have been working by now," he casually stated.
"Oh, you know, I thought I'd just stop by and visit one of my best friends in the whooole wide world," Plum replied.
"Okay, what do you want?"
Plum regained her missing breath. "Why would you assume that I want something?"
"Because for one thing, you never come to me for any thing unless there's some thing that you want. Second, since when have you ever referred to me as one of your 'best friends in the whole wide world'? Last time I checked, the other girls had already filled that void."
Plum slumped her shoulders. "Okay, okay, you got me: I do need a favor from you. It's only a little one, not something that requires a lot on your part. So will you do it?"
Huck sat down his clipboard. "You need to tell me what it is first before I can agree to anything," he informed.
Plum shuffled her feet on the welcome mat. Would he even understand how vital this audition was to her? "Alright, the Berry Big City Ballet is holding company auditions today, and I was hoping that you could drive me over there - after I buy a few dance supplies, that is," she confessed. "It really shouldn't take that long: you can drop me off, the audition might be an hour tops, and then you can drive me back to the apartment. Simple as that."
"Are the others aware of this plan?"
"Well," Plum hesitated, "no, but if I make it as a part of their company I'll get paid to dance for them. That counts as a job, right?"
"But you don't know for sure whether or not you'll actually be accepted; and where will you get the money? I don't mean to come across as rude, but with the situation that you and the girls are in, can you even afford to participate? Don't those dance auditions cost money?"
"Never mind that - I have the money." Actually, she had Strawberry's money, but it somewhat counted as hers if she promised to pay her back. Right? "So will you do it or what?"
Huck tugged at his bangs. "I don't know, Plum. I have a lot of work that needs to be done around here, and I can't put it off any longer. I've already procrastinated on it enough helping you and the girls out and driving you places, so I really need to catch up. I'm sorry, Plum."
"But, but," Plum faltered, "Huck, don't you believe in following your dreams?"
"Of course I do, Plum," Huck answered.
Plum stepped closer to him. "This audition means everything to me; if I don't take this opportunity now, there may not be another one like it. Come on, just this one time."
"Plum, I've told you: I'm too busy. Sorry."
Plum widened her eyes and gave him a puppy dog look. "Pleeeease?" she whispered, clasping her hands together and looking him right in the face.
He was annoyed but finally gave a nod of consent. "Fine, but this is the last time. For now, at least. My van is parked outside."
Plum nearly wrung his neck with how tightly she hugged him. "Thank you, Huck, thank you, thank you!" She began to head towards the entrance, and Huck swiped his keys off his desk.
"How did you even get here if you need a ride to the company?" Huck asked once the random thought struck him.
"I ran like an Olympian," Plum replied.