Cinder groaned as the alarm she had set on her phone went off. She rolled over and smashed her face into her pillow, but the alarm kept on beeping, a sound that pounded against the inside of her skull. Cinder set an alarm for herself every day, using the most annoying sounds to get her to wake up. If she didn't set one, she would probably just sleep the entire day. Finally, she grabbed her phone and turned it off, taking a few more minutes to lie in her bed before she forced herself to get up.

Not that her bed was that comfy. After Scarlet had dropped her off at the apartment and she had snuck back in through the air vent, she had scoured all of the closets for a spare comforter. It turned out that Adri and her daughters had taken them all, leaving only a lumpy pillow for Cinder. She had used her jacket as a blanket and curled up on the bare mattress.

The only good thing that had happened all night was that Adri hadn't caught her when she reentered the apartment. After locking her door, she had left Cinder alone, thinking there was no way she could possibly get out. Cinder felt a twinge of satisfaction at proving her wrong.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, Cinder tried to take a step - and immediately fell on her face. She glanced down and saw her empty metal ankle, a tangle of red and yellow wires poking out from the bottom. She sighed. "Totally forgot about that."

The events of last night came back to her. She still couldn't believe she had been kidnapped by a gang on her first night in her new city. Well, not kidnapped, exactly, but still. More like abducted. That explained the grating feeling in her head when she moved it too quickly. Cinder could recall being thrown to the ground in the alleyway and hitting her head. Oh well. There was no way she was going to the doctor. She would just have to deal with it.

She scooped up the metal foot from the ground where she had left it last night and inspected it. The toes were twisted at strange angles, the wires were frayed, the bolts were rusty, and the plating was dented. The wires and bolts had been messed up for a while now since Cinder had had that foot since she was eleven, but the dents and damage to the joints were the final straw. She needed to replace that piece of crap.

Cinder pulled out her wire puller and carefully joined the wires of the foot and her ankle, making sure to match them up right. Then she used her screwdriver to bolt the two pieces back together. She got up from the ground and carefully tested it, making sure it would hold when she walked. She felt the same sense of smallness, of being cramped that she felt every time that she put that foot back on. Garan had routinely checked her foot to make sure it was still the right size and all the parts were working, but Adri had neglected that duty once he had died. Most of the time Cinder could make small adjustments when a screw was loose or a wire was frayed, but the one thing she couldn't do was convince her adoptive mother to buy her a new foot. She desperately needed a bigger one, but Adri continued to insist that they were too expensive. Which didn't make sense, really, because it was Cinder's money and she was supposed to be able to decide what to do with it.

After all, Cinder was the only source of income in their family. Her mechanic business had helped with their financial matters, but now that they were in a much bigger city she didn't think she could continue it. There was no central market in Commonwealth City like there had been in her old town, so she didn't have anywhere she could operate from. Also, there were probably a lot of older, more-experienced mechanics in the city. No one would want to do business with a sixteen-year-old girl when they could be serviced by a professional. She had brought up these concerns with Adri once they had decided to move, but Adri had just shrugged them off. "You'll figure something out," she'd said. Adri didn't care how she made money, as long as she could deposit it into her hands.

There was no other choice. Cinder had to find work at one of the mechanic shops in the city. Not only did she have to make money under Adri's command, but she also had to find some way to buy a new foot. The dents in the plating had rendered the foot almost unusable. It was barely a hunk of metal now. At least her hand wasn't too badly damaged by her fall.

She got ready hastily, pulling on a rumpled shirt, cargo pants, and her gloves, of course. As she stepped into her boots and reached for her bedroom door, she suddenly remembered that it was locked. Cinder grinned. She loved having to annoy her stepmother, especially when she had a valid reason to do so.

"AAAAADRI!" she hollered, hoping Adri was asleep so that Cinder could have the pleasure of disturbing her beauty sleep. She pounded on the door. "I NEED YOU TO UNLOCK MY DOOR!"

No answer. "LET ME OUTTTTTTTT!" Cinder screeched. She continued slamming the door with her palms, rattling it in its hinges. Finally, she heard Adri's footsteps clomping down the hallway, each step placed carefully on the wood floor so that they formed a drumbeat of rage.

"CINDER, SHUT UP!"

Cinder smirked. "I'll shut up once you let me out!" she called through the door. Adri's footsteps had stopped. She could picture her stepmother wrinkling her brow in suspicion and pursing her lips in annoyance, just on the other side of the flimsy plywood door.

"Where do you need to go?" Adri asked, her voice scratchy from sleep.

Raising her chin, Cinder spoke without a hint of doubt in her voice. "I'm going to find work," she told her, enunciating the word work in a way that made it clear she knew Adri had no intention of finding work herself. She doubted that Adri had worked a day in her life.

She could practically hear Adri's frown. "You already have work. You own a business."

Cinder wanted to laugh at how clueless Adri was. Did she really not understand that high schoolers can't just start professional businesses on their own? "I already told you, that's not going to work here. I need to get a job at a mechanic shop."

Silence followed. Adri was skeptical.

Cinder sighed and played her last card. "Look, do you want me to make money or not? Because I'm perfectly fine letting this family spiral into poverty, and then the social service workers will take Pearl and Peony away from you."

That did the trick.

Finding work at a mechanic shop was easier said than done.

Cinder had expected to be able to just walk in and ask to do a job interview. What kind of business wouldn't want an extra worker, especially a highly competent one like her? But as it turned out, no one wanted to hire her. Cinder had been walking around the city all day, checking out nearly every mechanic shop. Three of them had taken one look at her and turned her away. Two had interviewed her, then rejected her. Cinder was extremely frustrated with the fact that they only rejected her because she was a girl. No one ever expected girls to be good at mechanics. Even when she had demonstrated her vast knowledge of mechanics, engineering, physics, and mathematics. Each time she entered a new shop, Cinder had hoped for at least one worker who would see her with fresh eyes, who would look past her skinny girlish frame and see a hardworking mechanic instead of a little girl.

She stood in front of the last stop on her route. The last mechanic shop in Commonwealth City. If she couldn't get a job here, all hope was lost. Cinder steeled her nerves. No matter what, I'm not letting them drive me away, she thought.

Cinder strode forward with confidence, pushed open the door of the shop, and...

Tripped over her own feet.

Stumbling on her unsteady ankle and too-small foot, Cinder had to grab the doorframe to keep her balance. Not exactly the grand entrance she had been aiming for.

The workers in the shop - all big, burly, tattooed men, of course - had barely glanced up at her entrance. Cinder looked around. Just like all the other stores she had been to that day, the interior was a mechanic's haven. The workspace was separated into different sections by sheets of chicken wire, where the mechanics all worked on different projects. Tables lined the walls filled with bins of supplies: gears, screws, nuts, bolts, and a million other little pieces. All kinds of tools hung from hooks on the walls. Cinder's hands itched to grab some different parts and put them together. Over in one corner, a mechanic was helping a customer fix his car.

Finally, one of the mechanics looked up from his station. "How can I help you?" he grunted, wiping grease-stained hands off on his shirt.

Cinder took a deep breath. This was the moment she had been preparing for. "I would like to interview for a job here," she said loudly and clearly.

The man stared at her. "You? A job? As a... janitor?"

Another man, even more muscular than the first, chimed in. "Or maybe a maid?" he asked with a smirk.

"Or a cook?" came another voice. Now Cinder knew they were making fun of her.

"A seamstress!"

"A nurse!"

"A masseuse!"

"Stop!" Cinder cried out, as more men listed the stereotypical jobs of women. She fought to be heard over the din. "I - WANT - TO - WORK - AS - A -MECHANIC!"

This brought on more bouts of laughter. Cinder clenched her teeth. She was sick of being laughed at. She would've bet all her money that she was smarter than most of these men. They had only been hired because they had the right look - the typical burly mechanic look. Cinder needed to prove that she would be as good of a mechanic as anyone else.

She stomped over to where the mechanic in the corner was analyzing the customer's broken car, still trying to figure out what was wrong with it. "That car has a faulty gearbox, probably caused by inadequate lubrication, which would mean there is water contamination or particulate contamination in the car. You need to replace the problematic gear synchros that are responsible for housing the individual gears in your transmission."

Author's Note: I know nothing about mechanics, I just Googled a bunch of stuff

Cinder went up to the station of the mechanic who had first noticed her. "The wires on your motherboard are connected wrong, that's why the machine isn't working." He immediately scrambled to realign everything, not wanting to look like a fool.

She continued examining different projects that the mechanics were working on, often finding mistakes they had made and rattling off the causes and solutions of the problems. By the time she was done offering everyone advice, the mechanics were all staring at her, this young girl who had just barged into their mechanic shop and shown her true worth.

Cinder stared back at them defiantly.

The mechanic working in the corner with the car was the first to speak. "What's your name, girl?"

Sorry that the rest of the gang hasn't appeared yet! I'm writing as fast as I can.