Chapter 13 - "Workin' for a livin'"

by Huey Lewis and the News

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"Workin' for a livin', livin' and workin'

I'm takin' what they're givin' 'cause I'm workin' for a livin'"

"See you next week, John!" The light ting-ting of the bell echoed in the small lobby as John left, letting the thick, wooden door slam shut behind him. I pushed the various papers together and tapped them on the desk to get them all neat and lined up before fiddling with the clunky stapler. "Come on, you stupid stapler, work."

"Stop abusing my stationery, Carmelita. You'll hurt it's feelings."

I jumped, not expecting my uncle's voice. He stood with his stocky arms crossed, leaning against the entrance to the garage with a cheeky grin on his oil-smudged cheeks. I huffed at him. "Not my fault that it's old. It won't go through- and the stack is not that thick."

He just chuckled and murmured something that sounded suspiciously like 'niña tonta' before holding out my phone with a bushy brow raised. "Your phone has been going off like crazy. Thought it might be important." When I flipped it open, I blinked at the barrage of messages.

Miko: Missed call (5)

Miko: Carm u need to get here now! Something super important I swear.

Miko: Carmen answer ur phone!

Miko: If ur not here soon it'll be too late!

A horrible feeling settled in my gut. That didn't sound good.

I apologised for not having it on silent and then ducked out back to ring her. It only rang twice before I had the energetic teen's voice yelling down the line at me. "Dude! What gives? I called you, like, 10 times! You better hurry or we're gonna have to leave without you."

Safe to say I was confused and concerned. "What's wrong? Is everyone alright? Your message said it was important."

"Yeah it's important! We're about to sneak into a museum to steal an ancient Cybertronian artifact! And I know you're a big history nerd so it's right up your alley! Now hurry up and get over here so we can leave."

My eyebrows scrunched down and I had to take everything in for a moment before I spoke. "You interrupted me, at work, to tell me that you guys are about to go rob a museum?"

"I thought you didn't work on Wednesdays?"

"I started working at my uncle's auto shop twice a week, remember?" There was an "Oohhhh yeah" on the other end, along with a faint "I tried to tell you" from Jack I think.

"But Carmen, history~" she sing-songed trying to persuade me.

I sighed and ran a hand over my head. "Of course the one time I can't make it is the one time it's something I know a bunch about… I'm sorry but I can't, not today. You guys be safe though, okay? Let me know how it goes. I gotta get back to work." There was a whine of protest with Miko finally letting it go after making me promise to help her with her History assignment tomorrow (and she'd promised she wouldn't try and guilt me into doing it all for her like she'd tried to earlier) and so we exchanged our goodbyes and I hung up. I looked at the time glaring at me from the top right corner. 5:30pm. Only an hour to go.

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Moonlight shone through my window as I peered up at the stars above. I tightened my blanket around my shoulders but let my mind slip and think back to the conversation I'd had with my dad 3 weeks ago.

I kicked off my shoes and placed them on the shoe rack in the foyer, slinging my bag off at the same time with a tired sigh. I didn't bother to straighten out my work uniform since I was just going to get changed soon anyways but as I turned to trudge away to my sweet, sweet, comfy bed, I flinched at the loud clap inches from my face.

"Wha-aahh! Dad! What-?"

"Hey, sorry, didn't mean to scare ya, kiddo. How was work?"

"...Good," I breathed out and rubbed at my arm, "a customer accidentally spilt hot coffee on my arm but we got it under some cold water pretty quick."

My Dad shook his head. "At least you're not on roller-skates like the 50's diner girls used to be. While you might be good at it, it'd only take one wrong move from someone and then wham! Face, say hello to the floor." He let out a nervous chuckle and it was then that I noticed that he was acting kind of... off. His body was tensed and his fingers were tapping at his sides - a tick of his that I'd picked up on over the years. There was also an unusual glint to his eyes.

Something was up.

I finally lowered my bag down to rest on the edge of the lounge but didn't take my eyes off of my Dad's. "What is it?" I hedged.

He looked stunned. "What's what?"

My eyebrows creased. "Don't play dumb, Dad."

He at least had the nerve to look chastised at my tone. "You always were an observant kid."

"It's a talent." I sassed back at him.

Silence.

Our gazes were locked, waiting to see who would cave first. Unfortunately for him, I wasn't going to bow out - not this time. Evidently seeing this in my expression, he heaved a sigh and ran a calloused hand through his short locks. He looked away for a moment before his eyes met mine again. "...They're closing the factory." My face dropped. "Effective next week. I didn't want to worry you."

My brain was racing, trying to catch up with all the thoughts running rampant within it. There were words trying to latch together to form a sentence but they kept disappearing before I could hold on to them. "Carmen." The sudden hand on my shoulder made everything screech to a halt. My eyes blinked in quick succession as I focused in on my Dad's face. "You good?"

"Yeah, I'm- I'm good." I answered, more to myself than anything. I rubbed my palms down my face and when I opened my eyes, I saw Lily hiding behind the archway to the hall. "What are you doing up so late?" At this, Dad turned and a look of panic flashed over his features before he schooled it into a smile. Lily shuffled out into the open and peeked up at me from under her bangs.

"I was staying up until you got home. Are you okay, Menni?"

I quickly plastered a fake smile on my face, responding with an "A-Okay, munchkin" and a thumbs up. "And as much as I love that you stayed up for me, you have 5 seconds before I come over there and make you go to bed."

She stared at me with widened eyes.

"5..."

Her pleading look switched to Dad who just shrugged.

"4...3...2-"

Like lightning, she spun around and raced to her room with a squeal.

"...1."

I let my eyes drift over to Dad. There was a mutual agreement in our eyes. Lily wouldn't know. We'd figure things out, we'd make it work.

The next day, I called Uncle Antonio to see if he needed any extra help at the garage of an afternoon. Looks like I wasn't gonna be spending as much time with the 'bots anymore.

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Spanish Translations:

niña tonta = silly girl