"She can't keep working there! Roger!"

My Aunt thought I couldn't hear her but I heard her quite clearly, actually.

They were arguing about my job. Aunt Rita refused to let me have a job in which I had to walk home so late. Uncle Roger said that we needed the money.

"Well she can't work in a factory! What do you want me to do?"

Working in a factory would be better than ever taking that risk again. It was funny, how humans only ever did anything until it was too late.

"Talk to your sister! She is always looking for help!" Her shout-whisper got louder.

"Rita"

Oh. Aunt Rita must of have hit a rough spot.

"Roger!"

I knew from the tone of her voice that I would be meeting Uncle Roger's sister very soon.

"She lives all the way in Manhattan. That's too far"

Manhattan?

"Your sister has more than enough space for her! It's a dance hall! And you know she isn't the only one that lives there"

Was I relocating? To a dance hall?

"But Rita what would your sister say?"

Sorry, Uncle Roger. Valid point but not strong enough.

"I think my sister would have no issue, considering the circumstances"

Uncle Roger sighed "Can't you ask around at work?"

"We've been through this before. No one wants an underqualified worker"

Ouch.

"I'll go talk to her tonight"

And Uncle Roger did. And I got a new job and a new home. In Manhattan.

Uncle Roger had a sister, who owned a dance hall. A dance hall!

Owning a dance hall was impressive enough, now being a woman who owned a dance hall was a whole new level.

It was her husband's originally but he died of some weird disease and instead of selling it like everyone expected her to, she kept it and brought it to its golden age.

I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. No one had really given me a job description. Aunt Rita just told me to pack my things and kiss my cousins goodbye.

We hugged at the apartment's entrance, the landlord came to see me off. I glanced up at the stairs to see Caroline Fisher disappear behind the railing. I wonder what juicy rumor she'll come up with this time.

Uncle Roger was taking me to Manhattan. It was mid-afternoon on Thursday, his only day off from work.

"There's some things you need to know. My Sister holds a lot of parties for…people who don't meet your aunt's standards. Now nothing is going to happen to you but just be careful, all right?" I nodded my head "Ok, you're going be sharing your room with five other girls, I checked it out it's a very nice place. You only work nights. Tonight they'll train you. I would have preferred if you cleaned or something but were not really in the position to make demands. Ok here we are"

We had stopped in front of, well a dancing hall. Instead of going through the front, Uncle Roger went around and through an alley. I tried my best to act normal and not give anything away. I had only told them that someone had tried to mug me, I didn't let them ask any more questions, I didn't want to talk about the alley or what happened in the alley.

"The front remains locked until seven" he explained

"Ah" I replied.

Should I be worried that I was emotionally detached from the situation? Probably. I wasn't as traumatized I expected myself to be. I had pushed any emotions of anger, sadness, fear, or shame to the deepest hole I could find. Maybe it was because I had been in a similar situation before. I was like eight, my parents and I were walking home. Three men came out of nowhere, they had revolvers with them. The biggest one harassed my dad, while the other two grabbed my mother and I, the mugger who had my mother just kept pointing the gun at my mom's head, the guy who had me kept trying to do things but I kicked and slapped him. My screams didn't go unnoticed, not long after two police men showed up and chased three guys down. They didn't catch them but at least they didn't get our money.

Mother cried for two whole weeks and never again did we go make house visits after dark.

Story time's over. Uncle Roger had let himself in the building and we were walking up some stairs. I looked back and around the room, there was a bunch of things laying around in boxes. They looked like stage props.

He opened the door and we walked onto a stage. Uncle Roger sighed.

"I can never get around this place"

We walked around the stage and then the rest of the building. I tried memorize the place but it was too hard. There was no way I would be able to move around this place.

After ten minutes of senseless walking, someone finally found us. It was an old man, he was hunched over some stage ropes.

He nearly swung a wrench at us said we had scared "the living lights out of him"

Uncle Roger explained why we were there, the old man seemed skeptical but he took us where we needed to be. Medda Larkin was a vibrant woman, with ginger hair and a very pink dress.

She kissed both of my cheeks when we were introduced and went into a lengthy speech on when she went to my parents wedding and how she was at the hospital when I was born. She was a very nice person but I could see why Uncle Roger didn't like her. For one, she was more successful then him, second she was kind of flashy. She shoved her rings in my face and talked about how her dressmaker had just left to go make her a brand new silk dress. Maybe she did it because she was in front of her judgmental brother. It didn't matter, she had given me a job and that's all I cared about.

After simple pleasantries, she dismissed Uncle Roger and took me upstairs to see my room and meet my fellow roommates.

Medda introduced me to Judy, Autumn, Ruby, Scarlett, and Lucile.

"I'm Ruby. I'm in charge here" the red head closest to me spoke, when Medda left. She looked like she was in charge. Ruby had a wide forehead and an angular face. Her eyes were relatively small but spaced evenly. Ruby's eyebrows barely contrasted against her pale skin. She had a thin pink mouth and mid-length red hair,

"Your bed is the one near the window" Ruby pointed towards the far left corner in the room. "You sleep next to Judy, she gets nightmares sometimes, just slap her with a pillow and she'll stop screaming'

Oh. Wow. That's doesn't sound awful and terribly awkward.

Judy scared me. Her eyes were wide and black. She stared right at you and didn't say a word. Her long raven hair fell around her thin face. Judy was thin but not like your natural thin. She looked starved, her cheek bones were hollow and her chin jutted out in a defiant tilt.

"If you hit me with a pillow. I swear I'll kill you"

"I w-wont" I answered, while I slipped past her to my new bed.

"She's just trying to look tough. The worst she'll do is glare at you"

I glanced at the new voice. It was…Lucile?

The girl was abnormally tall. Her blond hair was tied in a ponytail.

"You might already know this but I'm Autumn"

Whoops. My bad.

Autumn walked over from the bed she was lounging on and stuck out her hand. I shook it and smiled.

"Violet"

Her hazel eyes squinted at me. "Have I met you before? You look familiar"

Before I could answer she spoke up again. "I remember back in elementary school there was a girl that looked just like you. Did you go to Sunnyside elementary in Queens?"

No, she was way off. "No I'm from Brooklyn"

A collective gasp spread throughout the room. If they hadn't noticed me before they did now.

"Brooklyn? As in sheepshead, Brooklyn?"

I nodded and gave her a bemused look. What's so great about coming from Brooklyn?

The rest of the girls crowded around me.

"Do you know Spot Conlon?"

I shook my head and answered simply "No"

They fell away.

I furrowed my brow but decided to put this behind me.

"I'd give anything for him to notice me"

"If only he came more often"

"He is so smooth"

"And handsome"

This just kept getting weird.

"Who's Spot Conlon?"

The room felt silent. You could have heard a fly fart.

The five girls sat up from their beds. Scarlett who barely even said Hello jumped from her bed and made a bee line towards me.

"You don't know who Spot Conlon is?" Her chocolate eyes were burning a hole in my forehead.

Nervously shaking my head, I cowered against my bed. Did I say something wrong?

"Where have you been living? Under a rock?" Judy rhetorically asked. I could just see from the look on her face that she was imaging burning me at the stake.

"Judy don't be rude! I'm sure she's just joking"

I turned towards Autumn . She looked very confident in her statement.

"I wasn't joking"

More gasps. What's so great about this dude?!

Autumn had joined Scarlett and Judy. They were harassing me with their eyes.

"Calm down you headless chickens. She'll meet him soon enough" I looked past the three ecstatic girls at who I assumed was Lucile.

"How can we calm down?" Scarlett demanded.

"She just insulted a god" Judy added.

"First of all he is not a god, you just think he's cute. Second of all, Medda is hosting another one of their parties. If she doesn't meet him there she's hopeless"