Okay guys, Not gonna lie I hated that last chapter because I HATE taxes. And even though Jem wasn't talking about raising taxes, just increasing the amount of people actually paying taxes, it still bugged me.

But sadly It was the only thing I could think to put.

I get WHY taxes are a thing and if tax dollars were ACTUALLY used to do the things the government SAYS they're used for, it wouldn't be so bad. But lets face it, most of the time your tax dollars go towards stupid stuff.

Like in my experience, Illinois tried to get me to pay taxes on something I had already done in 2014. And then I had to send in the paperwork showing I did pay it off. And I thought it was resolved...the entire thing took SEVEN years for them to admit they fucked up. Only after they started garnishing my wages to pay the taxes I supposedly owed.

AND THEN, while they admitted they messed up, but they still wanted me to pay a late fee...for taxes I never owed. So I had to go through the process AGAIN to FINALLY have it all cleared.

And thats why I hate Taxes

Jem's POV

"You can't seriously still be mad at yourself?" Winter asked as they had been home for about an hour.

Jem knew he wasn't ACTUALLY raising taxes, but the fact that he made an argument for taxes made him really disappointed.

"Man, if Spike Cohen could see me now he would be really disappointed." Even if it was a temporary thing, he still hated it.

"Well what did you expect? You could just eliminate all taxes when you got into office?" She asked as Jem shook his head.

"No, but I never thought I would be making an argument as to why tax money was a good thing." He said as he was thinking about how to reverse this.

"I mean, I suppose as soon as we get enough people working and back on their feet, and the more work we can get down that can have positive effects, we can slowly start to roll back the taxes and make it so the people get to keep their own money...Fuck, I really hate this job." Jem said as Winter looked at him.

"You've only worked the job for a day!"

"And its already pissing me off!" Jem hated it.

He knew he was going to hate himself a bit when he became a politician, but he never once thought it would be day one.

"Look on the bright side, they agreed with your plan and they're not going to let people cheat the welfare system, so it balances out." Winter said as she knew Jem wouldn't be able to get everything he wanted.

"Yeah, but what can I say, I can't help but be disappointed with myself."

In reality, not much was going to change until more people went back to work. And he supposed as long as he knew the tax money was going to good use, then he wouldn't feel so bad about it. But how would he know it was going to a good place? He didn't trust the government of Atlas, and he was a part of the government of Atlas! But how did that work? Was Jem gonna have to read up on the tax code? Was he gonna have to lead an audit of the Atlas IRS?

He was almost starting to wish Robyn won, because he wasn't sure what to do.

"No ones perfect, you should be glad that your idea won't screw over the people." That was true.

Overall, his idea didn't harm the average citizen, he just hoped his policy idea wouldn't be twisted to go after the regular citizens. Sleet and Camilla seemed decent enough. And Ironwood wasn't looking to screw anyone over anytime soon. Even though Jem knew what he was capable of, he didn't have any issues with him at the moment. If he started to act like he was mentally unbalanced, then he would have a reason to worry.

But unless something crazy happened, he wasn't worried.

"Yeah, but you know how things go, who knows who the council reports to." He said as she looked at him funny.

"You're on the council, you don't report to anyone."

"Yeah, but are they having some eyes wide shut meeting behind the curtains that I'm not privy to?" He asked as she rolled her eyes.

"You're being paranoid." She said as this wasn't like his home planet.

She was absolutely certain there weren't any invisible puppet masters behind the curtains. Well except for Leonardo being controlled by Salem...and the election results being stolen by Watts. Or the time that Cinder sabatoged the vytal festival. Or the fact that Roman was working for Sal-

Okay she was going to stop herself there, she was defeating her own argument in her head. But she would never let Jem know that.

"Look, think of it this way, you can find other ways to minimize the government, and what you just did will probably encourage less people to go on welfare if they have to jump through hoops to get it." Winter said as Jem thought it over.

"Well that was the point, if someone's paid roughly the same amount as a man making 15 an hour sitting at home, if you offer him 16 an hour to go to a physical location he won't take it. But make it so he just can't sit at home and collect a check, it makes him more likely to get his ass in gear when he realizes he has to put in effort." Jem said as he was looking up at the ceiling.

"Well Rome wasn't built in a day, and lets face it, you're no emperor." She thought he could be more like the court jester.

"Speaking of which, how is my Grandpa doing? I heard he was giving some of the new recruits hell." Reggie had enjoyed his time back in the armed forces.

The new recruits however didn't enjoy it so much. The training was brutal. But they would admit they loved their instructor. Especially when he would talk about his missions in Rhodesia facing off against terrorist guerilla fighters. It was amazing to them what a man could do with so little equipment and outdated aircraft. The Atlas army had some of the best equipment in the world, but even they were impressed what a small nation could do with a handful of helicopters. And then part time he would also show Lost Liberty some tactics. Despite the fact he was officially employed by Atlas as an advisor, Jem had also convinced him to teach Lost Liberty as a way of preserving the balance. He wanted to make sure there was at least one force that understood Atlas military doctrine in case of martial law.

"He's doing well." Winter didn't know what else to say.

"I'm sure thats the understatement of the century." Jem said as he saw Nala laid out on the couch.

"Whats with her?"

"Uggghhhh." Nala groaned.

"Whats the matter sweetie?" Jem asked as he sat down besides her.

"This homework is killing me." She said as she held up her book.

"Well lets take a look at it, I'll see if I can help." Jem took one look at her book.

And then he squinted his eyes in confusion.

"The fuck is this?" Jem asked unsure why she appeared to be doing calculus.

"Uhm...maybe your mom can take this one." Jem said as he turned to see Nala had passed out from brain exhaustion.

"When the hell did they start putting advanced math in Elementary school?" Jem had never felt so dumb in his life.

"It's not that uncommon here, you did send Nala to a relatively nice school." She said as Jem was looking over the book.

"Yeah but I didn't expect this! I can't even do half of this stuff, and I'm close to thirty!"

"Your high school also had its own 'drive your tractor to school' day."

Jem actually took offense to that.

"Hey, don't you smack talk tractor day, that was a great time!"

Okay guys, you'll probably be seeing less updates than usual. Life has caught up with me. Sadly my part time at the gun store has been put on hold due to the dipshit governor of Illinois.

So in other words, that just solidified that I need to get out of this state.

So I've been trying to take extra hours at work to make some extra money to afford the move.