Jethro 8 Snippet 4

 Sitrep: So, Rea sent me back the manuscript this morning. I just got through the edits (while Ember was asleep on one arm, lol) and shot it off to Goodlifeguide.

So, clock is ticking down to when we go live and publish. :)

On to the snippet!

Chapter 4

 

Antigua

 

A week after finals concluded Shy came to Cleo with a problem. Cleo had the same problem, and she contacted her brothers who were scratching their heads on what to do.

She gathered them at a park picnic site and sipped her drink as they finally showed up. As usual Baggy was the last one in.

“So, what are we going to do?” Shy asked.

“About?” Baggy drawled.

“The University is shutting down for the summer semester. They canceled all in-person courses; everything else is online.”

“So?” Baggy asked. He was down to the one course and another he had to repeat because he’d gotten dinged for poor attendance. It wasn’t his fault; he’d overslept too many times because he’d been up gaming.

“So, they are shutting the dorms down too,” Cleo said firmly.

“Um …,” he blinked.

Cleo rolled her eyes to the other siblings. “Check your email,” she sighed.

“Um …”

“I got it too. My floor’s dorm monitor said we don’t have to go home but we can’t stay here,” Ruabelk said, clearly aggrieved. “This sucks!”

“Yeah,” Baggy said as he accessed his email. His eyes widened. “They can’t do this!” he complained. He looked up.

“Found the email I take it?” Cleo asked mildly.

“Yeah! And it’s not fair! And so what if I’m below the minimum and my grades suck! I still need a place to stay!”

“Ah, huh. So, that game career thing isn’t working out for you? And what do you mean minimum?” Cleo asked.

“Ah …,” he scowled. “Okay, so I overslept a few times,” he grumbled.

“Uh huh,” she said as she eyed him. “Mom’s going to love you for that one,” she said.

His eyes went back but then he perked up. “She’s not here,” he said defiantly.

“Right. Which is a problem. Unless you don’t mind living on the street?” Cleo asked.

“Crap.”

“We can’t get into a frat until the fall when they take in new applicants,” Shy said. They turned to her. “I checked. I was looking for options.”

“Oh,” Ruabelk said with then sighed. “Most of the kids on my floor are either going back to family or going on trips. I thought about that but …,” he waved a hand, “no money.”

“Yeah. Once we’re out of class, the money dries up,” Cleo said.

“What?” Baggy demanded. “No money? Since when?” he demanded.

“The scholarship is for one year. We have one semester left. We can only draw on it for stuff for school and food.”

Bagheera scowled.

“No school and the money gets suspended.”

“Guess it’s time to find a job?” Shy asked. “I also checked in with Zuhura; she can’t take in any of us since she lives on a restricted base.”

“Frack,” Ruabelk said. “I was about to suggest her.”

Shy shook her head. “She’s got a small apartment anyway. It’d get a bit crowded with four us on her love seat.”

“Crap,” Ruabelk muttered. “Crap, crap, crappity crap.”

“Yeah.”

“What about … the house?” Bagheera asked.

“What about it?” Cleo asked as she eyed him.

“I don’t know, go and get it back?” he suggested weakly.

“And how do we do that?” Cleo asked in exasperation. “Go knock on the door and tell the nice family now renting it that, sorry, we need to throw you out because we used to live here?” she asked.

Bagheera’s ears went flat.

“That doesn’t cover how we’re going to live either,” Shy said.

“What about mom’s car?” Ruabelk asked hopefully.

“She sold it.”

“Ah, forgot that,” he mumbled.

Bagheera looked disgusted. He’d been saddled with mass transit and absolutely hated it. He had hoped to get the car. Now that scheme was ruined too.

There was a long drawn-out silence. It was finally broken when Cleo hit bottom with her straw and began to suck air through her straw noisily. She shook the drink making the ice clink and then set it aside.

“Yeah, going with mom on that trip is more and more appealing. Pity we didn’t while we had the chance,” Cleo sighed.

“We couldn’t. We had finals,” Shy said.

“Well, we’ve got four days to figure out a miracle.”

“A miracle?” Bagheera demanded. “Can’t we get an extension to stay in the dorms?”

“Maybe for a little while. But we would have to find something. As I see it, we’d need a shit ton of money to rent an apartment together. Down payment, all that,” Cleo said.

“Okay, look into that. Maybe we can do it together?” Ruabelk asked as he perked up.

“Ah, first we need the money, plus a proof of income. That means a job we’re each working,” Shy said.

“Start with the money,” Cleo said. “How do we get it? And rental history? I remember mom talking to the leasing company about finding the right people. We don’t have a history.”

“Ah … I think we need to talk to Zuhura. See what she can think of,” Shy said slowly. The others reluctantly nodded.

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