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!

 

Antigua

 

Aweek 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.

Shegathered them at a park picnic site and sipped her drink as they finally showedup. As usual Baggy was the last one in.

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

“About?”Baggy drawled.

“TheUniversity is shutting down for the summer semester. They canceled all in-personcourses; everything else is online.”

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

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

“Um…,” he blinked.

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

“Um…”

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

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

“Foundthe 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! Istill need a place to stay!”

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

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

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

Hiseyes 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.”

“Wecan’t get into a frat until the fall when they take in new applicants,” Shysaid. 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 goingback 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.

“Thescholarship is for one year. We have one semester left. We can only draw on itfor stuff for school and food.”

Bagheerascowled.

“Noschool and the money gets suspended.”

“Guessit’s time to find a job?” Shy asked. “I also checked in with Zuhura; she can’ttake in any of us since she lives on a restricted base.”

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

Shyshook her head. “She’s got a small apartment anyway. It’d get a bit crowdedwith four us on her love seat.”

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

“Yeah.”

“Whatabout … the house?” Bagheera asked.

“Whatabout it?” Cleo asked as she eyed him.

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

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

Bagheera’sears went flat.

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

“Whatabout mom’s car?” Ruabelk asked hopefully.

“Shesold it.”

“Ah,forgot that,” he mumbled.

Bagheeralooked 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.

Therewas a long drawn-out silence. It was finally broken when Cleo hit bottom withher straw and began to suck air through her straw noisily. She shook the drinkmaking 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 wehad the chance,” Cleo sighed.

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

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

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

“Maybefor a little while. But we would have to find something. As I see it, we’d needa 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 eachworking,” Shy said.

“Startwith the money,” Cleo said. “How do we get it? And rental history? I remember momtalking to the leasing company about finding the right people. We don’t have ahistory.”

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

>>*<<