Chapter 3 - A Room With a Door That Locked
Simone's spare bedroom had a narrow bed, a dresser with one uneven drawer, and a window that faced the bus stop. She set a clean towel on the mattress and told me the door locked from the inside.
"You can stay through August," she said. "After that, we'll figure out what comes next."
"I can't pay full rent."
"I know what you make at the diner. Fifty dollars a week when you have it, and no debt when you don't. That's an arrangement, not charity."
I wanted to say something brave. Instead I sat on the bed and cried until my throat hurt. Simone waited in the hallway and brought me water without asking for a performance.
When I was ten, Dad had left for work in Indiana and stopped answering calls. Mom said we were better off. Two years later, Maisie was born, and by then I knew how to boil noodles, read medicine labels, and make a five-year-old believe the dark wasn't scary. By fourteen I knew the rates parents paid for late-night babysitting. By sixteen Mom had turned those jobs into part of the household budget.
People praised me for being responsible. Nobody asked what I would have done if responsibility hadn't been my only option.
Ms. Calder called. "I spoke to Ms. Ward. They've paused the reassignment while your case is reviewed. It's a short hold, Zarya, not a restored award."
"How short?"
"Five business days for the initial review. Bring your acceptance email and anything that shows you intended to attend."
I opened the folder I'd carried across the street. My printed acceptance, class schedule draft, and a list of dorm items were there. So was a sheet I'd never noticed before: a summer babysitting calendar, typed in Mom's font, with my name above eleven overnight shifts.
The first was scheduled for the same day as Lakebridge's freshman orientation.
I called the number at the bottom. A woman named Natasha Brooks answered.
"Hi. This is Zarya Ellis. I'm calling about summer childcare."
"Thank goodness," she said. "Your mother told me you were staying in Dayton after all. We paid the June deposit yesterday."
May you like
"I never agreed to those dates."
A long pause followed. "Then why does the form have your signature?"
