Paying for Tuition

By Annabeth Bang

I'm out of money, with my tuition due soon.

After my parents take my check for themselves, I'm in trouble. If I don't come up with the money for my next tuition payment, I won't finish college. Out of desperation, I go for a job interview at a place that doesn't offer a lot of details.

After I sign a non-disclosure agreement, I almost run out when seeing their brief advertisement. But I need the tuition money, so I stay and have quite an experience.

Smile, you're on camera.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amaretta Sosa
• Release date: May 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005317188

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

P lease tell me that you're joking and you never cashed my check for your own use.

There was only silence on the line. I'm so sorry, sweetie. We're so tight on money this month because your father's plant had a temporary shutdown, so we only had one paycheck on his side this month. And you know I'm always trying to pick up more hours, but I had bronchitis and...

I knew my parents loved me, but sometimes I could throttle them. They'd raised me with love and not a penny to their names. I didn't understand at all how the check could've arrived at my childhood home instead of the tiny shared apartment I lived in which was a mile from campus, but instead of telling me that they'd gotten my check, they had somehow cashed it.

We all knew it was illegal, but what was I going to do? Sue my parents for the money they needed to survive?

Trouble was, it was money that I needed to survive.

Mom, my tuition is due in a week.

Can you get another loan? Your dad and I will pay you back, we promise. I'm so sorry about all of this, honey, it was just that the check was right there.

How could I justify taking any money from my parents, even though they were absolutely horrible at keeping any of it? As soon as they had any money at all, they spent it. I'd gotten a job in a stockroom the day that I turned 14 and had a signed work permit. Summer was the best time because I was able to work 40 hours a week instead of the restricted hours that