The middle

Maggie needs a job

Maggie was blank.

She's been blank for weeks now and her WriteOut.com followers were starting to drop (that's if going from 10 to 8 followers actually counted as 'drop'). Tears were beginning to form in the corner of her eyes. She was desperate. Her long brownish hair was tied up in a messy (really messy not Pinterest perfect messy) bun, while the bright screen of her computer burned her eyes.

Maggie wanted to scream in a pillow and give up. But she never gave up. She sighed, cleared her eyes and stared at the screen again. Twenty chapters deep into her story... she still didn't feel it. When she started this novel she thought meh, love stories are simple but man, this shit was hard. She almost laughed remembering why she started all this...

"Margaritte, dinner's ready." Her mom called from her bedroom's door. She left the smell of fresh baked cookies behind. Maggie loved how her mother believed that cookies were acceptable as part of dinner. But she hated being called Margaritte. It was an on and off argument with her mom that drove her crazy, but tonight she wasn't in the mood for a fight. She was in the mood for giving up.

She closed her laptop defeated and went downstairs for dinner.

Sean was half way through his plate when she sat down. Damn, that boy could eat. He was 3 years older than her. Almost graduated from College now. She was still a sophomore.

"You know you don't have to eat the whole thing in a single breath, right?" Maggie said, sitting down next to Sean. Her dad was waiting for her, sitting at the head of the table. Her mom brought the cookies and sat down in front of Sean.

"Honey, you look tired. Have you been studying late?" her mom asked her.

"She's been writing." Sean said. "I can hear her keyboard at two a.m."

"Honey," her mom said, giving her a tired look on her eyes, the one she gives her everytime writing becomes the topic of a conversation. "We've talked about this before."

"How's school going?" Her dad asked her. He was always saving the day. Always defending her and her love for words.

"It's great, dad. I got my final grades this morning and I'm doing pretty good." She poured dressing over her salad "I can enjoy my summer vacation and worry about classes next semester".

Sean finished eating and was reaching for one of Maggie's chicken nuggets. Maggie slapped him without turning to see him and their mom just cleared her throat making direct eye contact with her.

Of course. It's always like that. She's always the bad one, the guilty one, the black sheep of the family in her mother's eyes.
Being smart isn't enough, Maggie had to be perfect. Her mom wanted her to be focused and organized, responsible, assertive, a leader.
Maggie was none of those things. She could be a leader if she wanted to, but most of the time she just let everyone else made the decisions and nod at the end.
She was smart, her grades have never been below an 80, but being book smart isn't enough.
This always causes her mom to roll her eyes at her or clean her throat as a way to call her attention.

The only moments when Maggie could be herself was when she was writing.
She left everything on the pages of her stories.
She wrote fantasy and horror mostly, but lately she's been wanting to write about love, which is harder than it seemed.

"I gotta go" Sean said getting up from the table, "Jonathan's picking me up. We're going to a party".

"At what time should we expect you back?" Their dad said, not lifting his eyes from his dinner. Sean hesitated to answer.
His dad looked at him and raised an eyebrow, making it perfectly clear that he didn't care he was almost 24, when he's at home, there are rules.

"Midnight probably" Sean muttered.

"Midnight" said his dad.

Sean pursed his lips but didn't say anything.

"Later, Bug" he said, rubbing Maggie's hair.

"Later" she answered.

Her mom waited for the door to close to say
"So, have you found a job yet?"

Maggie stopped eating mid-bite. "What?"

"Yeah. A job. Have you found any?"

She turned to her dad but he was conveniently looking down. He was hiding something.

"Margaritte, I told your father to tell you. Did he not?"

The both turn to him. He sighed and said "I forgot"

"Of course you did. We talked about this, Steve"  said her mom sarcastically. Then returned to Maggie.

"Maggie, we are not funding your summer this year."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, if you're old enough to go out with your friends whenever you want, you're old enough to earn money for gas and partying and the movies and whatnot" she waved her hand in the air exasperated at that last part.

"So, you're saying you won't even give me money for gas all summer?"

"That's exactly what I' saying." She paused. "And who knows, maybe you meet someone"
She said that as if this summer Maggie was supposed to meet the love of her life.
Right now, she wanted to party with her friends and do whatever she wanted, besides writing that story.

Truth is, she really needed that story. It was her ticket to creative writing. But to get in, she had to attach an original piece  to her admission letter. She had nothing so far.

The last thing she needed was a job.

Well, apparently she did need it.

Great.