The Youngest Manager

Chapter 1 Finding Out

"Rosie," Drake, my boyfriend, comes up to me in the courtyard. I look up from my sketch pad, "This just came in the mail for you." He holds up a letter, "From your parents."

I take the letter and give him a soft thank you as I open it.

Dearest Rosemary,

We love and miss you. We hope you are well. We look forward to hearing from you each week. Do not be alarmed, but your mother has pneumonia that settled into her lungs. The doctors think it's a quick fix with the right treatment. They only figured it out recently, and it's been there since last Christmas, but they're hopeful. They want her immediately hospitalized for treatment. I look forward to seeing you this summer. Do not worry about your mother, she'll be fine.

With love

Your Father.

"What's wrong Rosie?" Drake asks me sitting down next to me.

"My mother's being hospitalized." I tell him, "My father can't even begin to pay off the bills."

"Is there anything I can do?" He asks.

"What is there to do?" I ask him, "We're full time students, juniors in high school. I'm at a boarding school. A private school where I'm on scholarship, there's nothing I can do. I can't do anything!"

"I'm not on scholarship here." Drake points out, "My parents are huge benefactors of the school. We've got money to burn."

"No," I shoot him down immediately, "Thank you. I can't let you do that."

"We've been dating for three years, of course you can." Drake insists, "The money wouldn't even make a dent."

"That's sweet, but seriously, I couldn't do that." I tell him, "I need to find a job, a well paying summer job."

"Class starts in about five minutes, did you eat?" Drake asks making an obvious subject change. I say nothing looking down at my sketch pad. "Didn't think so, I brought you this." He says pulling out a Styrofoam container. Biscuits with butter and sausage. He also hands me a Ziploc of  strawberries. I smile taking them and begin to quietly eat. I continue to capture the sunrise in my sketch pad.

"There has to be something." Drake says.

"If you hear of a job opening, you'll let me know right?" He nods and we both stand up, Drake tossing my trash as I gather my things, "Come on, Trig waits for no one." Drake smiles lacing our fingers together so we can walk to class. Eight classes at an hour a piece. An hour for lunch. School starts at 6 and ends at around 2. Drake is the school's Athletic Super Star. As well as my competition for valedictorian. He even manages to make the school  uniform look good. Not an easy feat although he does wear his Letterman instead of the uniform jacket, but all the athletes that have them do that, so it's okay.

I still remember my first year here as the first and last scholarship student here. Freshman year. Everyone else from here grew up together and were set in their ways that anyone without a title or fortune was no one. All except one boy in particular.