Off to Neverland

Off to Neverland (25)

“You’re trying to get a job?” Simon asked, his eyes widening at me. “Haven’t you already tried that before and you’re still jobless right now?”

I stared at him flatly. “I don’t need you to remind me. At least you have a job.”

Simon rolled his eyes. “Yeah, with Henry, who sexually harasses me every single day.”

“He does that every single day anyway,” I teased, sticking my tongue out at my best friend now. It always amused me how disgusted he acted when Henry hit on him. You couldn’t blame me for being amused… “You should just get used to it and embrace it. Or embrace him, actually.”

Simon couldn’t help but make a face at me. “No, thank you.”

“But back to me getting a job,” I sighed, playing myself on his couch and resting my head on his lap like I usually did whenever we hung out at his house. “It’s really bad this time. If I can’t get a job, I don’t know what I’ll do.”

“Do you want to babysit my little siblings for some money?” Simon asked, a wide grin spreading across his face. “I usually do it, but I’d be really grateful if you took it off my hands for me. You know how much my parents love you.”

“I haven’t seen your little siblings since we were in sixth grade,” I blinked, not knowing how I would be able to handle two children. “That’s a really long time ago. Are you sure they’re going to want me to babysit them?”

Simon grinned. “Positive.”

“Aw, Ivy, you took my spot,” Henry whined as both he and Terra entered her living room from the kitchen. “You know that Simon’s lap is my favorite pillow.”

“Well, I’ve got to go look for another job,” I sighed, hopping up from the couch now and brushing myself off. “He’s all yours now. But Simon, no matter how much your family pays me, I’m pretty sure it won’t be enough to help my family. So I’ll go look for another job just to be safe.”

Simon nodded, jumping up off the couch before Henry could plop down and put his hand on his lap like I had. “Well, I wish you luck. I kind of hate to say that you’re going to need it.”

I rolled my eyes at him, heading toward the door. “Thanks a lot for that, best friend.”

I left the house with my three best friends laughing, but I was doing the same. I had missed spending time with them, even though I got to see Simon every single day. But it had been a while since I had been able to spend time with Henry and Terra…

I hated that I had to walk through town in search of a job. I was probably going to look like a poor loser if I looked through every window looking for a sign the told me that they needed workers… But most of the people around town thought they  knew me… so they probably were going to think that I was looking through windows to see who I was going to steal from next.

I was lucky enough to see that there was a help wanted sign in the first shop in town’s square. I let out a sigh of relief and pushed the door open, hoping that this would be easy for me to do and not difficult like it had been so many other times.

“Hi, um, I’m Ivy Morgan,” I introduced myself to the woman behind the desk. “I saw the help wanted sign in the window, and I was just wondering if I could have a job application.”

The woman behind the counter’s face tightened when I introduced myself. My heart stopped beating for a second, and I was pretty sure I knew what was coming next.

“Sorry,” the woman began, her face still tight as she awkwardly tapped on her keyboard. “I… forgot to take the sign down. We don’t need any more help around here. I’m very sorry.”