[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/1VxEDLe.png[/img][/center]

[hr][hr]
[indent][indent]This sucked.

It was the worst possible way to make money, there had to be a better way to do this. As far as Megara could tell though, the labor laws of this state, even this country, were firmly stacked [i]against[/i] child labor. It was no good, not for her. She needed eight hundred, and ninety eight dollars, and thirty seven cents. How was she supposed to get [i]that[/i] much money? It was a meteoric sum, at least to someone her age. She didn’t even know if she’d ever seen that much money in one place before! Was it even legal to carry almost nine hundred dollars around!?

She just wanted trading cards. Little pieces of cardboard with images printed on them, but noooo. It had to be [i]expensive[/i]. [color=f989f2][b]“Why does everything cost money?!”[/b][/color] Megara demanded, though her voice wasn’t met with an answer. She was almost [i]falling[/i] in this dumpster, but she ultimately succeeded in her task, and grabbed the empty soda can from the bottom of it, and pulled it before tossing it into the trash bag she had. [color=f989f2][b]“Okay, if each one of these is worth a nickel, before taxes and stuff… then I need something like eighteen thousand of them to buy my deck? This whole town doesn’t drink that much soda!”[/b][/color]

To Megara’s credit, her morning had not been wasted. She’d been out since around seven that morning, riding her bike around the town of Millington, and stuffing cans into her bag, and it was about half full. By her reckoning, she had about fifty five in the bag now. ...wait. Had she locked the door when she left? ...eh, didn’t matter. Her siblings were grown adults, they could take care of themselves.

[color=f989f2][b]“Stupid money.”[/b][/color] She grumbled as she threw her legs over the bicycle and adjusted her headphones, before she began pedaling. It was breakfast time at the house by now, and besides, she’d made the important stop of the day, and had collected a few of her money makers along the way. While the trash bag hung off of one of her handlebars, the document that needed the signature of an adult was in her backpack. Once she convinced Demi or Robin — both of whom were adults! — to sign the paper, she could be a paper girl. That [i]certainly[/i] paid better than this whole ‘collecting cans’ thing. Even if she had the piece of paper to deliver papers (ha), she needed to make sure she worked on plan b: collect a bunch of soda cans. There was the chance that Demi refused, and it was hard to talk to Robin for long periods of time; he was stinky.

Why couldn’t more people in the neighborhood need babysitting? That was an easy way to make a bunch of money. But noooo, the only one was Ana, and she had a full time nanny or whatever. Meg just wanted her money! She was willing to trade her time, for money! Didn’t adults like that?

If her father was around, she could have asked him or Demi for some money, a little bit at a time, until she’d met her goal. But her father was gone. The adults suspected he’d been kidnapped, but that made no sense to her. If someone asked her (no one ever did), her father had just abandoned them. It was that easy. There was no need for the whole search, or the detective, or any of that crap. Dad just abandoned them.

He had a pilot’s license, by now he could have been in Siberia and they’d never know the difference. 

She didn’t understand why that was so hard for people to accept. He took the baby and ran, because mom’s death drove him crazy. Made sense to her.

Megara abandoned her bicycle and the trashbag in the front yard, near the sedan she recognized as her sister’s, and approached the door. With her housekey pulled out, Megara reached for the doorknob… and found it left open, unlocked and inviting to intruders. Tut-tut. [color=f989f2][b]“ABIGAIL! YOU LEFT THE DOOR UNLOCKED!”[/b][/color] she yelled, kicking her shoes off as she wandered through the walls and toward the kitchen. [color=f989f2][b]“Demi! Are you awake!? I need you to sign this paper!”[/b][/color][/indent][/indent]