"How were school and work, Senna?" Scarlet asked innocently. Her tiny hands tightly squeezed the edge of my jeans, desperately trying to capture my full attention.
I smiled at her childish pronunciation of my name. It might not be correct, but it was nevertheless adorable. I crouched down to her level and embraced her with a big hug. She squeaked in response and begged to be picked up. Smiling, I complied, picked her up, and spun her around.
"Whee!" She giggled and I joined in with her infectious laughter, sharing her joy. Scarlet was my emotional anchor, and to her, I was the irreplaceable big sister. We needed each other to survive in this miserable, cruel world.
As I stopped spinning and gently put her down on the ground, I sighed in a shortness of breath. Scarlet was definitely getting heavier by the day, and my daily spin sessions have begun to become more strength intensive through time. Scarlet was a growing girl after all, and I intended to provide her with the best experiences growing up so she wouldn't have to end up struggling to make ends meet.
"When is Margaret coming to pick you up for dinner?" I asked Scarlet. Margaret was our floor maid and took care of cleaning and daily maintenance on this floor. She took a liking to babysitting Scarlet when I wasn't around, and I eventually trusted her to take care of Scarlet. Today she would do it during dinner time while I got ready for my third job later on in the night.
"In two hours, but I prefer eating with you too, Senna!" Scarlet pouted, and gave me the puppy eyes, pleading me to give in to her demands.
"I told you, I have school and three jobs now so I won't be home as early as last year. Plus, I'm starting my new job today, which pays a lot more than the other two, so I can finally get you something nice this Christmas," I explained and patted Scarlet's head.
"Okay Senna," she said sadly and slowly walked away to finish her homework in the corner. I sighed, thinking that a six-year-old shouldn't carry such heavy burdens and it was all my fault.
Sighing deeply again, I asked, "Saturday lunch with you, Margaret, and I. You get to pick where we are going, okay?"
Scarlet's smile brightened up once again and nodded enthusiastically to my invitation. I stood up, grabbed my student identification card, and gave her a hug.
"I have to grab something to eat before my new job, you will be okay alone, right?" I asked.
"Mhm! I will get Margaret if I need help with homework!" Scarlet replied.
"Good girl," I smiled, patted her head again, and waved goodbye to her.
I descended down the floors from our twelfth-floor apartment using the dorm elevator, which wasn't too busy as it was still around 5 PM. I was supposed to clock in my new job from 6 PM to 10 PM so I still had an hour to myself for some dinner.
As I entered the grand cafeteria on the second floor, I immediately inhaled the delicious scent of fresh gourmet food. My stomach growled in response and I blushed to myself, hoping no one else noticed. I quickly approached one of the cafeteria ladies near the ordering station and passed my student identification card to her.
"Afternoon, could I please get today's special?" I asked politely while smiling at her. There were daily specials that were different almost every day. Meals were rarely repeated here unless weeks had passed. Today's special was burritos.
"Of course, which ingredients do you want in our burrito?" The cafeteria lady replied.
"Brown rice, spicy pork, black beans, corn, cilantro, some jalapeño, tomato, lettuce, medium sauce, and chipotle sauce please," I ordered.
"Do you want guacamole also? No extra charges," She winked. I smiled and nodded. One of the only good things about this place was that the food in the cafeteria was always free and even included after-hour delivery services.
As she finished assembling my burrito and heated it up, she swiped my card in the cashier machine and my order was recorded in the school's cafeteria records. She handed the card back to me, along with my burrito, and bade me farewell. I thanked her, left to sit at an empty table, and began to quickly devour my burrito. I hadn't eaten much since breakfast and I needed the extra energy for my work later.
"Yum," I quietly said to myself as I took bites of my delicious dinner. As I was eating I began to observe my surroundings. There weren't very many students in the cafeteria as it wasn't prime dinner time. Some students were chatting near the couches, others silently working on their computers, finishing assignments.
From what Margaret has told me, the richer students didn't seem to like eating in the cafeteria. Most of their food was personally catered and sent directly to their rooms with extra charges due to extra specifications at such short notice and the manpower required to bring it upstairs to serve them. But that didn't seem to bother the rich, not at all.
As I finished my burrito, I found myself growing tired. I immediately shook my head to get rid of the fatigue. Realizing it was already 5:50 PM, I proceeded to take the elevator downstairs to the basement level for my new job.
My new position was actually the new janitor for the upper four floors in the dormitory. As soon as the elevator door opened to floor B2, I walked into a busy place, with a bunch of workers and maids busily preparing towels, and laundry. I rushed past the swarm of busy workers and made my way to the janitor's area. It was tucked insignificantly into the far-right corner of the floor - I almost missed it. I hesitantly knocked on the manager's door, hoping I wasn't interrupting something important.
"Come in," a voice said from within. I obeyed the command and opened the door slowly to see a middle-aged man sitting next to an office desk. He was buried by cleaning utensils and his demeanor was a little too shaggy. He was wearing typical janitor clothing with lots of mysterious stains I'd rather not know about. He looked up, smiled at me, and introduced himself, "I'm Robert, you can refer to me as Rob if you like. You must be the scholarship student."
Ahh... So, they knew.
"Sienna, nice to meet you, Rob," I said, "where do I start?"
"You sound eager to learn!" Rob said excitedly and stood up, "I need your student card first to give you access to the top four floors," he gestured me to come near him and to hand him my identification card. Obediently I passed my card to him as instructed, and watched as he swiped my card and entered some code into the computer on his desk. A few seconds later a beep came from within the computer and he excitedly said, "Complete!"
"So, what do I do?" I asked.
"Grab some cleaning utensils and clean some toilets on the top four floors. You get off at 10 PM and be careful to not disturb the residents," Rob said and patted me on the back. He thrusts some cleaning supplies into my arms and patted my back to send me on my way. I flinched as a natural reflex; I didn't like casual physical contact with anyone other than close friends and family.
I was rushed out of the office with a pair of rubber gloves, toilet scrubber, generic scrubber, all-purpose cleaner, some bleach, and a janitor jumpsuit.
After I equipped myself with the jumpsuit and some rubber gloves, I proceeded into the elevator heading up to floor 30, the lowest of the four floors I was assigned. Previously Margaret has told me in order to access the top 10 floors, you had to have been granted special access. I figured that was what Rob was doing on the computer, so I decided to give it a try. Normally if you had pressed floor 30, the elevator wouldn't budge. I pressed the 30 buttons and waited, but nothing happened. Cautiously I swiped my student card on the side of the panel and tried again - and the elevator rapidly ascended.
"Time to scrub some toilets," I muttered, trying to convince myself it would be fun. I definitely wasn't having it, and I sighed deeply at the thought of cleaning fecal debris.
It was a tough life... I was a poor girl in a rich, rich world.