Jason had been working at the school for months now, trying to earn some money. His mother had recently lost her job, and his allowance had halted to a stop. He had no other means to make money, so working at the school it was.
He went to school at Brixton High, and because it was a small town, everyone knew everyone, a few of his classmates knew that he was poor and had to work at the school.
The other boys liked to punish him, especially the members of the football team. One day, they had walked in on him cleaning the locker room and picking up after them, and since then, they had made his life a living hell.
“Yo Jason,” they would yell at lunchtime, “eat up, so you have enough energy for later.” Some would make the cleaning gestures, and although it flustered him and made him really uncomfortable, he would not react.
Sometimes the quarterback himself made his life a living hell. Among his responsibilities were to clean the lockers, sweep and mop the hallways, clean up the lunch area and the locker rooms.
On occasion, he would also be sent to clean the gym too, for some extra money, and since he really needed the money, he would happily accept, texting his mother that he would be late.
He was not a part of the football team, so he did not know their schedule, but he could usually tell from the way they came into the locker rooms and their conversations during the day.
Because they knew it was his job, the quarterback, Russ, would ensure that the lockers were dirty. He would play pranks on his teammates with sand and glitter, and even after Jason had tried to talk to him about it, he would continue.
“I don't owe you anything, poor boy,” he would say, and then it would usually be followed by Russ intentionally spreading some dirt on the lockers, or ‘accidentally’ spilling something on the floor.
Russ would also push him around on the lunch queue, and when food would spill, he would say, “better pick that up. Or are you saving it for clean-up later?”
It would sting, but he would not be able to retort, because Russ was right; he was poor, and he did clean the school for some cash. It wouldn't hurt to not be reminded of it though.
It was on one of those days that he made a startling discovery.
The gym was hosting the cheerleaders, so football practice was going on in the fields outside. While he waited, he had a snack and did his homework.Just as he finished, he went into the boys' locker room and saw that the boys had been there. They were done with practice, and since it was the weekend, they would not be back till perhaps, Monday.
That calmed Jason down, knowing that they would soon be gone, so he made the least noise possible, waiting so that they would be halfway gone before he started to clean.
Russ and his friends were among the last to leave, and right before they left, they threw a stinking mass at him. Because he was not prepared for the hit, he fell to the ground, and they pasted dollar bills on his head.
Crouching, Russ said, “Hey loser, you're looking for some extra cash, right? Pick these off your face and wash them up for us, okay? Be a good boy.”
After delivering that line, he got up, and laughing, they left the locker room, and he pushed off the dirty ball and picked up the dollar bills.
He was gagging from the smell, but he knew that if he retched on the locker room floor, it would be his job to clean it up. Whatever they had thrown in his face STANK!
He pushed off the bundle from his face, and saw that in total, they had left him $50 on his forehead, and while he knew he should be insulted, he was thankful for the morning.
As for the pile of clothes, he scrunched up his nose while he picked them off the floor, and he untangled them from each other. When he had managed to split them apart, he lifted one up to his nose and realized that it was a pair of their dirty socks.
Looking through the rest of the pile, he realized they were the exact same thing, and the entire ball that had been lobbed at his face was just a bunch of their dirty socks.
No wonder it stank so much, he thought, putting them into the washer that was in the locker room.
Over the next hour, he did his job, picking up the dirty things of the football players. He put their shoes into the shelves, closed their lockers, opened up their sportswear to air out and groaned as he did so.
“Why would you even bring your dirty clothes from other places to the locker room?! God!” he complained, picking up a pair of jeans. They looked like they were streaked with mud, and they also smelled of pee.
He added them to the pile of dirty clothes that he was due to wash and went ahead to put them in. Admiring his progress, he began to whistle a song, and then he went ahead to clean the girls' locker room.
The cheerleaders had left some time ago, and although it was messy, it was not too messy. He did the minor cleaning and out their clothes into the dryer for them, that way, when they came on Monday, they would have dry, fresh clothes.
He remembered that he was still washing some clothes in the boys' locker room, so he went in there to take them out and into the washer. He had already cleaned up everywhere else, the lockers and hallways, and it was pretty late.
That was why he did not expect to hear or see anyone else, but boy, was he in for a surprise. He heard the noise of something falling to the floor, and startled, he looked in the direction that it had come from.
It was the bathroom in the locker room, and confused, he made his way there, the pile of clothes in his hand. He had been too shocked to put them into the washer, so now he held onto them, a broom in his hand.
As he got closer, he heard the sounds of a woman's moans, and he wondered what woman would come into the locker room that smelled so bad to have sex.
The sound seemed familiar the closer he got, and he wondered why, holding onto the stick in his hand even harder. He could not tell if the sounds were from pleasure or pain, but he wanted to know.
If it was pleasure, he could leave the couple alone, but if she was in pain, he could rescue her from whatever was wrong. He hoped he could fight off whoever was there and he was not just interrupting a couple's fun time.
Gripping onto the handle of the bathroom, he pulled it open and his jaw dropped open.In the arms of one of the football players was his girlfriend, Macy. Macy had been his girlfriend for a few months and he really liked her. She was one of the prettiest girls in the school, and when she had agreed to be his girlfriend, he had been so proud. Snapping back to reality, he looked at her again and realized she was there with one of the football players. Confused, he asked her, “Macy? What the fuck? What are you doing here?” The football player was not pleased with this line of speech, and he turned to Macy to look at her, “you know this dude?”“Yeah, he's the boyfriend I was telling you about.” Nodding in understanding, the guy left the couple with each other. “Deal with your issues, ” he said, smiling, “ and call me later.”“Of course, ” Macy called, watching him as he left. When he was gone, she turned to Jason. “Why are you here, Jason?”“What do you mean by that? You were with that football player. We're together! You were cheating on me!” “No, answer my question
Afraid to be hit again, Jason stayed sprawled on the floor for quite some time. He could not believe his luck. Not only was the girl that he loved dating him for pity, but he had been mocked just because he was poor.His father worked far away and had never been able to send too much money home, and he felt it would be selfish to even ask him for money, since he was working so hard. Now look where that had gotten him. He sat up and pulled his shirt down, covering the stupid inscription that had been written on his back. He felt his anger rise again. If only he could become rich overnight, maybe he could get another job asides this one? Just as soon as he had adopted that train of thought, he brushed it away too. He was not going to get any other job. He had looked at every other option before finally landing on this one, so where would he go? He considered everything as his shoulders began to shake.Why was he so helpless? Why did he have to b so poor? It made no sense to him at al
He walked down the stairs and headed towards the kitchen for some breakfast. His mother was still asleep because it was the weekend, so he poured out some cereal into a bowl, grabbing the last of the milk in the kitchen. As he settled down to eat, he heard the doorbell ring, and he set down his spoon into the bowl of cereal, milk splashing down the sides of the full bowl. Just great.In his excitement to open the door, leftover tremors from his newfound wealth had made him drop the spoon too fast, and now not only would he have soggy cereal, he had a mess to clean up.He walked over to the door and yanked down the handle, expecting to see someone. Instead, he noticed that the bill of the mailbox was lowered, signifying that they had new mail.His mother was on top of the bills, luckily for them, but curiosity got the better of him, and he went over to the mailbox, pulling out a small box that rattled whenever he shook it. Back inside the house, he took a seat at the island again and
In the first shop he saw, he looked through the windows and saw that they sold dresses. He had no idea what size of dress that Ashley wore, so he couldn't get her a dress. He moved forward and saw that it was mostly dresses being sold in that part of town. He finally decided to step into one for lack of a better idea. Immediately he walked in, he expected a salesperson to come to his attention.Yet, nothing of the sort happened. Quickly, he stepped out, overwhelmed. He had noticed that there was a small number of people in the store from the window, but he hadn't thought much of it and had carelessly walked in.He kept walking until he saw a store that sold women's purses. Purses were safe, right? If he got her a purse, she could use it, and it meant that he didn't have to worry about sizing. He walked into the shop and was immediately ambushed by a salesperson. It seemed like it was a slow business day, and she was excited to have a customer until she looked at him from top till bo
With the sound of the falling bracelet, all of them turned over to look at him, and he quickly bent down to the floor to pick it up. He had hoped that the sound had gone unnoticed in the store, but he knew it was wishful thinking.When he got back up and raised his head back up, he saw that everyone was looking at him, the salesperson, Macy, and the footballer. When they saw him, the young couple started laughing, and he felt color rush into his cheeks.They walked over to him, her hand wrapped in his and poked at his cheek. “Jason? Come on now. You're too poor for this place, what are you looking for? ” The footballer went to stand behind him, and grabbed him by the arm. “Come on, get out. We don't want you stealing anything, do we?” he asked, getting a chorus of no from the women.“I have just as much of a right to be here as you!” he heard himself saying. And it was true. These people didn't know what funds he had, yet they had the gall to treat him like a common thief. He had sta
Macy remained standing in place, her minded wide open and gaping. He would be worried about her, but even in his kindness, he remembered that she was the ex that had broken his heart so brutally a few days before.“You were going to show me your jewelry, right?” he asked the salesgirl, raising a brow. She had gone ahead of him, and was already showing him different things she thought he would like.“Do you like diamonds? Precious stones? I'm sure we could find something special in store for you. Do you have a budget?”At a loss for words, he merely shrugged, choosing to keep browsing. He felt an intense gaze on his skin, and he turned around to find that it was only Macy.Her eyes had softened in a way that they had never softened before, and her eyes had gotten dewy. He felt like she was eyeing him like he was a piece of meat, which made him uncomfortable.“Baby!” she suddenly shrieked, and he looked over to the football player, who was also standing there, expectant. Instead, she w
The manager came back out with the salesgirl, and Jason was overjoyed at the sight of someone else beside the three people in the store. All three of them seemed to have some vendetta against him. She was a lovely looking woman, with short brown hair, and she looked friendly enough.“It's him! That's the thief!”The manager didn't say a word and simply went to the table, picking up the hairpin. “Is this what he stole?”“Yes!”Stole? He had not stolen anything! Why was this happening to him? She set the hairpin down and noticed the other things on the table. She turned sharply to him with a sweat running down her face. “This ring. Is it yours? Oh dear God. I shouldn't have come in to work today.” Jason stood in place, wondering what was going on. He picked up his ring and slipped it on his index finger.“Look, I have already seen enough. I paid for that purse, so if I could just have the box and leave? That would be great. Thank you.He watched the manager blanche white at that sugg
When he got home, his mum seemed to be in a good mood, so he kissed her hello and asked how her day had gone.“Oh, it was okay. I got a call from your father and he seemed Inna dapper mood. I'm assuming he has told you? We're not poor?”“Yeah, he has,” he responded, smiling.“Well that's good, now we don't have to worry and you can quit that god awful job that you have.”“Yeah, that's a plus.”Suddenly remembering something, he tells his mother that he has a party to attend that night with his friends. “It's Ashley's birthday tomorrow, but the party is today. That's what the gift bag is for ”He gestured vaguely at the bag and told her more. “I am going to have to go there because it is the first time I've ever been invited to an event like this.”“Go ahead Jason,” she smiled. “Will you be fine for dinner or should I make you some?”“I'm alright. I have a few hours to kill before the party, should I tell you what happened at the shops?”“I would love that!” she exclaimed, and he told