The Next Day...

Sujay, Padgen, and Amina stand in front of Adelaide in the foyer, with backpacks on.

Adelaide
Where's Tamara, any of you guys know?

Amina
Said she's at Saanvi's.

Padgen
She didn't wanna be aro-

Sujay elbows Padgen.

Adelaide
That's alright, she's already got a job. Everyone got their resumés? Mister Khalid, Little Miss Thompson, Little Miss Radigan?

Sujay
Yes, ma'am.

Padgen
Yes, ma'am. Still a boy-

Amina
Yes, mom.

Adelaide
Good. Now go!

Downtown, Lodubai.

Padgen walks behind Amina and Sujay, as the couple holds hands. They make their way out of the suburbs, and into the city centre. Padgen looks around for 'Now Hiring' signs, and before she can blink, Amina's taking off.

Amina
I call the Smackers! I love their burgers.

Sujay
I'm gonna check out that strip mall with the laundromat. Why don't you look in the big mall, Padgen? It's probably the safest place for someone your age to work, and there's more stores inside there that need the help.

Padgen
Yeah, and there's no streets to cross to get lunch.

Amina
What, are you like, twelve or somethin'?

Padgen
Fourteen. Third time I've said that.

Amina
Okaaay! Got it. Wasn't there for the first two.

Padgen
Weren't you?

Amina
Doesn't matter. Let's go, we ain't got time. Lots of kids want jobs in summer.

Sujay
We'll meet up in the cafeteria, in an hour or so.

Padgen
Wait, aren't you already working at your dad's restaurant?

Sujay
The restaurant's been closed all year, actually. I was talking about what I did growing up, but more recently, I've just been doing chores. I can get that done in one day, every two weeks. Nobody's even home, anymore.

Padgen
Oh, okay. Huh. Good luck, then.

Sujay
You too!

Padgen nods as they all part ways, and walks to the bigger mall.

Ghodarassi Centre

Inside the mall, Padgen wanders around. It's a nice place, if not a little standard. Nothing about it sticks out next to any other mall. There are horses and ropes, painted along the walls. The people here wear an odd mix of loose-fitting cloth and stitched leather, but that's nothing new. Cowboy hats over turbans and cloth-khakis with spurred boots are as common a sight here as the clouds themselves. Aside from that, there's flags all over: Indian, American, and British-Indian. A good number of the people here are Raj.

Teenage Girl #1
They still use British Raj flags here? Isn't that, like, colonialism?

Teenage Girl #2
Nah, they're uh... reclaiming it, I think. It's for people of mixed descent, British and Indian.

Padgen
(To himself.) (Hampton's Raj, isn't he? So's Georgie.)

Padgen listens in, but they catch him eavesdropping and walk away. The first place Padgen checks is the Retro Games store, after she spies an original copy of Gotchimon: Geode Edition. The very first game in the series.

Padgen
How much is this?

Clerk #1
That one's a fake, don't bother. It's just for display.

Padgen
Oh, that's okay. I'm just here to apply for a job, anyway.

Clerk #1
Your resumé is not the kind of paper we're looking for.

Padgen
I thought everyone stopped using paper money.

Clerk #1
Paper resumés, too. You gotta apply online, and our location isn't hiring. You wanna bus to Chicago every day?

Padgen
N-no. Not really.

He goes next door to the hobby shop, where little kids are checking out toys and board games. He thinks back to the first grade...

Four Years Ago...

A ten-year-old Padgen cracks open a thick-paged picture book, to read aloud to a group of rowdy kindergarteners. They're fighting, pulling hair, and chewing on plastic blocks.

Child #1
STOP PULLING MY HAIR!!

Child #2
I'M EATING ALL OF THE LEGOS.

Child #3
YOU CAN'T EAT A LEGO! HAHAHA.

CHILD #4
I'M TELLING!!

Present Day...

Padgen looks around, and sees that the kids are older than that. Eight years old at least, moving figurines on a board, reading from folding menu-binders with printed-off chance-effect sheets inside.

Padgen
((These guys look a lot easier to deal with than those kindergarteners were. I could do this. Might even be fun.))

The second she opens her backpack, the clerk stops her.

Clerk #2
Sorry kid, you're too young to work here. Too many thefts in the past. Feel free to browse, though.

Padgen
Dang.

Clerk #3
Yeah, you're practically a kid yourself, so it's a bad look for us to hire you. Sorry.

Padgen
I'm fourteen.

Clerk #2
And you look twelve.

Clerk #3
Don't tell anyone, but you can have this stuffed dog. It's a defect.

The clerk hands him a small stuffed dog, with incredibly sad eyes.

Padgen
Uh... okay? Why are you giving me this?

Clerk #3
Because you look just as lost.

Padgen checks the collar.

Padgen
(Squinting.) 'Sad-Boof'...

Clerk #3
Now, skedaddle! I don't want the other kids to think I'm just giving stuff away.

Padgen stuffs the dog in his bag, and keeps trying. He walks into the bookstore across the way, and the cashier sneers.

Clerk #4
You think you can do my job? Get out.

Padgen
I could scan books-

Clerk #4
I said, get out.

Padgen
Aren't you supposed to be nicer about this?

Clerk #4
Wasn't in the job description. And we're all online, anyway. Now get.

As Padgen visits store after store, it's all the same story. Online applications, age restrictions, and rude clerks.

Padgen
((If I had a SIN number I could apply online... but Emiliano never applied for me to get one. Wait... then how was I expecting to get paid?))

Padgen stands in place, feeling helpless.

One Hour Later...

Padgen meets with Sujay and Amina in the cafeteria, as planned. Sujay's got a Smackers chicken sandwich, and fries that Amina has claimed. Padgen sits down with air-baked fries and diet root beer.

Sujay
How'd it go?

Amina
I'm a fry-cook now.

Padgen
I got a Sad-Boof.

Amina
A what?

Padgen takes out the stuffed dog, and sets it on the table.

Sujay
Cool!

Amina
Oh, wow. I don't like him.

Padgen
(Growling.) "Sad-boof no like you either."

Amina punches the stuffed dog off the table, sending it flying.

Padgen
Hey!

Amina
Now I REALLY don't like him.

Padgen goes to pick up the stuffed dog.

Sujay
Well, I'm a cashier at the dollar store now.

Amina
That sounds like it suuuuucks.

Sujay
It's quiet there. I don't mind it.

Padgen comes back with the dogclops.

Padgen
Nobody wanted my resumé. They think I'm a kid, or a thief. Like I jumped out of a toy dart-gun commercial to hold them at foampoint.

Amina
I know somewhere you can work. Do you like balls?

Sujay chokes on his food a little.

Padgen
(Laughing.) That's definitely a question.

Amina
Basketballs. Sports.

Padgen
Yeah, actually. I'm bad at the game, but it's fun.

Amina
You won't be playing, you'll be cleaning.

Sujay
You also won't get paid, they already have a custodian. Amina's talking about being a volunteer.

Padgen
I can volunteer.

Amina
(Grinning.) You ready to handle some balls?

Padgen
(Laughing.) I'm ready to handle some balls.

Sujay
(Laughing, too.) Okay, you can both stop talking.