The Guest House

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Estel was an artist, everyone knew it. She always carried around her sketchbook and she hid pencils everywhere, so when inspiration came, she didn't have to search for one. She was always drawing, even during her lessons! Maybe that's why she was failing...

Well, it's not like studying finance was her choice anyways, it was her mother's. "Study finance", she said "and you finance be good." She was always so sure of herself, Estel couldn't dare to go against her will. Her mom had chosen everything in her life: her name (obviously), the school she went to, her first job, her friends and even her first boyfriend!

Estel thought it would all be over once she left for college, but well, some things don't change. For instance, she did not really leave for college. She continued to live at home. Even though Willow University was an hour long train ride from home and the train ticket was a bit expensive.

"Mama! How do you want my "finance to be good", if I need to pay a shit ton of money for the train everyday!" Her mom put her apron on the hook next to the door and sighed. Before saying with her pronounced spanish accent:

"You finance good, because you don't have to cook, mami pay the rent, the school and the food here. Here is better. You can't live without food mami makes."

"I can cook mami, you just say that because you want me to stay here. You want to control me a bit longer. You're scared." I replied. My little brother looked at me from across the table with a surprised expression.

"Estel, I do everything for you, everything, what do you want more?" She said gravely.

"Freedom"

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"The contract ends in two weeks, you have to move out by then.", said the landlord before hanging up.Claudia sighed.

The rent for her apartment had gone up and Claudia couldn't afford it anymore. She had thought about taking another part-time job, but it just didn't fit into her schedule. She put on her leather jacket and decided to walk to the comic book store she worked at. Normally, she'd take her motorcycle, but it was not that far and she nedexed the exercise to to think of a solution.

At each bus stop, there was a section of the wall where people would put ads. With a bit of luck, there would be something about a place to stay.

Her job was near Willow University and the nearer she got, teh more people her age she would see. She always felt so envious of them. They got to go to University, most of them probably came from good families, they didn't have to worry about having three part-time jobs andn paying the rent and the groceries.

Claudia was an orphan. The only thing she knew about her parents was that after she was born, they left her the apartment they lived in and left her behind in a small basket with paper,on which was written her name. A neighbour tired of hearing the crying baby got the landlord and when they entered, the baby was on the verge of dying. The landlord decided to take her in with his wife, but when Claudia started elementary school, the wife, tired of taking care of her, decided that child services could take over her education

Claudia stopped walking. There it was, the ad she was hoping to find. It was an ad about working in a guest house, accommodation provided. She'd be living with someone else and take care together of the tasks. Basically, Claudia thought, I'd be paid to live there and do tasks I usually do, like cleaning the bathroom. Claudia took a picture of the ad for future references and added a reminder to call the number written on the ad later.