Calore Dance Academy// Red Queen AU

Chapter 22

I hold my first paycheck in my hands a week later.

A fair-sized envelope was presented to me by Lucas after jazz last night, with a knock on my loft door and a kind smile.

For a moment, I stared at his outstretched hand and the paper between his fingers, before understanding what Lucas was offering me and snatching—not too eagerly—the envelope from him.

Then I realized the number penned on the check inside was irrelevant, since I didn't have a bank account, nor any method to acquire one by myself.

"I . . ." I haphazardly ripped open the envelope anyway, and I found my name, the signature of Tiberias Calore, and a sum of money so large that my eyes bugged. "I don't have a checking account."

Any normal person would argue for me to sign the back of the check and hand it over to my parents the next time I visited them, but Lucas did no such thing. Whether Maven had told a few people about my circumstances, or Lucas was perceptive enough to understand, he only tightened his smile.

"I'm sure I can something set up," he said and asked for an I.D. card. That was that.

This afternoon, he returned with a debit card and a set of directions to the bank he'd set me up at. I didn't ask how he'd managed to do it without either of my parent's consent, a birth certificate, a social security number, or even having me present. I stood at my door, bewildered, but took the card and my returned I.D., along with some documents.

With that, Lucas and I went our separate ways, Lucas back out into the world while I returned to my loft. And that was that.

The documents include a fresh copy of my birth certificate, I notice now as I flip through the pile of papers in between classes. The rest are from the new bank, just informational and nothing I have to read thoroughly or sign.

Between these and the debit card . . . everything I need to be a fine and proper adult.

It should terrify and unnerve me how Lucas was able to obtain a new birth certificate and an account at the bank for a minor he's not related to. The Calores had to be involved in it somehow, whatever weaseling Lucas went through today.

It's rather apparent their reaches extend far, if they held sway over the police department when Cal's motorcycle went missing. Plus, investments and finance, after all. Maybe they have a connection at the bank, or own the bank for that matter. Yet it doesn't explain the birth certificate . . .

None of it seems especially legal, but it's not hurting anyone. Without a bank account, this check would be no good; no good for me and no good for my parents when I send half of the money home. So I won't worry about the means by which Lucas did this. I won't think about it, as long as it benefits me and my family.

I hold up the check again, The cream paper glints in the evening light of my bedroom and reads over a thousand dollars. With all of this money, I'll not only compensate for my pickpocketing and pay for my weekly necessities, but I'll also start putting away money for myself.

For some sort of future.

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The dancers turn and turn and turn.

I myself feel dizzy while I watch them as they at last plunge down from their turns into a classic lunge, switch feet, and roll out of it.

Pop music that I've never heard and don't listen to filters into my ears from surround sound, almost loud enough to bother me. Given the years Julian's been doing this, I have to wonder how he hasn't gone deaf.