Most girls would be jealous of Calliope Draycott. She seemingly has it all. The friends, the money, the boyfriend, and in a few years, if all goes to plan, she'll have the job too. So why doesn't she feel happy? It's after a disastrous family dinner...
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I've spent the past few days filling out what seems to be a never-ending pile of job applications. I've applied to everywhere from the McDonalds just down the road, to the local Council, to the insurance company a good half hour away.
I've applied for every single part-time job available that I would be somewhat good at. At least, good enough so that I don't get fired within the first week. I think I'm filling out applications in my sleep, because I wake up in the morning with emails about jobs I have no memory of applying to. Or maybe I'm just applying to too many.
When I've looked over those applications though, they don't seem too bad, so fingers crossed that one of the hundred or so I've filled out actually help me land a job.
I have my phone on loud all the time now, and it's a bit annoying but it's out of sheer desperation to ensure that I don't miss a call or email with information about an interview. I don't really expect to hear back from anywhere yet, it's still too early, but the closer it gets to rent day, I grow more paranoid about missing a call or email. I'm barely able to focus in lectures anymore because I'm too obsessed with checking my phone, which is exactly what Ma was worried about.
I hate it when she's right.
I'm sat in a lecture now, trying, but failing to take notes, and at the moment, I'm successfully resisting the urge to check my phone. I've gone ten minutes without checking it. It's quite the achievement.
Then it pings, and all the progress I've made by not obsessively checking my phone is thrown out the window. But I'm glad I've checked it and tuned my lecturer out as I read the words: We'd like to invite you to an interview.
It's for a cleaning job at one of the big law firms close to the university. Nothing glamorous, but the pay isn't too bad and the hours fit in well around the hours I already work at the bookshop.
Things are starting to look up, and I can see a light at the end of the dark tunnel I've found myself in, because if I get this job, it could be life changing. Yes, I'd be working a lot more, but I won't have to worry about money as much and neither will Ma, because I'll be able to help her out more.
Just having that worry and anxiety removed is enough to feel that all this will be worth it in the end.
Ma might even be able to start saving for the Christmas residential trip that Violet and Oscar have been wanting to go on, but never been able to. They wouldn't be able to go this year, but they could next year, if I manage to get this job, that is.
Relief washes over me as I continue reading the email and I see that the interview is scheduled for next Friday, a day where I'm not working at the bookshop for once, and that I don't have to reschedule it. That never looks good to a potential employer, and I need to make a great impression if I want to get this job.
I finish reading the email and make a note of the date, time and place of the interview in my planner and on the calendar app on my phone - I'd be lost without both of those things - and send a quick text to Josh to tell him the good news.
