The Online Job - Chapter 2

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Waking up with sun splashing all around Nathan’s room, he jumped out of bed and took a quick shower then grabbed a bowl of cereal with a banana. His mom was just coming into the kitchen as Nathan was finishing his cereal and he told her that he had to get to school and hurried out of the house. This was one of the best times of year in southern Florida as it wasn’t hot, muggy, or raining all the time. Nathan’s house was only 7 blocks from the high school and he usually walked to school as his mom left around mid-morning for work, and came home later than most moms that worked.

Walking onto the school ground he spied Steve and hurried up to catch up to him saying excitedly, “Hey Steve wait until you check this out.” He pulled out his phone and brought up his email account and showed him his balance. Steve looked at it not really knowing what he was looking at asking, “What is that, did you get a gift card?” Nathan explained, “No man, this is my new job. I get paid to read stories and answer questions after each one. I earned $50 yesterday, and I’m going to do more today. You want to get into this?”

Steve then commented that it wasn’t $50. Nathan explained that he had to check it out so after the first one he went to Harold’s Drug to try it out and make sure it wasn’t a scam. “I bought a soft drink and a magazine then I went home and read another story and answered some more questions and got paid again. The first time they paid me $20 and the second time I got $30. At this pace, I’ll have First Encounter by this weekend. Steve stopped and looked at his friend realizing that he would be able to do the same thing. “Hey man, I want that site, you think you could text it to me?” Nathan told him he could. He stopped and pulled up the URL for the site and texted it to his friend.

The school doors were just opening and the throng that had gathered on the steps began to surge inside. The crowd flowed inside and thinned out as the students found their way to their classes, lockers, and into other hallways. When the two arrived at their lockers they stopped. Steve held out the phone and opened up his text and tapped his way to the site. Seeing the site displayed on his browser bookmarked it and then closed the browser.

Nathan told about 20 other boys, and soon everyone was going to get into this. Nathan warned each one that the stories were very weird, but the pay was good, and the best part is that you got paid then and there. Nathan was soon becoming very popular which for being someone that most of the popular guys usually wouldn’t have anything to do with. The popular guys were those that played sports and exhibited the qualities that were most desired by most of the teachers and adults. That was except when it was time for finals, and then Nathan and most of his friends rose from the depths of disposable teens.

Right after lunch Tara Morgan and a couple of the other cheerleaders actually wanted to talk to him. There was small talk for a few minutes, and then their true purpose floated to the surface. “Oh hey, I heard that you knew how you could make money online by reading stories and then answering some questions. You think you could give me the address so that I can get into the action?” Nathan then realized what their fallacious purpose was, so he gave it to her. She probably thought that she was doing him a favor talking to him. True to form just as soon as she got it, she was gone. He should have known that she wasn’t talking to him because she wanted to talk to him.

Steve was standing next to him and commented, “See the ungrateful airhead didn’t even say thank you, next the football team would want to know what the site's URL was.” Nathan realized that would be next. He offered that he should find Dennis Hartman, the quarterback of the team, and give him the site's URL. Steve looked at his friend and asked if he had lost his mind. Nathan then lined up the ducks for him. “If I tell him then he won’t want to do it because I offered. Then when he says no and he finds out that he should have said yes, he will have only himself to blame, and you know he can’t admit that he was wrong. He left Steve and found Dennis and as he and his crowd of brain-dead neanderthals were trying to find their way to the world history finals Nathan made his pitch, and true to form the muscled bound knuckle-dragging hunchback laughed at him and told him to get out of the hallway before he did the world a favor and stepped on him like a slug. Nathan apologized for offering and quickly backed away. Turning, a smile broke onto his face. Some people were so easy to control. He knew that 10 years from now Hartman’s Plumbing would be Hartman’s and Sons Plumbing and he would be cleaning shit out of pipes.

Getting home he let himself in and grabbed a sandwich and headed to his room and sat down turning the monitor on, and loading the site. The next story that came up had 4 chapters and was titled, “Becoming My Sister.” It was about a boy who’s twin was his sister and she was killed in a car accident. He would go into his sister's room and touch her things, and then he finally began to try on her clothes. He had her clothes on and his mother caught him and he told her that he wanted to become her since he loved her so much. His mother allowed it but they didn’t tell his father, until one day when he came home from a business trip and after a confrontation, he finally went along with the charade.

It was a sad story with a happy ending and a happy payout of $60. He now had enough for the Galactic Wars: First Encounter game. But the next story had already loaded and this one was about a student that went with his family to live in Japan. He finished this one and then had $20 on top of what he had just earned. At the bottom was the familiar, “All done for today, come back tomorrow.

Tomorrow was Thursday and he was debating whether he should go by the store tomorrow after school and pick up the game as he headed to the kitchen. If he picked up the game tomorrow he could play some on Thursday and Friday, before Saturday. He saw his mom had gotten home and as he walked into the kitchen he offered, “Hi mom, you need some help with dinner.”

Once again he had caught his mother off guard. She turned back to the chicken breasts that she was seasoning thinking to herself, “Aliens, that must be the reason. Aliens must have kidnapped her son and left one in his place.” Rubbing the seasoning into the white meat she answered, “No hon, I’ve got it all under control.”

Nathan sat down at the table just watching his mom first put the breasts into the skillet and listened to the meat sizzling asking, “Hey aren’t you going to burn those?” His mom turned to wipe her hands with a wet towel and responded that she wasn’t going to leave them in there long enough to burn and in a minute she would turn them over on the other side. She picked up a glass of water with ice in it asking, “So how was school today?”

Replying that school was fine and then adding that he talked to the cavemen football thugs, and then adding just as quickly that Tara Morgan walked up and talked to him.

“Oh, what did she talk to you about?” As she asked that she thought about Tara Morgan, she knew the Morgans as did most people that had a student in the school. The Morgans were that kind of family that was out for all that they could get. They had actually proposed that the school district pay over twice as much for luxury school buses for certain students so that they wouldn’t have to ride in the usual school buses. Just as quickly she thought it was a blessing that they lived so close to the school.

Nathan breezed over her question with, “Oh she just wanted to know something about the internet.” Without hardly taking a breath continued, “What are you going to wear on Saturday when you go into Coral Beach?” She replied that she hadn’t thought too much about it. Nathan then commented that she should wear some slacks and a pullover top. That way if you find a piece that you like you could load it easier, and since your top wouldn’t have buttons there would be less chance to get one of them snagged on the furniture.

Sitting back and thinking she realized that he was right. Then it occurred to her that her teenage son was giving her advice about her wardrobe. Thinking in the past couple of days he had changed. What caused the change? Maybe he was just becoming more observant of ordinary things like when he pointed out that people weren’t really aware of what was happening in their communities, because they were more interested in their everyday lives. This happened when he was 10, and it was such a profound realization for a boy of such a young age.

After dinner, Nathan went back to his room and didn’t sit down at his computer but picked up the Adorable Teen Girl magazine he had bought and began to flip through it. He came across an article about teen hairstyles and was engrossed to realize that it wasn’t all just about cut. There was the color, straight or curly, the length, and coordinating the shape to the shape of your face. As he was reading he thought about which would be better for him and how he would look with this cut or that cut.

Taking the magazine with him he went into his bathroom and looking in the mirror tried to move his hair around to get some idea of what he would look like with this cut or that. His hair was very thick and kind of curly. He liked it being longer so that it would hang down on the sides. If he cut it short it kind of stuck out on the sides. The article spoke of getting it permed to create waves or curls. He had curls and would like waves, and if you get it professionally done there was little chance of hair damage.

Determining that his face was a little on the long side maybe something that framed his face and stuck out a little on the sides. Going back into his room he grabbed a sheet of black construction paper and cutting a strip off one side about 4 inches wide went back into the bathroom. Placing it on his forehead just above his eyebrows he was amazed at how it made his face look. Deciding that he liked the look of bangs, but not thinking anymore about it began to get ready for bed.

Before he climbed into bed he checked his email. There was one from Steve and he had just completed both of his stories and had been paid the $50. Then there was one from Urban Inc. congratulating him on his participation and suggested he sleep with background music which also had the sound effects of rain falling and gave him a link. He clicked on the link and switching from his headphones to the speaker he heard the soft music with the sound of rain falling in the background. He adjusted it and turned off his monitor. Climbing into his bed he closed his eyes and drifted off into a magical musical land of sleep with the sounds of light rain falling.