My feet stomp against the ground, the mud climbing higher up on my boots.

"You would think there would be more ATM's at a place like this," I mumbled to myself, hoping that I would have some better luck here soon. The further away from the ride my friends were one the more my palms started to sweat. I held my phone tightly in my hand, hoping that it would ground me to some sense of safety.

People were everywhere, groups of friends hiding away from their day to day lives, people eating food, sharing kisses, and holding hands. It was a maze just trying to get around everyone.

Soon the air began to stink, the barn animal, locked away in their pens, waiting for the next person to walk past and tell them how cute they were. The piglets squealed with joy as they fought to see who could feed off of their mother first.

Even pigs have better mothers than I do.

Finally, a bright blue box appears, and thank god the three letters I needed were above it. I could feel my pace quicken, my legs carrying me to the machine in hopes that I would still be able to pull out money for my friends and I.

We would really need to get jobs soon.

"Maple!" I heard a voice shout from the distance, I turned for just a moment, placing my card in the machine before turning to look for the voice. I couldn't tell who it was, but I'm sure it had to be someone from my friend group. There was no way anyone else would have been able to guess my name.

I mean, unless they were describing my hair color.

"There you are! We've been looking all over for you!" I felt a hand on my shoulder, jumping in my skin slightly. I turned to look at who it was. The most familiar face stares back at me, a smile wide, worry noticeable in his eyes.

"Staton, you found me," I couldn't help but smile with him, turning back to the machine. Pushing the commands until it wanted me to type in the amount I'd like to withdraw.

"How much do ATMs usually let you take out at a time?" I question, hoping someone would have the answer for me. We should have done this sooner. We should have been getting money daily, in hopes to build up a stockpile for when the time came.

"Like five hundred why?" Aria mutters, her hair a frazzled mess, I assume from the wind of the roller coaster.

I hand my phone to Staton, before typing in the amount and clicking enter. The machine whirrs for a moment before the screen pops up again asking for an amount.

"What!" I shook my head, not sure what this meant. Had she really already turned my cards off? "This can't be!" I quickly typed in five hundred one more time and hit enter. The machine begins to whir again before sending an error screen.

"Looks like she beat you to the punch," Staton mumbles, handing my phone back to me.

"What is going on here?" Julie interjects, the stuffed animal I had forgotten I was holding now in her hands.

"My mother shut off all of my cards," I couldn't help but kick at the ground, my hair falling in my face. Staton places his arms around my shoulders, pulling me closer into him.

"Seriously! Whose cards are we using next then?" Breygan questions, a small groan leaves his lips, his hands running through his hair. We were all stressed, this meant that things were about to get a bit harder for us.

"I'm not sure, I figured we would all figure this out when it happened, but now that we are finally here I"m not sure what to do. We should have been smarter, we should have been withdrawing money daily, and maybe that's what we do with the rest of your cards. We need to build up a stockpile if we are going to be able to pay rent for a while. Especially here in California, everything is so expensive." I folded my arms across my chest. Right now I just wanted to go back to our home.

"Well, let's head back and we can figure things out in the morning." Breygan answers, and it left the rest of the group stunned that he was the one wanting to go home first. Mr. Partier has finally realized how serious this situation was.

So that's what we did, without a question we left, heading towards the truck in silence.

~*~

"Do you think the ATM on this street has a higher limit than this one?" Aria asks, showing everyone a map on her phone. It was a week after the carnival, and one by one everyones cards seemed to be shutting off. For the last seven days we've been adamant about going out and getting money daily.

"That one usually gives me a hassle, I'd head over to this one. We can go together today and get the cash needed. I have one card left that's working and that's the same ATM I need." Breygan points to another location before kissing the top of her head.

All of my cards had been shut off. Staton only had the one and it was turned off two days ago. Julie didn't have any to start with, leaving Aria and Breygan left. I felt helpless not being able to add any money to the pile. All I could do was remind myself that I paid for us to get here and the security deposit on this place.

"This is the last day I will be able to get money," Aria mumbles, looking up from her phone in my direction. "I've maxed out all of my cards. My parents didn't really give me that high of a limit."

"Guys this is not the way to live, I'm pretty sure this is some form of fraud." Julia pipes up, shaking her head at the thought of all of us being criminals. She was right, as always.

"What do you want us to do?" I question, looking at the short black flowy dress she was wearing. She was working on painting her nails with a color she had picked up just a few days ago. I bit my tongue trying not to hash out another fight with her over the damn thing.

"I don't know, I just think it's time we get serious about getting jobs. All of us should go out job hunting. We need to find them, and we need them quickly. If every single one of us can land one then we will be able to pay for the rent easily." She shrugged her shoulders as if she had just come up with an idea we hadn't thought about yet.

"It's time guys, there's no more avoiding it. Your cards will be donzo today and that leaves us with Breygan's single card, and we don't know how much longer that will last. We have a little safety net to help us get by, but it looks like tomorrow is the day we need to all go out and actually become working members of society."

~*~

Later that night I was folding laundry and putting the clothes away that belonged to Staton and I. He came into the room, wiped out from the day and collapsed on the bed in the middle of the pile of clothes.

"Umm excuse me, I'm still working on that," I smile, pulling a shirt out from underneath him. He smiles, rolls over and hugs the pillow to his chest.

"This is nice," He looks at me like he's seen a ghost, his cheeks rosy, his lips slightly parted, and the hair on his head a mess from rolling around.

"What part of it?" I question, feeling every last nerve in my body snap from the tension that had been placed upon me today. I wasn't sure how to get a job, or what I was supposed to do to find a place to interview at.

"This, just being alone in this room with you, it feels like we have our own house and it's like we are married, living on our own. You're doing the laundry, I'm exhausted from dealing with the children, and working outside. It's nice don't you think?" My heart flutters in my chest as he pushes himself off the bed and begins working on the other half of the pile. We hadn't been here long so there wasn't a ton to do, but there was more than I wanted to take on by myself.

"It'll be even better when the kids aren't three fully grown psychos and it's our own house instead of some place we are renting for the time being, plus I don't think I would want to be in California." I smile, throwing a sock in his direction that matched one he had recently picked up.

"Your right, can we trade these kids in for some better ones?" Staton shrugs, holding up a shirt before laying it on the bed to fold it. "We are doing pretty good though, if you think about it, two weeks ago we left with no plan, nothing but a bag each that didn't really have much. Sure we went a little crazy and bought a lot of stuff when we first got here, but we needed that mentally. We've been through a lot in the last two weeks. But we are taking care of things and making it on our own. Even if on our own means with our three best friends. Tomorrow we will go and hopefully all five of us will get hired on the spot."

"That would be nice!" I chuckled, starting to work on the pants in the pile. My nerves were starting to build up. My palms started to get clammy at the thought of having to interview. I wished my parents would have given me more life skills. They fed me off of a silver spoon and I've never been able to get away from that.

The two of us continued to work on the pile for a few more minutes, listening to the laughter of our friends and they hung out in the pool that was in our backyard. This place was starting to feel like home, and the more it did the more the thought of getting kicked out of here, or not being able to pay for it scared me.

If we kept going like this with no jobs, we would be able to pay for this place for the next three months, but that meant we wouldn't be able to buy anything else, no food, no gas for the truck, nothing.

We would all have to get our own vehicles.

We would all have to figure out our own work shifts, and things we've never had to do before.

"Do you think we should find another car? Just a super cheap one that can get us from point A to point B?" I grabbed the last clothing item quickly, putting away the stacks that I had made. Staton seemed like he was pondering over what I had just said.

"I think if we take a little from the money pile to get a car for the rest of us, since Breygan isn't too adamant about sharing his truck and that damn thing could break down at any moment, that wouldn't be such a bad thing. Yeah it eats into our savings, but at least we would be able to go somewhere further than a twenty minute walk." He took a seat on the bed once more, leaning against the pillows.

"Do we tell the rest of them? Or do we just do it, I feel so bad asking for any of the money since I yelled at Julie the other day for buying nail polish."

"Yeah because that's nail polish and it's fucking dumb." Staton wipes his forehead, thinking over his comment for a second. "But yes, we have to tell them. Especially if we want to work together as a team."