****NAMES CHANGED TO PROTECT PORTLAND'S STREET KIDS****
For our third day of JRT it's over at 1pm. I go to the day program and ask Bernard if he found the information to get me an honored citizen bus pass. He hands me the form and I take it to the clinic to get it filled out. While I wait for it to be finished my phone rings. It's a number I don't know.
"Hello?"
"Hi, this is C from Tj Max."
I leap off the bench I'm sitting on. I can't sit still. I pace around the clinic and do miniature gigs, waiting for what I believe will be good news. The other people in the clinic but I don't care.
"I wanted to hire you if you are still interested."
I try to avoid sounding too eager. I accept the job saying I'm still interested. I explain my school schedule and he says there won't be a problem with that. It's part time but that's okay.
After I hang up I scream upstairs to the day program for Bernard. He rolls his eyes at me as I scream up the stairs, "I got the job."
"Hold on," He says and starts down the stairs. When he gets down he says, "You could have had the receptionist call me."
"Yelling was faster."
He congratulates me and says we'll have to make sure that school and work will both be manageable. I roll my eyes. Does he so easily forget I'm a workaholic? He says he knows I like to stay busy but he doesn't want me to overwork myself. I roll my eyes again. He says he'll get me into the Annex so I can have my own room. Now that I have work and school surely they can't deny me.
I go to Trimet and turn in my honored citizen application. I'm worried they'll look me up and see that I have a past due Trimet ticket but they give me the pass anyways. I'm elated. School, a job, a cheap bus pass. Huzzah. And I'll be getting my own room soon. Right?
Nope. When I talk to Director Lady she blows me off saying that I have to work 80 hours before I can get into the annex. This is some serious bullshit. How does she continually keep changing the requirements behind everyone's back? I'm sick of her manipulating me and the rest of the youth. I'm starting to see past her sweet act. It isn't lost on me that no matter how many times I talk to her nothing ever changes. She acts like she cares but so far, nothing has changed. I'm bullied daily by staff and youth. I'm being set up for failure by these constantly changing requirements that no one else seems to know about.
I'm really not sure how I'm going to pull this one off.
In shelter Bitch Lady tells me she wrote me a reference letter to get me into the annex. This confuses me. In part because I didn't know that was a requirement for the annex. I also don't see why she's writing a letter to get me in seeing as Director Lady is apparently dead set against me moving up into the shelter. Then there's also the fact that this is Bitch Lady. It appears she's up to something because she is the LAST person that I would think to ask for a reference to anything.
"I think you have a lot of good qualities," she says as I stitch my baby blanket, "You're generous and determined...." She trails off and I stop listening. I feel uneasy. As nice as it would be to believe that Bitch Lady is turning a new leaf with me I also know that there has to be something more to it than that. Or at least there should be an apology connected to it.
--mm
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