Dreams Of Fame
1.11 - A Small Fortune
“I’ve finally done it guys,” Liberty grinned.
She gestured to the land behind her, an empty lot she’d purchased with money made from Giovanna’s paintings to transform into her own personal launch pad. Work was too far away, and the company she worked for had told her she could only work from home if she had a place to launch her own personal rocket.
“You spent all of the money, Liberty,” Summer slurred drunkingly.
“Granny can paint some more,” Liberty shrugged. “She doesn’t do anything else with her time.”
“She adopted you and Travis and you two still call her Granny?” Summer muttered.
“It’s what she prefers,” Travis said.
“Well, I still think it’s stupid.”
“That’s great Summer,” Travis said sarcastically, flashing a thumbs up.
Summer had been uncharacteristically bitter recently and no matter how much time Liberty and Travis worked to figure out why, she got worse and worse. Her drinking problem was becoming something pretty serious, and they both doubted the primary reason was the house. Didn’t help that she said a lot that didn’t make sense while drunk.
“Come on!” Liberty said, gesturing for the two to follow her. “I want you two to witness my first take off.”
Travis followed her immediately, while Summer took a moment to roll her eyes before following Liberty.
“Here it is,” Liberty said, gesturing dramatically to the rocket.
Travis nodded, a smile on his face, while Summer clapped sarcastically.
Liberty changed into her spacesuit and waved at Travis and Summer from the rocket.
“We’ll miss you!” Travis shouted over the roar of the rocket engine.
“Miss you too!” Liberty shouted back.
“It’s okay Travis, you’ll still have me,” Summer said to him with a wink.
“Just don’t Summer,” Travis sighed.
Liberty shut the door and the two watched as the rocket soared off into outer space.
“I was half expecting it to explode,” Summer shrugged.
“Summer!” Travis scolded.
“We both know she only became an astronaut to escape having Giovanna as a mother,” Summer went on. “Karma is going to get her back for that eventually.”
At home, the basement that used to belong to Giovanna had been fully decorated and Giovanna even had her own room and separate bathroom.
“I’m really living the high life now,” Giovanna laughed when Travis and Summer went to see her in her room.
Travis nodded and smiled politely.
“And where were you living before?” Summer asked.
“The park,” Giovanna grinned.
Neither Travis or Summer was sure of how to respond to that.
“Also, the adoption papers came in!” Giovanna squealed, handing them to Travis.
“How? Jo said you don’t even exist in any official database,” Summer muttered.
“I have friends in high places,” Giovanna whispered.
Summer nodded slowly.
“Er, Granny, it says here that you adopted, me, Zoe, and… Summer,” Travis said, flipping though the papers.
Giovanna laughed. “Liberty’s family was still interested in keeping her! Your family said they disowned you when you moved out with friends, Summer, and Travis, your parents just never replied.”
“Moms wouldn’t do that,” Travis laughed nervously.
“But they did,” Giovanna smiled. “I’m your legal guardian now!”
None of them had truly gotten used to how weird Giovanna was yet. Everyone secretly hoped that with enough time, she’d start acting like an ordinary person.
“Let me show you my room, Travis,” Summer said seductively.
Travis sighed, but followed her anyway, eager to escape Giovanna.
“So Liberty left earth for nothing?” Travis muttered.
“She transformed her whole life for nothing, Travis, that’s right,” Summer grinned. “Karma.”
Summer blocked the bedroom door. “Now that I’ve got you all alone, Travis…” she started, but Zoe burst into the room, the door hitting Summer in the back.
“Ow!” Summer shrieked. “Now that we’re sisters or whatever, could you like, not do that?”
Zoe ignored her. “We’re broke.”
You could have heard a pin drop.
“Liberty spent all of our money on that stupid launch area, and Summer, you put us in debt by purchasing several expensive bottles of wine over the weekend. What were you thinking?” Zoe shouted.
“Travis,” Zoe said, turning towards him.
“Yeah?” Travis said quietly. He really didn’t like Zoe ever since that whole basement incident.
“Come with me.”
Travis nodded, and followed her out of Summer’s room. Summer followed them too.
“You work for the government, right? Hacking into their enemies and stuff,” Zoe said while walking.
“I do,” Travis nearly whispered.
“Well, I’m going to need you to hack into the government you work for and get us a small fortune, capisce?
“Zoe… that’s illegal.”
“And?”
Summer interrupted. “Um, Zoe, I got this thing you might enjoy, it came in the mail…”
“In a minute, Summer.”
Summer shut up.
“Anyway, you’re going to hack in and get us that money so I can continue my tour. You guys have no idea how unpleasant it is when I try to buy my next plane ticket and my credit card is denied because you guys are being idiots,” Zoe went on.
Summer and Zoe watched as Travis logged onto a computer and started to type rapidly, putting in lines of code. To be completely honest, Travis was terrified of Zoe. If he wasn’t, this wouldn’t be happening.
“Zoe, here,” Summer said, handing her an envelope. “It’s for a free spiritual guidance session. Thought you’d appreciate it.”
“After having my credit card denied, I need some way to relax, thank you Summer. You guys get it, right? I’m a celebrity now. People come from far and wide to listen to me speak! My books are bestsellers! To have no money despite all of that is horrifying. So I’ll use that right now, Summer. I’ll be back when Travis has funneled us around a million dollars.”
“Zoe, are you serious?” Travis stammered.
“What do you think?” Zoe said, heading for the door.
She slammed it behind her, and Summer let out a sigh of relief.
“What was that you handed her?” Travis asked.
“Free therapy,” Summer laughed. “Hypnotherapy, to be exact. The place I sent her too is supposed to be unusually strong, it can make the most uptight people mellow out. After this, she should be done with locking people in basements for the rest of her days.”