After a long day filled with avoiding Antoine, it was finally time for my father and I to pay the debt at the town hall. I was excited, because although we were giving away money, it meant that we could keep our house.

When I reached the parking lot, I saw Antoine staring longingly at me from a distance. He was sitting in the driver's seat of a bright red Lamborghini Aventador while I was over here waiting for my dad to pull up in his rusty mint green Cadillac that he's had since the 80’s. I try to avoid eye contact from Antoine’s stare; it's making me uncomfortable.

I can begin to hear the sound of a rustic engine quickly approaching.The sharp pop of a car backfiring shocks Antoine, who clumsily hits his head against the roof of his car.

I chuckle as he has a fit, swearing and rubbing the back of his head. My father pulls up on the slab of concrete in front of me; his geriatric vehicle grunting as it slowed to a stop.

As he rolls down the window -- it's crusted surface abrading against the car interior.

He beams at me. “Ready to go, kiddo?”

With one last look back at the academy building, I respond “Yep.”

I climb into the car and onto the faded leather seat. The engine sputters to life again as my father jams his keys into the ignition and we head on into traffic.

We finally arrive at town hall. It takes a few tries to open the glove compartment with its sticky handle, but I manage to do it in order to collect the money.

The man at the desk is inscribing something onto a piece of parchment; the sound of the pencil lead on paper being the only noise in the lobby.

I step up to the counter, careful not to disturb the man until he had finished with his task at hand.

Once I am sure that his work has concluded (since he began to roll up the parchment paper) I ask him for what we came for.

“I'm sorry to disturb you, but you wouldn't happen to know where we could pay our bills, would you?” I say sweetly.

He looks at me strangely.

“Miss, I'm not sure if you’ve realized, but this is the 21st century. Sure, people in France used to pay bills in person but that was years ago. Now we've been blessed with technology.” He says condescendingly.

I put my hands on my hips. “I am aware that people use electronic devices in order to pay their bills, but I'll have you know that it took my father and I YEARS to collect enough money to pay the rent, let alone have leftover cash to purchase a computer!”

He snorted. “Well that's unfortunate.”

I scoffed at his impolite behavior.

“Nevermind, I will find the office myself.” My arm brushed against the cold wooden counter as I turned around.

The man simply shrugged and returned to what he was accomplishing prior to our conversation.

My father trudged behind me, clearly having doubts on my ability to find the office that is qualified to receive our payment.

Many doors in the hallway were checked, yet none of them contained the specific person we were searching for.

At last, we discovered the room that we have been anticipating to  find.

As soon as my fist came in contact with the burgundy door in order to knock, it swung open, causing my knuckles to nearly hit someone’s shoulder instead.

“Sorry, I didn’t--”

My apology is cut short by a series of wails as an obese, middle-aged woman pushes past me. Her upsetting sobs could be heard as she rushes out of the building.

“Come in.” A disembodied voice ordered. My father and I share equally concerned expressions as we enter the room.

An elderly man sits in an executive-looking chair with his hands intertwined and resting on his escritoire. The golden name plate that is positioned on his polished oak desk reads ‘Dacian G.’ ‘Collection Agency’ is engraved beneath his name. He wears a malicious grin on his wrinkled face. “Have a seat.”he says in a deep voice.

We did as told.

“What do you need, I haven’t got all day”

My father clears his throat. “Well, I have been in debt for a while now, and my daughter and I recently earned enough funds  to pay it off.”I nod in agreement.

Dacian raises his eyebrows at me.“Let me see it.”

I hand over the cash, still enclosed in the burlap sack. He opens it, taking a handful of the euro.

“You do know this is the twenty-first century, right?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, your other friend in the office established that already.”

He mutters something under his breath, which I probably wouldn’t have wanted to hear being said out loud. H probes his hand around inside the bag some more, as if he were able to determine the cash amount just by feeling it. His expression is synonymous with that of an agitated adult trying to cope with a needy child. Eventually he just asks “How much have you got, miss.”

“Precisely twenty thousand euro.” I say, flashing him a proud grin.

Dacian turns to a small laptop and types something onto it. “Name.”he says in a monotone, not glancing up from the screen.

“Lorenzo .”My father states.

Further typing on the keyboard occurred.

“Surname.”

“Montgomery.”

He furrows his eyebrows.

“Sir, it appears to me that you haven’t got enough to pay off the debt.”

My father looks befuddled.

“ I’ll have you know that I counted that sack of cash THREE TIMES. So don’t come telling me that we don’t have enough money because each time I counted, I reached exactly twenty thousand euro.” Papa informs with his arms crossed.

“That's the dilemma. Your debt raised to thirty thousand euro approximately five days ago.”

My father's beady eyes widen. “B-but…”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT INCREASED?”I demand, slamming my hands onto his desk.

That thieving little crook cautiously pulls his stuff closer to himself, eyeing me.

“You are not aware of law 2596, which was recently passed?”

I glare at him. “No.”

“Well, it basically increased the value of certain properties, yours included. Today is the last day that the system will accept payments. But considering the fact that you don't have enough money, unfortunate things may occur.”he trails off.

My father's face is a mixture of confusion and distress. “So, we lose our home?”

Dacian sighs. “It’s not my problem.”

Papa breathes in heavily. “There must be some way. I- I’ve lived there for forty years. I can't lose it now.” He then covers his face with his hands, a gesture that means that he is very upset about something. After a few moments, he emerges again.

“Sir, give us one more day. Please. We can get enough euro by then. Right, Elliana?”

I nod. “Exactly.”

Dacian exhales. “Fine. Just get out of my office.”
"This is going to be so much paperwork.” he grumbles under his breath.
We take our money and leave. I take extra care to make sure I slam his door as hard as possible. The clerk at the front desk gives us an awkward glance as we walk past him.

When we get in the car my dad turns to me. “How will we do this?”

I give him a knowing smile. “I can raise enough money. Don’t worry.”

“Elliana, you do too much already. Let me--”

“No. I can do it. Trust me.”

We ride back home in silence.

          ---

Luckily, I don't see Antoine anywhere near me when I get back to the Academy. I briskly walk to my dorm, trying to avoid contact with anyone else. It’s a good thing that people don't like to get outside much. The dormitory is mostly vacant, besides a few groups of friends deep in conversation. I make it to my room without having to deal with anyone.

At least, until I hear the horrid voice of the one person whom I didn't want to see.

“It looks like someone is having some financial issues.”

________________

A/N I hope you all like the story so far.
Soon enough, a new character will be introduced.
I wonder who we'll meet first 😌

Stay magical! -- Unicorn🌈