His Bad Luck Charm

Her Assets

"There you are!" interrupted the shrilly voice of Daniella. "I have been looking everywhere for you!" 

"Daniella?" River looked really surprised at seeing his cousin. "Are you hurt anywhere?" he asked as he rushed to her side. She must not visit often

"No, no," she said, waving him off. "I'm here to see her." 

I finished cleaning only to see both the Yates cousins were staring at me.

"Me?"

"Yes, you." Daniella walked up to me and handed me a paper. "You handed your resume in to the legal department for your placement, did you not?" 

I did? Oh, I must have done it when I was sending it to every legal office I came across. 

"Wait, how do you know that?"

"I work in the legal department of the hospital," she explained. 

This surprised me. Daniella looked no older than me yet she was already working as a lawyer? 

"Family benefits," she explained, reading my mind.

"Anyway, I thought I would find you here so I wanted to ask a few questions."

"What type of questions?" 

"Questions regarding the job," she said in a way that made me feel dumb. 

"Aren't you supposed to call me in for an interview or something? This feels really informal." 

"If you don't want it, I can leave," she said as she pointed to the door.

Did I want her to leave? Yes. Did I need her to stay? Also yes. There was only a few days left before the deadline and no one had contacted me yet for an interview. The only emails I received were the ones telling me that they didn't accept students into their firm. 

"Nope, you can stay," I sweetly smiled. 

"Great," she went and sat on the couch motioning for me to follow. I briefly made eye-contact with River, in which he simply shrugged in response. 

"Why did you apply to our firm?" Daniella asked, getting straight down to business. 

How do I tell her that I didn't even know I had applied for the legal department of the hospital? I mean, I applied for about fifty firms and the only thing I made sure to check was that they weren't a fake firm but checking to see if they had a website. 

"Because I need to complete my placement," I answered, trying hard to evade the topic. My mother told me liars have their tongues burnt in Hell. The thought of it made me shiver. 

"Yes, but why here?" Daniella pressed on.

Alright fine, I guess I'll have to think about it now because that question was too clear to evade.  If I was applying for the Yates' legal department, what reason could I have had to apply?

"Because it is familiar to me. I know the staff here and everyone is friendly so I can only hope the legal department will be the same."

I wanted to hit my head against the wall because of how cheesy that sounded. 

"What are your weaknesses," she asked, accepting my answer.

"I like to believe I don't have any." 

What? I was under the impression that this wasn't a formal interview so I treated it as such. 

"What are your assets?" Daniella tried again. 

I was confused about the question but seriously thought about it before answering anyway, "I have my very own laptop which I bought with my own money," I proudly answered. "I think I have some money saved in my bank account but it has been a while since I checked that," I paused. "How exactly is this relevant to anything though?"

I saw River trying hard to stifle a laugh, "Did I say something funny?" 

I turned to Daniella to see she was also trying to not laugh. She cleared her throat before answering, "Great, you got the job. I'll email your schedule to you by tonight."

I watched as she left before turning to River, "I don't get it, do you need to have some sort of savings to work here or something?"

This time River really couldn't help himself. He burst into a loud fit of laughter. I could have sworn I even saw tears in his eyes from how hard he was laughing. 

"She was asking about your strengths not your belongings," he said as he sobered up. 

I opened my mouth to reply but I couldn't think of a single word to say. Sometimes my lack of intelligence even amazes me. 

"Well that is embarrassing."