Write Hustle [2020 Contest Entry]

1. Start Hustlin'

Send.

The following "ding" notified Jo that her email, containing her second article had sent to the Scene Teen editing team. She and Tori were just trying to make some extra money to pay Kayla back for the R5 concert tickets.

Jo closed her email, and snuck a glance around the computer lab to see if Kayla and Tori were done with their assignments. The three friends usually spent study hall in the computer lab anyways, working on Trigonometry homework. But Jo had spent her recent study halls writing, and editing articles.

Just as Jo was packing up her bag to go start on homework, her phone vibrated loudly next to the computer mouse. She quickly looked up to see if Mr. Tsudee had noticed, knowing that he had a strict "work in silence" rule for study hall. Thankfully he hadn't, so she grabbed her phone and opened her email.

Her jaw hit the floor as she saw the sender address.

Scene Teen Publishing <publish(at)sceneteenmag.com>

The email read:

"Hi JoAnna!

It's Kelley, the head editor at Scene Teen mag, and I just wanted to say thanks for the amazing article you just sent over. We love your style, and would like to offer you a contract to write exclusively for Scene Teen! It would be one article a week for a 6-month contract, which would equal to 24 total articles. The pay would be $100 per article, plus bonuses for articles that do well.

Let me know if you're interested!

-Kelly"

Jo glanced around the room to see if anyone was watching. They weren't, so she hurriedly gathered her things, and all but ran to the seat next to Kayla and Tori.

"Whoa, where's the fire?!" Tori whisper-yelled, glancing to see Mr. Tsudee obliviously typing at his computer.

"Okay, listen to this!" Jo whispered back, pulling up the email. "You know how I owe you the money to pay for the concert tickets?" This was directed to Kayla, who nodded. "So! I've written a couple articles for a teen magazine to make some extra money, and look what I just got back!" She threw the phone in between the two girls, and impatiently waited, as their eye hastily read through the email.

Tori, the bookworm of their group, finished first. "Oh. My Gosh. Jo that is amazing! Congratulations!"

"Why didn't you tell us you were writing for them?!" Kayla questioned after she read it through a second time.

"Because it's for Scene Teen, and I didn't want you guys to think it was dumb." Jo confessed.

Kayla playfully hit her with her textbook. "You idiot! You always tell the best friends when you're doing something like this!"

"Sorry!" Jo laughed.

"I take full responsibility." Kayla flipped her hair.

"How so?!"

"I bought the tickets. If you didn't have to pay me back, you wouldn't have been discovered."

Tori buried her head in her arms to stifle her laughter.

Jo rolled her eyes. "Yeah, okay."

"I'm just saying. I'm going to tell people about this one day when you make the Bestseller's List."