Everyone needs a Payday

“God!” Aria slammed the refrigerator closed and stomped her way out of the kitchen

Adagio lowed the book away from her face “What now?”

“There's never any food in this damn house!”

“No. No there isn't. And it's not like you've had the urge to get a job. I can't support the three of us on a crappy Burgertime pay. And it's not like anyone is dumb enough to giving Sonata one either.”

“I already told you I was looking!”

Adagio brought the book back to her face“Mmhm, right, because walking around the mall for an hour like a lost child is looking.”

Aria punched the wall leaving a small dent in the drywall.

“Yes, please punch the wall. That will really help.”

Adagio heard the rampage travel down the hall, slowly becoming more quiet forcing a terrified Sonata to come fleeing away from Aria's rage.

“Jeeze, what's up with her?” Sonata gripped her arm

“Just another hunger induced rampage from Aria, it'll pass.” She sipped the hot tea

“So, no food tonight again?” Sonata frowned

Adagio looked up from her book and sighed “Unfortunately not. sorry.”

small tears welled in the corners of her eyes “O-okay.” she held her aching stomach

Adagio set the book on the table beside her and drank the last drops of her tea, then stood up. She pulled the old purple hoodie from the rack beside the door, and stepped outside into the bitter cold night.. The snow piled up on the sidewalks of the house they lived in. They only owned house because they had used magic to coax the realtors into giving them dirt cheap rent. Adagio sighed, only two weeks until the lease was up and they would realize what they have had done. She pushed that thought out of their mind and kept walking into the ice cold night.

The starry sky above her faded away into black as she reached the shopping district. She looked up at the gold arched sign above her. She looked into her wallet, revealing only a single quarter. Adagio sighed and pushed the wallet back into her pocket.

A tall dark figure approached her from behind and whispered with a woman's voice “Looks like you're hard on cash, Adagio. If you follow me, I believe I may be able to help.” the figure walked to the double doors and motioned Adagio to follow.

Adagio froze in place after hearing the shadowy figure say her name, but this was the second night in a row she and her sisters hadn't had food, and three days till her job paid her. The soreness in her stomach automatically lurched her forward, forcing her to walk into the restaurant.

The dark figure sat at a booth in the far back of the restaurant. Adagio walked past the tables and sat across from her.

“So, how do you know who I am?” Adagio tried to identify the figure, but her face was mostly obscured by a dark colored scarf.

The Woman chuckled “ After that performance back at The Battle of the Bands, it'd be hard to not know you Sirens.”

Adagio shot the mysterious woman a glare.

“Not to worry. I'm not here to discuss that, nor am I here to force an apology from you.”

Adagio leaned back into the cold cushion behind her “So who are you then?”

“Don't worry about that just yet. I'm just here to tell you about a job.”

Adagio laughed “I already have a job you see.”

“This pays much more than a burger joint's pay. Some ten times what you normally make.”

Adagio leaned in again. “You can stop joking around now. I can already tell you're trying to make a fool of me.”

“I'm not fooling you. You and your sisters are perfect candidates for this job. Seeing how rough a place you all are in.”

“Guess I don't have much to lose then do I? Let's hear it.”

“Good.” She placed a folder on the table from her coat “You see, you are in a hard spot, and I need to get my hands on a team. If you accept, you will be very wealthy. If you decline, then you won't be hearing from me again, and that will be that.”

Adagio leaned in again “Go on.”

“Great.” she looked around to make sure no one else was in earshot, and flipped open the folder. Pictures of a bank and floor plans were pinned to both sides, along with details about every inch of the building. “You see, the world is quiet corrupt, and banks like this are some of the places that start it.” She pointed at a picture of a sign that read 'Harvest & Trustee' “This bank in particular is quite notorious for losing money if you get what I mean.”

“So what? You lost a deposit or two, and now you want revenge?”

She chuckled “Easy with that attitude. And no, not just me. Thousands of people. Take a look at these papers.” She pulled a stack of papers from the folder. “You can see for yourself. Every single money deposit has an error. Then you can see the bank stealing money directly from people's accounts. They tell you it's perfectly legal taxation.”

Adagio looked through the papers, errors in deposits frequently littered the spreadsheets. She dropped the papers and looked her in the eyes “So, you want us to steal from a corrupt company? Won't that just make us as bad as them?”

The woman closed the folder “Think of us as one collective Robin Hood.”

Adagio's eyebrow raised “Right.”

“So...” the woman slid a card across the table and then an envelope “I'll give you some time to talk it over with the other two. Enjoy your meal by the way.” She walked out of the restaurant and vanished into the dark night.

Adagio looked through the papers reading over the pages multiple times. She needed the money badly. She packed the papers into the folder again and opened the envelope. Her eyes glittered, it contained multiple twenty dollar bills. She smiled, her stomach already felt the relief.

Adagio walked to the counter “Hi, get me three Big Mac meals to go, make them large.”

“Uh, sure.” The cashier quickly punched in the order “You want any apple pies?”

Adagio's sweet tooth kicked in “Get me three.”

Aria crumpled the bag and tossed it across the room “So you want us to be criminals now?”

“Not exactly criminals. More like Robin Hood, actually.”

“Well Robin Hood was actually a criminal. He still stole things ya' know!” Sonata chimed in, instantly getting glares from the other two “W-what? I like that movie!”

“What I mean to say is, that they are a crooked bank. Stealing from them would be partially righteous.”

“Yeah, let's just tell that to the cops when they arrest us.” Aria rolled her eyes

“Then let's not get arrested. Besides, what else are we going to do? Work at crappy burger joints the rest of our lives? No one else will be willing to hire high school dropouts.”

“Dying in prison isn't exactly better you know...” Aria stuffed a handfull of fries into her mouth

“I don't wanna go to prison either!” Sonata whined

Adagio sighed “We aren't getting arrested if we stick to the plan. How hard could it be anyway? We almost took over an entire high school, didn't we?”

“Yeah, but we also had magic, and not the threat of a bullet in our heads.”

“Alright. Fine. I won't force you to go through with it. She said we wouldn't hear from her again if we decline. So if you say no, then that's that.” Adagio walked down the hallway “Just think about it.” She shut her door behind her.

Sonata sucked the last bit of soda from the cup “It sounds scary...”

“No, really?”

“But if Adagio is going, then so am I!” Sonata jumped to her feet and marched to her own room leaving Aria behind.

“Ugh!” She tossed herself back onto the couch and stared at the ceiling. Aria tossed her trash and walked back to her room, then clicked the radio on letting the sound of Metal music allow her to think.

Aria dropped herself onto her bed, she also remembered the lease would end in two weeks. Then the tree of them would be thrown out onto the street. Then they would starve, or freeze to death. She rolled over and stared into the blinking alarm clock, she quickly fell into a trance that coaxed her mind into letting her sleep.