Chapter 44: Trials and Tribulations

Feeling a little guilty about not trying to spend as much time with her brother, Emily went home to see how he was doing.

While she expected to find the place a mess again, it was not as bad as she feared, and Nick was in his room poring over a book.

"You're studying," she said, "keep it up, young man!"

"I do study once in a while," he retorted.

Emily was about to leave him to it, but then he added, "I got a job to help with the rent."

"What? That's awesome! Where are you working?"

"The juice bar."

"Wow, there seems to be a trend going around with everybody getting healthy," Emily remarked, "Well don't work too hard. Mom and dad can always help out with rent, but they would probably want you to focus on classes."

"Yeah, I think they've made that pretty clear." Nick sighed dramatically.

"School is still very exciting?"

"Yeah..."

At least he seemed to be trying, Emily thought. Maybe it had something to do with him seeing Katie. She didn't want to ask too many questions, but th