17 Money can never be bigger than me

"This is the worst day of my life" Mia declared angrily as she marched to look for the shaman's little 'shrine'.

She believed that he was the one who cursed her. If not, why would she suddenly faint and that womanizer was the one to perform a CPR on her?

Now, she didn't even feel like she had fainted just a few minutes back. She felt okay.

This was obviously more supernatural than natural and it was his handiwork.

But no matter how much she trudged around, she still could not find the building, much to her annoyance. 

"Ahhhhhhhh!" Mia screamed before using both hands to pull her hair.

Her emotions were heightened and she thought she was going to cry any moment. But she did not want to. 

Of everyone to be there at that moment, why did it have to be him? She asked herself regrettably.

She checked the time to see it was past 3 already and sighed in relief. This was good. She just had to go get her paycheck and disappear from this cursed place.

But when she got there... 

"Your pay was slashed" Jerry informed her apologetically with his head down. He could not afford to look at her face because he knew what was coming for her next.

"What do you mean by that? Are you trying to piss me off right now?" Mia asked him in a calm but angry voice.

She had literally risked her life out there by putting on this crazy costume to dance for a bunch of kids. Not only that, she had even collapsed and even though she only lost consciousness for a little while, she was beginning to feel very sick and miserable. Also, if she hadn't taken this job, there was no way in hell she would have been 'kissed' by the guy she hated so much!

But now they wanted to slash her pay?

"I am so sorry Mia. I do not have any control over it. The employers did this." He paused and began to explain for her to understand their reason for it.

"Everyone was being monitored to make sure you were all doing your jobs and not slacking off. But on several occasions, you were not at the spot you were supposed to be at. And it was made clear to you that you were supposed to remind there." He explained with an apologetic look.

"Are you all out of your minds? I am not supposed to ease myself or go wat something? I was just supposed to stand there for those many hours like a slave?" She scoffed in disbelief. This was totally unacceptable to her.

"But you were told beforehand not to leave."

"'.....Except on emergencies that were justifiable.' That was what they said. I was still performing my duties. Because I was playing hide and seek with the kids!" She raised her voice in anger, causing the other employees who were in different costumes to frown deeply and began to complain because she was delaying them from receiving their own paychecks. 

"I even collapsed there. At least you all must have seen it since you're so good at monitoring right?" 

"Mia.. I am truly sorry. But there is nothing I can do about this." 

"Don't give me that crap!" She turned around to look at the others before hissing out "And y'all stop saying things behind my back if you don't want me to get angrier than I already am" 

Even though she looked small, she was very scary at that moment so they kept mute. 

"You convinced me to take this silly job and promised me that the pay was good. First, I was not assigned to the part where those kinds from FREEBORN Orphanage where. I did not complain about it. But now you're trying to tell me that Elton Mayo wasted his entire time teaching the world about how to imbibe the Human Relations Principles of management by considering the fact that we are all humans? Like you really expected me to stand there for six hours and now you think my 'excuses' are not justifiable?" 

Jerry was obviously lost. Where was Elton Sayo... Ayo...or was it Mayo—coming from? 

"You're going to go back to those people and tell them to give me my complete paycheck. The deal was for me to stick around with this frustrating costume till 3 o'clock, and I did just that" 

Jerry did not know what else to do. This was the reason he didn't like to offer her jobs. But whenever he was short of people, he had no other option because she was always available to take any job he offered. But this was the bad side of it. She was going to really trouble all of them if her complete paycheck was not given to her.

"And what's all these noises coming from here?"

Mia turned to check who the voice belonged to. And she saw a woman enter inside the room. She was in her mid forties, tall, slender, had dark hair that was tied in a bun, and she wore that 'KING'S FOUNDATION' polo she had been seeing everywhere with black trousers.

"Mrs King. Good day" Jerry quickly organised himself and stood straight.

'Mrs King? Like from the Kings family?' Mia asked herself as she looked at the woman suspiciously.

Every other person greeted her, Mia also joined.

"What's with the noise." She asked again as she eyed all of them suspiciously.

"My pay was slashed" Mia explained immediately.

The lady turned her attention to Mia who's fave had a deep frown.

"For what reason?" Mrs King asked calmly.

Mia quickly explained everything that had happened to her. She was not a liar so she also included the part where she wanted to take the head off for a few minutes but suddenly bumped into a shaman who wasted her time.

"A shaman?" Mrs Kings asked with a look that showed she did not believe what Mia was saying.

"Yes. There is a Shaman's house nearby. I was surprised to see it in a park like this."

"Young lady. There is no Shaman's house here. This is a children's park. And we specifically checked to make sure the place was suitable for us to use for this festival" Mrs Kings explained with a deep frown.

"Are you— calling me a liar?" Mia asked in surprise.

"If you hadn't lied and said you saw a shaman, I probably would have asked them to give you your full pay. But lying to people, especially to elders, isn't all nice. Weren't you trained by your parents?" She explained to her.

Mia turned to look at Jerry with a look that explained she could not believe this was happening right now.

As usual, he gave her an apologetic look and said nothing.

"Just for a couple of bucks you all think you can treat people the way you please?" Mia asked with angry eyes.

She had taken several jobs and knew how employers treated part-time employees like they were trash who should be grateful to them for offering their services.

"I hope the money chokes you" She said to no one in particular before heading towards the door.

"Young lady!" Mrs Kings voice called angrily.

Mia took in a deep breath and turned to look at her, wondering what the woman wanted to say to insult her again.

"We always pay whoever works for us. So take your paycheck before you leave and stop being proud. Pride would take you nowhere in this life" Mrs Kings lectured and Mia began to laugh like she had just heard something funny.

"So I have to be cocky before I can go far in life? That's quite a motivational talk" She made a snide remark before walking to where Jerry was.

She stretched out her hand for him to hand it over and he quickly placed an envelope with a relieved sigh, in her hand.

Mia held it tightly before holding both ends. And while everyone watched, she ripped it into two, and more pieces before allowing it scatter all over the floor.

"I've used it the way I like. Are you happy now?" Mia asked Mrs Kings specifically.

Mrs Kings eyes were blazing with fire and her hands were fisted beside her. This was the greatest insult she had ever received and it was coming from and uncultured little brat.

"If you think you all can trample on me because of some wads of cash, then you're wrong. Money — can never be bigger than me." She said with dark eyes before leaving the place.