Nadine Book 6

4. Mate Meeting

Thee day of the ball, I wake up with Tye and we take a bath. Then we go up to Dipak's office.

The only people here are my 5 mates and Omar. This is different. I try to turn around and leave.

"No. Come in and sit down sweetheart."

I sit in my spot and glare at them.

"We talked to Thora."

"THAT TRAITOR." I try to run for it.

"STOP." Tre half laughs. "Come back."

I plop in my seat and continue glaring.

Omar nods. "We talked to Thora. You made the comment that you think Marcus is annoyed by you being young. And that you hope he sorts it out before he beats the hell out of you."

I climb under the table.

"WOMAN. WHY IS IT ALWAYS UNDER TABLES?" Tye climbs under with me. "You know there are lots of other places to hide." He picks me up and puts me in his lap in my spot. "Hell at this point, if you would try the desk, I doubt anyone could find you."

Dipak winks. "None of us are mad."

Thora runs in half in tears. "I'm a horrible monster. They cornered me and made me talk." She sits in her seat. "I'll beat them up if I have to."

Omar shakes his head. "No. This is a real fear Nadine. You stated it and were out of his apartment so fast. You believe he would hurt you. And honestly, we can see why. You were protecting yourself."

I snuggle into Tye. I'm starting to shake. "Then why are we here?"

"I wanted to see your reaction. I wanted them to see your reaction. I also wanted to verify that's why you moved your stuff."

Thora throws a pen at him. "That was stupid. She's already been beat up by 1 of her mates. So you corner her with them to verify she's afraid of it happening again? Honestly, you could have talked to her alone and then told them. If you actually thought it was their business. Which it's not."

"How is it not our business?"

"She has to live with you. Do you think she wants you to know that she's scared of you? She's trying to figure out where she's safe and loved and wanted. She thought it was with Marcus. Thankfully she's a quick learner. She got out before she got beat again. You're assholes." She stands up and glares at them. "How is this even fair? You corner her 6 on 1 to intimidate her to see she's scared? You... don't get it." She pulls up and out we go.

Dipak follows us out and picks me up. "Actually we have to talk about other stuff too." She glares at him. "You can come."

"Fine."

We sit in our seats and Dipak smiles. "The mountain doesn't have enough doctors."

Marcus rubs his eyes. "It's volunteers. Sometimes I get a lot of help. Other times it's rough. Now, it's really bad. I think they see me not being there as I'm giving up on it. I don't know how to fix it."

I nod. "We have to pay them."

He puts his hands up. "The mountain doesn't make money. It's self sustaining with food and water. But not money. The parents don't pay to have their kids there. Hell they don't even know where they are."

Thora smiles. "We get it. But you still have to pay them. No one can volunteer constantly. Every family needs money coming in."

"No one has volunteered constantly. Some are 1 or 2 times a week. Others are 3 or 4 times a month. Some help when we need to go collect a kid. They have real jobs."

I scratch my head. "Let's pay them. We can at least pay a few. Pick 3. The 3 you trust the most. Your favorite 3."

Thora nods. "We'll pay those 3 to be there everyday. Would that be enough? The other's can volunteer."

He sits back. "They don't understand no money."

"Yes we do. That's why we said WE pay them. As in the castle. How much is a fair pay for them?"

Omar looks at me. "Child doctors like that usually make 300g a week."

I get out a piece of paper. "That's 46,800 a year for 3 of them." I look at Dipak. "Give him the money. No one here will argue about helping abused kids. It's a yearly donation from the castle. We can do fundraisers or something through the year and try to recoup some of it. But honestly we have the money. Hand it over."

Thora gets in her drawer for a pen. "Do 50k a year for now. 46,800 is to oddly specific. Also, there should be more benefits, that even the volunteers can get. We have the vacations. Let's not forget those."

"I won't cost the boys money. They work hard on those. We're not going to ask them to give anything away for free."

"No, I mean the castle could pay for it. Say like at the end of the year. You average everyone out. Anyone that averages over 65 hours a month, volunteered or paid, gets a 3 day vacation with the cheap meal plan. It's something. That would make the volunteers step it up and it would be nice for the paid workers too. Shows appreciation."

"How much is a 3 day vacation for 2?"

"We could use the old rates. For a basic room and meal plan it would end up 1.4k. Say, 1.5k to be safe."

Dipak writes something down. "How many volunteers would actually hit the 65 hours a month volunteered?"

"Maybe 4, if that. But that could change if they knew this."

Thora rubs her eyes. "That's the point."

I think about it for a second. "I would do it, but I would put a max on the number of people who could get it. Instead of 65 hours average to get it. I would say the paid employees get it. And a certain number of volunteers with the most hours averaged. Say like 3. So the 3 employees would get it and 3 volunteers with the most hours. It would cost the castle an extra 9k a year."

Thora looks at Dipak "Give him 60k instead. I like keeping things even."

Dipak shakes his head. "No, prices can change. The easiest way to do that would be to pay the boys now. And get vouchers from them for 3 days. Say, 3 each? Marcus could decide who gets to go where. That way if the prices change. The vacations and meal plans are paid for."

"Give them a certain timeframe they have to be used in though. Say like 6 months. Else people be saving them up and moving in for like a month."

"And the person who earned it has to be present. That will prevent them from selling the vouchers for more than it's actually worth."

Dipak nods. "So would you both do 3- 3 day vacations with meal plans for 2 for 1.5k each? Sign the vouchers for use between like March and August of next year?"

They both nod.

"Anyone disagree?"

We shake our heads.

"I'll get 59k. You 2 put together some kind of voucher."

"Oh wait while you're down there." I point at Johen.

"It's already done sweetheart. We'll explain after we get this situated."

"Thank you."

About 20 minutes later, the boys sell him the vouchers. Marcus takes the 50k and everyone sits down.

"Ok, moving on. Tre make sure you write that 50k as a yearly donation. I don't want to forget. Marcus won't say anything and he'll get stressed again." Tre writes. "Johen, the money in your vault is yours. The goal is to grow it. You are trying to make your own money. If you want an inn, it can't be beach, Egypt, or coliseum. We're not going to compete with each other, that would be stupid. But you're not limited to inns. Hell, Nadine sells soap. Let us know your ideas if you want to. We can help. But that's your choice. We all want to succeed. We want each other to succeed. So don't be afraid to ask for opinions or get ideas. I will walk you to your vault when we're done here. So you know the specifics."

"Thank you."

I put my hand up.

"Yes baby."

"I want to put a soap shop over in my empty building. I can put the extra toothbrushes and paste. And the deodorant too. Humans use a lot of stuff. But Johen's mom said it might do good there. There isn't another shop like it in the village."

Thora sits up. "You might want to write on the vouchers that reservations have to be made. Those places do fill up fast. It's hard to go in and leave for a couple days."

Tre shakes his head. "It would cost a lot of money to fill that building with inventory. That building is big. Plus we just opened the Nox shop. It would be a risk on top of a risk. That's to much."

Johen winks. "I know that building. We can block off the front part of it. Use that as the store. You wouldn't have to fill but a quarter of that front area. And she already has the human stuff."

Tre sits up. "Let's go look at it. I want to know how big the area is she would need to fill."

We make a door to the building and stand in the center of it.

"This is huge."

"I thought about an art gallery at 1 time. But I don't have time to make enough art."

She jumps up and down. "I HAVE AN IDEA."

"What is it?"

"The big doors are in the middle. This place is huge." She opens the big doors. "Big hallway down the center. Divide each side by 3. It would be 3 shops on each side. She could put her art in 1. Soap in another. Hell you could put a vacation place in here too. But I don't know how that would work with humans. I'm out of ideas after that."

"We could use 1 for produce when we overdo it again." Then I start jumping up and down. "AND ANOTHER FOR STUFF WE BUY CHEAP WHEN TRAVELING."

Thora smiles. "Smelly good candles in 1. I love making those. I could do that."

Tye looks at me. "You were talking about selling some of your old princess dresses too. Make a second store for the castle fashions."

"Oh I have to do the titles again. Make sure people are getting their raises."

"Me and Frode do the money ranks baby. People are entirely to picky about their money. They won't wait patiently for a raise."

"That's a good idea. Or I could make it into 6 shops and rent 5 of them out. Use 1 for my soaps. I could use 1 for old princess dresses to get rid of them while I wait on the spot to rent out."

Thora shakes her head. "You would probably get like a poop cleaner or something that stinks in here. It would be horrible. I would rent 1 for candles though. I could do that myself."

Marcus smirks. "Are you personally going to make all the candles to fill the shop? Where are you going to make them? Who is going to run the shop? Who is going to pay for all the supplies you need to fill it?"

She looks at me. "Who does yours?"

I point at Tre.

Tre smiles. "The castle owns 10% of her shop. The castle gets paid every month. The castle servants also make her soaps. The servants run the shop. She pays for the supplies."

"Couldn't I do something like that? A lot of people like candles that smell good."

Dipak smiles. "Tre is about to run a candle shop too."

Tre shakes his head. "She would need help for a couple months. Then she could do it. She could even hold the titles in her name."

Marcus nods. "Also, the castle doesn't own this building. Nadine does. You can't expect to get a spot for your store for free."

"How much is that?"

"A spot about that size is 100g a month. That's another thing you have to look at. Owning a business takes a lot of time. Anyone will put hours and hours into owning a business every month. So at the end of the month, if you only make 50g, is that worth the hours you put into it?"

"You'll end up working yourself to death."

Marcus nods. "Exactly. It's easy for the castle. If something isn't paying out good enough. We'll close it and move on. There's not the emotional attachment people have to owning their own business."

"I think that was my parents problem."

I smile at Johen. "Maybe. They also lived the farm life. They had to have somewhere to sell all that stuff. It wasn't only the emotional attachment to the shop. It was the emotional attachment to their home and way of life. That was a lot to walk away from."

Dipak nods. "And it still took them quite awhile. Even after they were vampires, they wanted to get back to their way of life. They're coming around quick now though."

I scratch my head. "We should probably go feed the cow."

Johen smiles. "Let's check the house and feed the cow before we go back. Are we done here?"

Tre nods. "Yea I seen everything I need to. We can talk about it at the table."

Dipak makes a door. "Sounds like a plan."