Dear Miss Jones,
Thank you for your interest in our company! Unfortunately, the position you have applied for has been filled. If you're still interested in working with us, please see the attached file for positions that are currently available.
Mitzi Jones stared down at her phone with a blank look as she read yet another automated rejection email. She sighed heavily as she clicked the link, and she chuckled darkly as she saw the positions that were listed there.
"Lotta good all that schooling did for me," she mumbled as she shoved the phone back into her pocket. She didn't even have a computer to look for jobs, and her older brother always gave her a hard time when she asked to use his.
"Well, shit," she crossed her arms once more and frowned. She was tired of going to the library to look for jobs, and even when her brother was out she couldn't get on his computer because it was password protected. She knew why he didn't want her to use it: he probably had a ton of porn on it, but she didn't care. Really, she probably watched more porn than he did, but she wasn't about to tell him that; the last thing she needed was for her brother or anyone else in the house to have more ammo to use against her.
Currently, she was standing in her bedroom, or what was left of it. The room was actually being remodeled, and the only thing that was in it was a single mattress on the floor and a scattering of toiletries and other necessities beside it. The majority of her earthly belongings were neatly packed into boxes, which were stacked against the wall, and she had no intention of unpacking them until they were in her own apartment.
She headed out of the bedroom and heard the loud sounds of a shooting video game in the living room. She turned out of the hallway and saw her brother sitting on the couch with a controller in his hand. He was taller and darker than her and had taken more after their father with features, and Mitzi had always thought that he could probably be a model...if he wasn't such a lazy asshole.
"Hey, bro, can I use your computer?" She asked him flatly, obviously not in the mood to bullshit.
Her brother groaned as he kept his eyes glued to the tv, "Why?"
"You know why: I need to put in a few more job applications, it's hard to do it on my phone; takes freaking forever."
Her brother sniffed, "You should have thought about that before you went to college and got a degree you couldn't use."
Mitzi stiffened. She'd graduated a little over a month prior and had gotten herself a business degree. Unfortunately for her, she hadn't been able to find a job with it, because most places wanted her to have some sort of experience, which of course, she didn't have, because she'd been in school to get the degree that she thought she needed. It had been an exhausting, ironic experience, and she'd given up on trying to find a good job and was now simply looking for any job at all, if for no other reason than to get her mom's boyfriend off her back.
"Tyrone, don't be a jerk," she mumbled, trying not to let him get the best of her. "C'mon, I already know you have a bunch of porn on your computer; I don't give a shit. I'm not gonna go clicking through all your stuff, you can even make a guest account for me."
Her brother, Tyrone, flared up at her before flicking his eyes back onto the screen, "I I don't have any porn, I just don't feel like it's fair that you're asking for my help now after you acted like such a hotshot before you left. What happened to your laptop anyway?"
She was beginning to lose her patience, "You know what happened to it: I hocked it."
He smiled smugly, "Oh, that's right, you did, didn't you? Sucks to suck, I guess."
Mitzi balled her fists for a moment before relaxing slightly as she faced the TV, "What is this crap? Call of stupid twenty nine or whatever the hell? How did you afford this, anyway?"
Like her, Tyrone was also unemployed, but both their mother and her boyfriend weren't riding him about it like they were on her, "Doesn't matter; mind your own business, Mitzi."
She scoffed as she watched the overly animated FPS, "This is hot garbage, it's exactly the same as the last one. I've never even played this before and I bet I could beat your ass into the ground at it."
Both she and her brother had one thing in common: they were very competitive, especially against each other. Even though he knew he was being riled, Tyrone couldn't help but laugh, "There's no way in hell you could beat me, don't even try."
Mitzi was already grabbing for the other controller, "Big talk from a little man; bring up a map and we can do this however you want. Zombies, PVP, it won't matter. If I win, will you let me use your computer?"
Tyrone inhaled sharply. He was taller than she was, more muscular, and he weighed more, but none of those things had anything to do with her 'little man' crack. "Fine. And if I win?"
She shook her head, "You know I don't have anything to give you, but if you win I'll set you up for a date with Wendy Sorento."
He chuckled. Wendy was an old crush of his from highschool, and though he considered himself somewhat of a player, he'd never been able to get her number, let alone get a date with her. Mitzi and Wendy weren't good friends, but they stayed in touch often enough to where he believed her, "Well shit, you've got yourself a deal, little sister," he said as he quit his current game and exited to the main screen.
Mitzi had always been good with her hands, and beating all the boys at their own game was a favorite past time of hers. When they were kids, she would beat her brother at basketball more often than not, and nearly anything else they played with the other neighborhood kids.
Beating him at the overpriced, overhyped FPS wasn't any different. She preferred to use sniper rifles in such games, and when he accused her of relying on them too heavily (after she'd gotten several headshots in on him) she switched to pistols and continued to beat his poor, digital soldier into the proverbial dust.
He got lucky a few times, but she was still far ahead of him in kills before she leaned back and grinned, "Okay, seriously, what are we playing to? I can do this all day, I just don't want to."
Her brother grimaced, "You're only doing so well because it's just pvp. If we were playing zombies then..."
Her bright laughter cut him off, "God, you have an excuse for everything! I don't care what I'm shooting; I'm telling you, all these games are exactly the same. Let's play a round of zombies if you think it's going to make any difference."
He silently exited out of their match and conveniently skipped over the recap of how many times he'd killed her. A few moments later, a new map was loaded, and Mitzi went about the task of killing digital zombies. True to her word, she wasn't having any difficulties, and even as the rounds intensified she played how she always did: fast and accurate. The game was keen on respawning unnecessary amounts of ammo, so she took advantage and played a little more sloppy than she usually did.