text: [Themes: fantasy]
  
  You're willing to stick it out a little longer, but you really need to use a few short cuts now. The brew from the still is good enough for the miners and you won't have to deal with a middleman anymore.
  
  Your mother isn't happy with this idea. She wasn't thrilled with it before, but realized it was necessary at the time. You argue with her for hours about the moral and legal ramifications of it all until she finally gets tired and capitulates under stress.
  
  Over the months you manage to save tons of money, are able to pay Mr. Reynolds off larger amounts and you believe in a few more months you'll completely be free of him.
  
  The problem now is with your mother who still insists on bitching at you day in day out despite the fact that you're basically saving her ass from the problems that her and your dumb ass dad got you involved into in the first place.
  
  "For fuck's sake, will get off my fucking back? I've been the main one coming up with solutions on how to save this fucking place and I'm getting shit for it? Why the hell am I getting punished for something you and dad did? I was supposed to be taking classes right now to become a doctor! Y'know, like YOU all wanted me to? I'm trying to make the best of this situation and still find a damn way of achieving my goals yet all I'm getting is kicked in the fucking face for it!" you yell while throwing a potato against the wall.
  
  Your mother shakes her head.
  
  "I don't know what's happened to you, but the son I knew wouldn't be engaging in criminal activities and yelling at me like this. This isn't worth it; I'm not dealing with this anymore. You want to be mad at me and your father, you can go right ahead, you might even be right in some way but I'm still not going to put up with it. You think you can turn this place around and still achieve your goals? Go right ahead, but you're doing it without my help. I quit, and I'm handing this place over to you. Have fun, and I hope you make all your dreams come true."
  
  You're a little shocked by this. You run after her asking what she's going to do and that you're sorry about the stuff you said, but she won't hear it. She just says she's leaving the deed with you and she's going to go live with your aunt Enora in Teckleville.
  
  After some last words are exchanged she's gone. You aren't quite sure how to feel and you're still trying to wrap your head around it when your barmaids come in.
  
  "Hey which one of you is the best cook?"
  
  "Uh, I guess that would be me." Wendy says.
  
  "Good, you're upgrade to cook, you'll get a small raise too."
  
  "What seriously?"
  
  "Yeah, mom quit and gave me this place, so we're making some changes around here."
  
  Wendy looks a little pleased with getting a small promotion, but Rita isn't so happy.
  
  "Hey what about us? You can't just expect us to shoulder all the extra work! You're going to have to hire someone else to help!" Rita says
  
  "Settle down Rita, I'll be getting some new help soon don't worry about it. All I need from the rest of you is to do your jobs."
  
  A few weeks pass and you're doing okay even if you're getting some grumbles from your staff every once in awhile. You do end up hiring a new person, but it's not another barmaid. It's a janitor so the barmaids don't need to worry about cleaning up as much anymore. The great thing is he's simple minded and you don't need to pay him since apparently his mother wanted him out of the house and dragged him by the ear to you when she saw your Help Wanted sign. You agreed to let him sleep in your cellar and he could eat all the rats he catches down there. (Though Eliza gives him real food from time to time)
  
  Your still is perfected a bit better, but the brew from that stuff does take it's toll on your usual patrons. While none of the miners go blind, a lot of them are starting to feel several side effects from drinking the stuff on a regular basis. This causes some to stop coming in altogether, but on the "plus side" you do get a few more lowly types that don't give a shit what poison they put into their system. You end up changing the name of the place to the Bottomless Mug Inn.
  
  Despite your decrease in clientele you still manage to cut enough corners and exploit enough drunks that you pay off Mr. Reynolds. He's a little surprised considering how run down the inn has gotten. He suspects (quite rightly) that you're probably doing something illegal and tells you if you ever need another loan in the future you know where to find him. You vow that you're not going to let that happen.
  
  Well the inn is profitable again (barely) and you've effectively saved the place and your mother from potential danger (mainly yourself) but taking over your father's inn wasn't your dream and it wasn't your parents' dream either.
  
  You figure you've got two choices, you could either sell this place now and hope you get enough money for it to finish your education, or you could continue to run it as a ongoing source of income and somehow manage to save enough as well as find the time to study while running this dump.
  
  > continue to run it
  You know it isn't going to be easy, but selling the inn would be folly. You're not going to get as much for the inn anymore and you know that you'll need a steady source of income and this place also serves as your home. You've already managed to cut a few corners to save money, so perhaps you'll be able to figure out how to cut some more to achieve your goal.
  
  One idea has crossed your mind already, but you'd rather see if any other opportunities arise before resorting to it. The inn is a little shadier now, and that's partly because of you. Still, you aren't really a bad person, you've just been put in a rough situation and you're trying to make the best of it. You figure the ends will justify the means after all is said and done.
  
  You hope.
  
  > Back to school...
  A year has passed and you're back in college, though it's not as much fun as it was when you didn't need to worry about where your tuition was coming from or having something like a job.
  
  Finding time to study while running the inn is difficult, but fortunately Wendy picks up the slack when you're not around. You've also managed to re-establish some old contacts with people you were "friends" with before your "break". Most of them are ahead of you and some are getting ready to graduate. While none of them bothered to stay in contact with you (so much for education breaking down class distinctions) a few of them are still willing to help you out by selling you books for cheap or giving you some of their old notes. Every little bit helps.
  
  As for the inn, it's doing well, but you constantly worry about its future profitability. Your regular patrons aren't the upstanding working class anymore, most of them are petty criminals, broke losers and other ne'er-do-wells. You also have to do something about your overworked/underpaid staff. So far Wendy has been doing far more than she anticipated and is demanding more pay. Rita on the other hand is just plain threatening to quit. All of which is cutting into your study and school time.
  
  A few bright spots are you're getting adventurers coming in since those nice rooms you got awhile back started to pay off. You're also saving money with your stills (You have multiple ones in the basement now) and your retarded janitor Alan who seems to be just happy to work and follow your orders. If only all your employees were so agreeable.
  
  Today's the day you make a change to the status quo.
  
  > fire Rita and hire some pretty girls
  Rita is already threatening to quit anyway so you might as well get rid of her, besides you figure you can hire some prettier faces that will complain less and probably work for less as well.
  
  The first thing you do is advertise for new barmaids. You get a few takers. Most of them don't seem much better than Rita though, coming in and demanding more stuff immediately. You're about to give up when a mother comes in with her two half elven daughters practically begging you to hire them.
  
  Sort of what you're looking for, young, pretty "exotic" even given that they're half-elven. Their bloodline is what sort of concerns you though. Elves aren't exactly known for their hard work ethic.
  
  "Pfft! You think I don't know that? Their no good father left to go prance around in the forest again while I have to raise these little leeches!" the mother says. "Look you don't even have to pay 'em that much, at this point I just want them to earn their keep around the house!"
  
  "Well, I'll see what we can do."
  
  You hire Sunshine and Flameflower and explain how things work and what is expected of them. Their mother periodically interrupts to tell them to pay attention and how if they end up getting fired that she'll be kicking them out of the house. The pair of them seem rather unworried about the situation and do a lot of eye rolling, sighing and even some minor giggling. After all is said and done you tell them to arrive on time tomorrow and go back to work.
  
  "It's about time you hired some more help." Wendy remarks.
  
  "Well, I'm also getting rid of some too, where's Rita at?"
  
  "She's out front serving drunks as usual, wait you're going to fire Rita?"
  
  "Yeah, I can't afford them and her. Besides I'm getting two pretty faces for the price of one and hopefully less bitching."
  
  "Sheesh, I know Rita's a pain in the ass and all, but you really think you should get rid of her? Who's going to train the new girls? I noticed the pointy ears, I'm guessing they're half-breeds. Elves have terrible work ethics."
  
  "I already told them what to do, but I figured you'd be keeping an eye on them most of the time, so you can make sure if they're working and not goofing off"
  
  "What?! As if I don't have enough to do around here? Look, I'll do what I can, but really between the cooking and other shit I do, you expect me to play mother hen to them you're going to be sorely disappointed."
  
  "I can't give you a raise if that's what you're angling for."
  
  "Huh, I wouldn't dream of being that optimistic, but quite simply I'm stretched thin as it is, I can't do it all and I think you know that."
  
  "Yeah, I suppose you're right, well I guess Eliza will have to do it."
  
  "HER? Eliza's a nice girl and all, but I dunno if she's up to supervising."
  
  "Well she's gonna have to, now if you'll excuse me, I have to speak to her and Rita about the changes around here."
  
  Wendy shakes her head as you call Rita and Eliza over to speak to them in the kitchen
  
  "WHAT?! You're fucking firing me?! After all the shit I've done around here?!" Rita predictably reacts.
  
  "Rita, all you do is complain and you've been threatening to quit for months! Is this really all that surprising? Hell, I would've thought you wouldn't even give a shit given your attitude."
  
  "...y'know what? You're right. I don't give a shit. I should've quit a long time ago. I could get a better job just like that! (snap) Thanks for freeing me from this slave wage shithole, but I'll just say one thing, without me, this place is gonna fail! You think you can replace me with those little half-breed sluts I saw you with earlier? Yeah right! I'm outta here!" Rita says and makes a dramatic exit by shouting to the various patrons of how they should take a good look at her ass as she walks out the door, because it'll be the last time they see it around the inn.
  
  "Oh my!" Eliza exclaims.
  
  "Whatever. Okay, now I have to talk to you too...and don't worry I'm not firing you." You say before Eliza jumps to that conclusion.
  
  You explain to Eliza that it'll be part of her job to train the new girls. She's surprised and nervous as you'd expect, but you try to reassure her that she'll be fine.
  
  Initially things are shaky. Eliza isn't very authoritative and often Wendy or you have to step in to lay down more discipline in the half elven sisters. A couple more months pass and it's obvious things are not working out. Sunshine and Flameflower work, but in a very half-assed way. Even Rita did her job. The sisters are prone to flirt a lot to the patrons, which is good...but not so great when they tend to disappear with said patrons for a few hours. This wouldn't be a problem if you were running a brothel and making money on this, but you aren't and it's too late to start now.
  
  You get angry with Eliza and tell her that she needs to get a leash on them, but all this does is make Eliza more nervous and cry that you're yelling at her. You try to get Wendy to help more, but she complains about how she told you in advance that she can't do anymore than what she's doing now. Ultimately she quits because she's getting burned out. This is soon followed by Eliza who is so stressed out that she can't take it anymore. As for Flameflower and Sunshine, you don't even bother firing them since they just stop coming in one day.
  
  At this point your school work is taking a small dive due to your only source of income crumbling. You see the writing on the wall and decide to sell the place hoping that you can finish up at least the year. You aren't going to be able to become a doctor, but MAYBE you'll be able to get a good job with your education level. You feel slightly bad about Alan who you have to run off because he doesn't completely understand why he has to leave.
  
  You don't get quite as much money as you'd like for the inn, mainly because the place had gone down hill quite a bit during the time your father ran it, but you finish out the year.
  
  As for getting a job, you manage to get one, but it's working as an office clerk in the city. Maintaining records, filling out shit, etc. It's tediously dull work, but to a certain extent you're just glad to not have to worry about that damn inn anymore.
  
  Over the years, you settle into your mundane life. You're always a little bitter about your situation, but you try to make the best of it. It isn't a terrible life, but you always wonder what you could've done differently.
  
  You'll never know.