Lightning vainly tried to hide her growing dissatisfaction from the customer standing in front of her. She had only been working at Bodhum's grocery store since the summer, and she had already dealt with nearly every kind of difficult customer. There were the tourists who felt like a random grocery store should accommodate for how they lived at home, the angry consumer who demanded that the price of lettuce (already a measly 2 gil) should be lowered and how such an outrageously high price is highway robbery, and the haggard mothers of insane toddlers thought it would be a great idea to take a family trip to the store to buy 200 gil worth of goods. The customer that she was currently with was a mix of the last two.

"Are you sure this pack of celery is really worth 2 gil?" The woman said as her four young children ran past the cash register. "I mean that seems a little on the high side."

"I'm not the one who makes the prices." Lightning exhaustedly mumbled back as she scooped another armful of groceries out of the cart and onto the conveyor belt. The customer could have easily unloaded the cart herself, but they never do. Lightning snuck a glance at the clock as she scanned the items. It was eleven-thirty. She had been here for four hours already. She was going to be here for another six until closing time. Today was a lucky day however—it was a Saturday, which meant that she didn't have school in the way and could find the time to earn more money. With both her parents gone, it was up to Lightning to find the money to make ends meet, and so she needed every hour of work she could get. Her parent's life insurance covered the more major costs like the mortgage and electric bills, but didn't cover everything every month. Lightning had to find food for herself and Serah, as well as school supplies and other necessities for the school year. Plus, the Farrons weren't able to save much on a lower middle class salary. The life insurance would run out eventually, and Lightning needed to be prepared with her own savings for when it did. Today's ten hours would net her a mere hundred gil, which was a very small amount in the bigger picture—and promotions or raises were out of the question at the age of sixteen. She'd need to find higher paying job soon or her finances would start to fall through.

Lightning rang up the current customer's bill and put the payment back into the cash register. After the customer had left Lightning glanced around for her boss. She was nowhere to be found, so Lightning pulled her homework out from the cubby under the register and got to work. Unlike the rest of her classmates, she didn't have the luxury of procrastinating. If she didn't keep her grades up, Lightning may not pass junior year and would be stuck with an extra year of high school keeping her from earning more money.

"You're the one who's here all the time, aren't you?" A slightly rugged voice jolted Lightning from her homework. She looked up to watch a stoutly wide-shouldered man heave two crates full of goods onto her aisle. Judging from the glowing pauldrons on his white and yellow uniform, he was a part of the Guardian Corps. "What's a young girl like yourself doing taking all the hours in a grocery store?"

"Gil doesn't grow on trees." Lightning replied as she started scanning the man's items.

"Aye." The man nodded in approval. "That it don't. Your parents must be proud of your hard work." Lightning froze in her place, trying to fight back the lump in her throat. The loss of her parents was still more than raw, and the mere suggestion of the term was often enough to have her fighting for control of her emotions. The grief that flashed through her face was more than enough for the customer to realize her parents were dead and he gave an awkward cough, realizing his mistake.

"Apologies." He muttered as his eyes caught sight of a picture of both Serah and Lightning the latter had propped up by her register. Realization dawned even further in his brown eyes. "A cashier's salary isn't going to cover everything you need it to, will it?" He wondered aloud. "Look." The customer continued, reaching into a pocket on the inside of his uniform. "I don't need to be observant to know you're a hard worker." He fished out a card and passed it to Lightning. "I'm sure we can find you something better. Stop by if you're interested." The soldier paid for his items and left the store with Lightning holding the business card. She flipped it over to find that her suspicions were correct—this Second Lieutenant Cornelius Amodar was indeed a part of the Guardian Corps.

Serah was no fool. She knew that her sister's long hours were starting to take their toll. Lightning would leave early in the morning for school and would only come home after working at the store until closing time. When she finally did come home, Lightning would attempt to fake a smile and say everything is fine, but the haggard look in her eyes said otherwise. Serah didn't know if it was the stress or the grief. Perhaps it was both. Either way, Serah knew something had to change—and fast. Serah was underage, so she couldn't grab a proper job to help pay for everything. She had a babysitting job over the summer, but the family moved away before the beginning of the school year. She looked over at the papers Lightning had left on the kitchen table before running off to work the other day. They were two quizzes she had gotten back from earlier this week—one was a D while the other was a C. Lightning was never a straight A student to begin with, but she still used to do better than this. Serah understood that Lightning didn't have the time to study anymore. Their mother would not have liked this outcome, but it was the one they were stuck in.

A knock on the door roused Serah from her thoughts. She checked the clock on the kitchen wall and to her surprise it was already time for her friend Cara to come visit. Serah walked over to the door and opened it to find her old friend standing on the doormat.

"Hey." Cara greeted. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm hanging in there." Serah replied. It wasn't entirely the truth, but it wasn't entirely a lie either. The loss of her parents still felt crippling for Serah, but she also felt that things would work out in the end. Lightning was on it, working for their future. Cara's slightly disbelieving look brought Serah back out of her reverie. She stepped aside to allow her friend to come in.

"I swear," Cara began as she stepped inside the house. "Mr. Juvenheim just lives to be an ass." She pulled out her laptop from the backpack she brought and plopped it on Serah's kitchen table. "I mean, what kind of sadist assigns a ten page paper over the weekend?"

"Someone who expects you to be smart and have started over a month ago when it was first assigned." Serah replied, allowing herself a small smirk.

"Well I am not that." Cara replied. "So this assignment is an insult to my mental capabilities." Cara snapped her fingers and pointed to her laptop's monitor. "Help." Serah gave a small chuckle as she walked over to the kitchen table. She remembered when Cara had been difficult to tutor in history, but that changed when Serah's mother died. Ever since then Cara had basically been banging on Serah's door asking for history help. Serah figured it was Cara's way of providing a distraction for her friend—a way to escape into her favorite subject.

When the grocery store had finally closed for the day, Lightning gathered up her things and headed out the door. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the business card Lt Amodar handed her when he stopped by. The card told her to head for the Corps headquarters near the end of town if she wanted to speak with him. Lightning desperately needed a new job. It was a fifteen-minute walk from one end of town to the other to find an impressively large military campus. The Bodhum Security Regiment was almost a town within a town—it held its own infirmary, submarine docks, aircraft bay, and supply loading docks. Lightning found the offices in the same building as the infirmary on the second floor, where a secretary in uniform was sitting in the lobby.

"May I help you?" The secretary was slightly confused as to why a sixteen-year-old girl was standing in the lobby.

"I'm here for Lieutenant Amodar." Lightning did her best to keep her voice steady. The secretary raised an eyebrow. Apparently not many civilians make that claim.

"Let her in." A familiar voice called from one of the offices down the hallway. Lightning followed it down to Second Lieutenant Amodar's office. "Come in." Lightning entered the room to find it not very…organized. Boxes upon boxes of paperwork were unceremoniously strewn across his desk and shoved into the corners of his office. A black bear skin lay on the ground in the center of the room as a rug. A poster of a sunset over a beach hung on the yellow wall. The words on it said "to get up when you are down, to fight more intensely when you are struggling; to put in the extra effort when you are in sheer pain, to comeback when nobody expects you to and to stand tall when everyone is pulling you down are what make a champion." The man himself was standing behind his desk, looking out through the window in the back of the room. He turned around when he heard light footsteps head through the doorway.

"Hey, I knew you'd show." Second Lieutenant Amodar let out a big smile as he turned around to greet his new guest. "Have a seat, please." Lightning made her way to the seat Amodar had gestured to. "So," he began. "Let's talk business. You need a job, and I think I've got one for you."

"But I'm only sixteen." Lightning blurted out, confused. "You can't enlist in the Corps until you're at least eighteen."

"Well that attitude doesn't get you anywhere, does it?" Amodar gave her a knowing smirk with an added twinkle in his eye. "But you're right. You can't sign up for Basic and fully enlist in the GC until the age of eighteen. But, not all jobs in the GC require basic. For example there's a spot open for a stocking job that is more of a civilian job and doesn't need enlistment. It pays more than a tiny little grocery store too, so I think it would be a good fit for you."

"Why are you helping me?" Lightning asked. She found it confusing that a random customer would be so interested in helping her out.

"I'm often asked if good soldiers are born or made." Amodar began. "And the answer is both. Are you aware of the fight or flight response?" Lightning nodded, though confused as to why this information was relevant to her question.

"That's just something that you're born with." Amodar replied. "Some people are born to flee from danger. We call those civilians. Some people are born to fight it and conquer it. We call those warriors." Lightning still didn't know where Amodar was going with this psychology lesson. "What I saw in you earlier today was a warrior. Most people know about how the fight or flight response works in a physically dangerous situation, but not many understand that it applies to almost every stressful scenario. You lost your parents, and I'm sorry about that. And it would have been perfectly acceptable for you to shut down. But you didn't. You instead buckled down and started working towards a better future. So instead of 'fleeing' and shutting down, you 'fought' and took your future into your own hands. That takes a certain kind of guts that not everyone has. With the right kind of training, that determination can turn even the smallest girl into the strongest warrior. And I want to support that. After all, Lady Luck only helps those who help themselves." Lightning's whole body relaxed. She felt relieved hearing that her hard work was helping Serah.

"I'll take the job."

Hey-o! I'm down here this time. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, fave'd, followed, and ghosted thus far. I really appreciate it, folks. I can't take credit for the quote in Amodar's office—it was actually spoken by Apoorve Dubey. My krav maga instructor often sends out daily inspiration quotes on Facebook and that was one of them. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed the new update, and I hope to see you on the next one!

~RisingPhoenix56