Spur of the Moment Read Online Free PDF Page A

didn’t care: It was the stone cold truth.
    Until rich Mr. Right came along, a more steady income would certainly come in handy, though, and temping was anything but steady. Every time she called her dad for money she got a lecture about how it was time to grow up, and why couldn’t she be more like her older brother, who already had a good career following in his daddy’s footsteps and making tons of money, blah blah blah.
    Marin couldn’t help it. She just couldn’t be an investment banker; she didn’t have it in her. Since she was a little girl she’d had the performing bug. When you have a father who works hundred-hour weeks and a mother who rarely pays attention to you even if you’re the only person in the room, you learn quickly how to be funny and adorable and generally pleasing. You take whatever shreds of attention you can get, any way you can get them.
    She would have ended up in a theater department no matter where she went to school, but she was glad for the twist of fate that brought her to the University of Colorado and to her friends that she met there. She was confident that she’d make it as an actress. She didn’t want to divert her energies by working on a career at an office.
    She stared at the copier. She needed more coffee before she could make any decisions about what to do. Marin went to the kitchen and smiled warmly at the young guy standing there, adding sugar to his coffee. She opened cabinets until she found where they kept the coffee mugs.
    â€œHi. Are you new here? I’m Trevor.”
    â€œI’m a temp. I’m just here for the week. Hey, the copier is stuck. Do you know who I should go to to get it fixed?”
    â€œYou’re talking to him. I work in technical support,” he said, smiling broadly.
    â€œThis must be my lucky day.”
    In the copy room, Trevor opened a couple of doors on the copier and tore out a sheet of paper that had been caught. “That should do it.” He smiled triumphantly. “What did you say your name was?”
    He hit P RINT , and the very next page that went through got stuck. Trevor opened the door and tore out another sheet of rumpled paper. Then another sheet and another. He closed the copier door and still the “paper is stuck here” button was flashing. He opened the door again and pulled out more paper, then he struggled to get the ink cartridge out. It came loose in one quick motion, spraying his chest and face with black ink.
    Marin tried very hard not to laugh.

5
    Villainous Cattle Ranchers and Spineless Principals
    J ason was unusual among his group of friends in that he was one of the very few of them that wouldn’t necessarily love to quit their day job. (Scott liked being a graphic designer, but if he could work full time as a comedian or artist and never have to deal with the likes of The Big Weasel ever again, he would give his notice in a nanosecond.) Jason really did enjoy teaching. Most of the time.
    The times he didn’t like it were times like these, when he’d been called into the principal’s office after second-period sophomore biology to confront a red-faced, spluttering cattle rancher, the father of one of the boys in Jason’s seventh-period biology class, who was accusing Jason of teaching his child socialist propaganda, encouraging vegetarianism, and spreading lies about the effects of pesticides.
    In the lessons the irate man was referring to, Jason had explained to his students the environmental costs of the food Americans consumed. He talked about how fewer and fewer farmers could make a living farming in America anymore, and how as a result, the food Americans ate came from foreign countries that didn’t have to follow the same laws regarding pesticides and chemicals that American farmers did, meaning pesticides that had been banned for years here in the States were shipped right back into the country from foreign lands. He had talked