Skins/Headscratchers

• How in the name of arse do these characters manage to buy drinks in bars and clubs? They're sixteen. Or possibly seventeen. Still -- either way, it's totally illegal and would never happen.
  • Likely through fake IDs, and sometimes through smooth-talking the guards (for getting into clubs) or bartenders - we see Effy do this to the guard at a club in her S2 episode, which leads him to let her and Pandora in and keep Tony out.
• Where does Cassie get all this money, as a runaway, to just randomly fly to the USA? And how does she get a job as a waitress as a non-citizen without so much as a green card?
  • As to the second part - very, very easily, especially given that waitresses are overwhelmingly paid in cash and can be considered part-time employees. American attitudes towards illegal immigrants is a little more complicated than Arizona would have you believe.
    • I know that last bit, I'm an American myself. But I've applied for jobs like waitressing, and even those jobs, even part-time, require legal documentation that you're eligible to work in the United States. She's not just being paid in cash tips; there would have to be some sort of legal red-tape she'd have to wade through to get that job, unless they're paying her under-the-table.
  • To answer the first part, a lot of the characters sell drugs at clubs and parties to get cash for themselves. This is established in Series 1, Episode 1, and pretty much rings true throughout the show. Cassie definitely does this, as she also has access to pills that she probably doesn't take.
    • But as that same episode establishes, most of that money would go back to pay their dealers. In Skins, selling drugs is a way to earn spending money, not a way to earn a living wage.
• How does Sid know that Jake is fifteen?