Lydia Takes the Leap
Chapter 15

On Sunday morning, the girls woke to the smell of delicious cinnamon and vanilla drifting out of the kitchen. Mrs. Wyley was up early cooking bacon and French toast for the girls to eat before taking Karen home. They each got up to get dressed and ready for the day meeting in the dining room to eat breakfast together. Mr. Wyley was already at the table sipping black coffee and taking bites of bacon while he checked his cell phone for the morning business updates.

“Dad! We’ve come up with our official shop names, would you like to hear them now?”

“Alright, let me hear them.” He set down the phone and sat back in the chair ready to listen.

Lydia told him that she decided to go with the name Odds & Ends Shop, Veronica’s shop name would be Off The Hook, and Karen’s shop was named The Wrist Wrangler.

“Oh, those sound perfect!” Lydia’s mother interjected.

“Yep, I’ll agree with the wife. Those are excellent names for your shops!”

“So… what do we do next?” Veronica looked to Mr. Wyley.

“Well, it looks like you have some stock. How about testing out the market? Try to sell one or two around town. Make sure you price your items at an affordable dollar amount, no million dollar markups on your slime Lydia!”

The girls exchanged nervous glances. They were going to actually sell things they’d made in their own bedrooms!

Ignoring her father’s sly joke, she asked what all the girls were thinking, “What if they think our stuff is stupid and no one buys from us?”

“But what if they love your stuff and some people DO buy it? You’re never going to know unless you take the leap. Start small, aim to sell just one item at a time and see how far you get.” Mr. Wyley hoped his encouraging words would help the girls accomplish this daunting task.

When the trio finished their breakfast, Mrs. Wyley drove Karen home. “Do you want to walk with me to my house?” Veronica asked as she packed up her overnight bag.

“Um, sure. Why not?” Lydia replied hesitantly.

Veronica went quiet suddenly, then after a three minute bout of silence she looked to Lydia with a sparkle in her eye.

“Lydia! I have a mastermind idea! You’re worried about my brother laughing at your pencil holders, but WHAT IF-” and she took a dramatic pause, “What if you sell your slime to my brothers? You made a couple of batches; do you have bags or something?”

“Oh my gosh! Veronica, YOU ARE SUCH A GENIUS! Of course, they would want farting slime, who wouldn’t?”

Lydia proceeded to put her slime into a bags in the hopes of peddling a few at Veronica’s house. As they made their way towards the “mad house” the friends chatted about selling around school the next day.

“Let’s plan to meet up before school too if you don’t mind? I get there early anyways and it’d be nice to have an experienced saleswoman show me the ropes.” They laughed again and arrived at Veronica’s shortly after.

“Come on in,” Veronica grabbed Lydia’s hand and brought her to the living room where Michael was chilling out.

“Hey brat, you’re finally home!” He greeted his sister and stuck out his tongue.

“Yeah, I’m home freak and I brought my friend Lydia with me too. Do you remember her from the other day?”

He nodded and avoided eye contact with her.

“Well anyways… Lydia has something insanely awesome to sell to you, don’t you Lydia?!”

Lydia cleared her throat and was about to begin her sales pitch when Michael crudely interrupted her to say, “I don’t want any of your stupid tin cans to hold my pencils.”

“Wow, that was rude!” Veronica yelled at her older brother and gave Lydia an apologetic look.

Lydia’s cheeks flushed, She put on her business-like voice. “Well, fine! Miss out on one of the most amazingly disgusting farting toys. Everyone at school is going to have one tomorrow and you are missing out on a special, exclusive opportunity. And my pencil holders are not stupid!” she added before they turned to leave.

The girls stormed out of the room and through the front door. Just as they were heading down the front path, Jacob pulled up in his car.

“Hey, sis! You’re home, you missed tuna casserole for dinner. It was alright this time, dad actually remembered to add the cheese.” He greeted his little sister with a rough noogie to the head and waved hello to Lydia.

Not wanting to miss out on this opportunity, Lydia put her hand up to stop Jacob from getting by.

“Jacob, for the very low price of only three dollars, you can be the owner of your very own bag of farting slime! It makes countless fake boogers to gross your friends out…” She looked at him hopefully as he laughed at her sales pitch.

“All right, I have three bucks. Let me see this farting slime.”

She pulled out a couple of bags of the slime from her jacket pocket. “They store better in Tupperware, but my mom would freak out if I gave hers away,” she explained as he examined the bags in her hands.

“I will take this one.” He handed her three dollar bills in exchange for the bag of purple slime.

As the girls got to the end of the driveway they started jumping up and down. Lydia had sold her first bag of slime! She thanked Veronica again for the idea and ran all the way home to show her parents she was already making money. The rest of the day, Lydia whipped up as many batches of rainbow slime as she could, bagging it carefully to take to school on Monday.