Lydia Takes the Leap
Chapter 7

The next morning the house was buzzing with anticipation and a very busy young girl. Lydia was prepping refreshments for her new club members and arranging the dining room for their business lesson with dad. She brought out her art easel and placed a giant pad of paper on it for her father to write on. She put out a basket of pens and pencils alongside a neat stack of pocket-sized notebooks she’d bought from the dollar store for the girls to take notes with. She then found some decorative paper and carefully wrote: Little Business Club Meet Up Today! She then taped it to her front door in case any passersby wanted to join the club at the last minute; and to confirm the location for Karen, since she’s never been to Lydia’s house. She spent the rest of her time pacing back and forth in the living room, too excited to sit still while waiting for the other members to arrive.

Despite only living a few houses away from Lydia, Veronica was not the first member to arrive. A beat up car rumbled up at noon on the dot, and a girl decked out in accessories stepped out. She was a few inches taller than Lydia and had bracelets jingling up both arms as she waved to her when she saw her looking out of the window. Lydia waved back and opened the door to greet the newcomer.

“Hi! I’m here for the business club… This is the place, right?”

“Oh yes! It is, please come in. You must be Karen,” greeted Lydia. She gave her a quick tour of the house, and then led her to the dining room

“Would you like any refreshments?” Lydia offered and made light conversation while they waited for Veronica to arrive. It was about ten minutes before Veronica finally knocked on the front door.

“Hello! Karen got here before you! Come in, come in.” Lydia shooed Veronica through the door and into the dining room.

The girls exchanged greetings and Lydia knocked on the table to get everyone’s attention.

“I would like to welcome you all to the Little Business Club and thank you for coming. Please help yourselves to some munchies and notepads,” she said, gesturing grandly over the table at her offerings.

“Let’s start with introductions!”

Lydia had been practicing her opening line for most of the week and was delighted to have two people to deliver it to, instead of one like she’d originally feared.

“I’ll start! My name is Lydia, I am 11 years old and I created this club to replace motivated friends and start a successful business.”

The girls clapped and Veronica decided to go next. “My name is Veronica, I am 10 years old. I love to crochet, study and read books. I joined the club to make more money to buy more yarn and better hooks.”

The girls applauded causing Veronica’s face to turn pink. She looked away shyly, not used to getting this kind of response when she told other kids about her “grandma hobbies” as her brothers called them. Karen went last; the other girls leaned in to listen to her introduction.

“My name is Karen, I live with my little brother and father outside of Santa Cruz. My father works with the city so we get to go to school in this district. He drops us off at school on his way to work and picks us up to take us home before his next job starts,” she explained.

“I love wearing accessories and I think I would like to make my own to sell so I can help out around the house. After my mom died, my father had to get another job and I hardly see him anymore. If I can make a little bit of cash, maybe he won’t have to work so hard and he can spend more time at home with us.” Veronica and Lydia clapped for Karen while complimenting the lovely bracelets adorning both of her wrists.

“Thank you, these were my mother’s. I love the way they sparkle and jingle. They remind me of her,” Karen stated openly. Just as the conversation started to veer off in a different direction, focused on school gossip and cute boys, Lydia’s dad stepped into the dining room dressed in one of his business suits. Lydia beamed at her father and was pleased he took this meeting seriously even though they were “so young.”