The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies Read Free Book Online Page B

could see.
    When Paul saw Jessie, he dropped his arms. "Hey," he said. Paul was Jessie's favorite of Evan's friends. He always joked around with her, but in a
nice way. And he never minded when Evan invited her to come along with them.
    "Hey," said Jessie. "What's up?"
    Evan turned off the air hockey table. "Nothing," he said. "We were just going out."
    Paul dropped his hockey paddle onto the table and followed Evan into the garage. Jessie trailed behind.
    "Where are you going?" she asked.
    "Down to the tracks," said Paul as he strapped on his bike helmet. "We put pennies there this morning, so we're gonna get 'em now. Squash! Ya wanna—"
    "YO!" shouted Evan.
    "My B," muttered Paul. "So, see ya," he said to Jessie.
    Jessie hated this feeling of being shut out. Like she wasn't wanted. Evan had never made her feel that way before, even when sometimes he
did
want to be just with his friends. He'd always say things like, "Jess, we're going to go shoot hoops just the two of us, but when we get back we'll play spud
with you." So that she knew he still liked her, even when she wasn't invited along.
    But this. This was like he hated her. Like he never wanted to play with her again. And Paul was going right along with it.
    Jessie scowled. "So you really cleaned up today at the lemonade stand, huh?" she said.
    "Yep, we sold out," said Evan.
    "So what did you make, like three dollars?" she asked.
    "Actually, we made a ton. What was it, Paul?"
    "Forty-five bucks," said Paul.
    Jessie's mouth went slack. Forty-five dollars! "There's no way," she said. "Not at ten cents a cup."
    "Oh, just the little kids paid that," said Evan. "The grownups all gave us way more. 'That's too cheap!' they said. 'It's such a hot day and you're working so hard. Here, take a dollar. Keep the change.' It was crazy!"
    "Unreal," said Paul. "They kept pushing all this money at us 'cause they thought it was so sweet we were selling lemonade for a dime. We made a killing."
    Bright Idea #5—Jessie remembered it immediately. "That's called
goodwill,
" she said slowly, picturing the exact page from her mother's booklet with the definition on it.

    "It's when you do something nice in business and it ends up paying you back with money." She sighed. Why hadn't she thought of that? She would be sure to tear out that definition and put it in her lock box when she got back to the lemonade stand.
    "Well, whatever. We cleaned up," said Evan.
    "Even so," said Jessie, trying to find some way to prove that Evan had
not
had a good day selling lemonade. "You had four people working the stand. So if you split forty-five dollars four ways, that's only eleven twenty-five each."
Which is still way more
    than I'm going to make today,
she thought,
since the whole neighborhood has already filled up on cheap lemonade.
    "We're not splitting," said Evan. "The guys said I could keep it all."
    "Right," said Paul. "All for a good cause!"
    "That's not fair!" said Jessie.
    "Sure it is," said Evan as he got on his bike and pushed off. "In case you didn't know, that's what it's like to have
friends.
" Evan crossed the street.
    "Ouch," said Paul. "TTFN, Jess." He followed Evan.
    Jessie was left standing alone in the driveway.

Chapter 7
Location, Location, Location
location () n. Real estate term that refers to the position of a piece of real estate as it relates to the value of that real estate.
    Evan was in trouble. So far, he'd earned forty-seven dollars and eleven cents, which was more money than he'd ever had in his whole life. But today was Friday. There were only three days left. Three days to beat Jessie. He needed to earn almost fifty-three dollars to win the bet. And that meant each day he had to earn—
    Evan tried to do the math in his head. Fifty
three divided by three. Fifty-three divided by three. His brain spun like a top. He didn't know where to begin.
    He went to his desk, pulled out a piece of paper—his basketball schedule from last winter—and flipped it over