Strong

Chapter Three

     My mom and I are making a bunch of flyers for the neighborhoods. They are really bright and colorful, so I really hope they get noticed and I can get a job. My mom checks over it one last time and after it's perfect, we hop in the car to go down to the neighborhoods. We talk the whole way there and decide to put the first flyers on every street sign in each neighborhood. The rest of the flyers will go on people's doors.

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     We finally finished delivering every paper and we're sitting at home. It took about three hours because there are a lot of houses in the richer areas of town. I get on the computer and take some practice ACT's. My average score on those is 73%. That's low for me. My mom reassures me and says that it's usually juniors and seniors that take the test and sometimes they don't even get a score like mine. After that, I'm feeling a bit better about it. Nialler comes over later and offers to help out with the sitting and he won't ask for any of the money. Of course I let him. He's my best friend, I mean, how can I NOT let him?

     In the next room, I hear my mom's phone ring and I hear her talking to someone. I wonder if it's a client that wants to hire me. When the call ends, she calls my name. I bound down the stairs, hoping it's for a client.

     "That was Mrs. Simpson. She has a 5 year old boy named River and a 7 year old girl named Kendall. Her and Mr. Simpson will be gone from Friday at 4:30 to Sunday at 6:00. Will you be fine having a full weekend job?"

     I squeal with excitement. "OF COURSE! This is gonna be so fun! Can Niall stay all weekend and help out?"

     "That's up to him and his parents. I'm fine with it if they are."

     Niall calls his parents and puts his phone on speaker. It's a little muffled, but we can hear his parents saying that it's okay. Niall gives me a big hug. "I can't wait till tomorrow! We should probably set up the living room so the four of us can fit and the kids can run around."

     We move the furniture so the kids have room to just have fun. While I sit down, Niall goes to the basement and gets all the old toys I had  when I was young. I was imagining the money. I write down the hourly fees for the weekend and add them up. I find that it goes to $495.  I drop my pencil, shocked. Niall runs over to me and asks what happened. I pull him into a huge hug and tell him the price.

     "That's amazing, Alex! It's hard to believe that just two fourteen year olds can make that kind of money in just a few days!"

     My mom chimes in. "I just got a call from your father. I have to meet him at the airport so we can fly down to Florida because of business issues. I have to go in about an hour, so you guys just watch a movie while I get packed. Sorry about the sudden change." She hugs both of us and wishes us luck with the kids.

     "When will you be back?" Niall and I say in unison, giggling after hearing ourselves.

     "Probably Monday or Tuesday.  I gotta go pack though. Bye guys." She runs upstairs and packs all of her stuff. Niall's in the kitchen making us food from almost everything in the refrigerator and pantry. Damn he likes to eat. I browse the movies on the shelf and find Grease, one of our favorite movies. I turn it on and from the first scene to the last, we're just laughing and singing along. After that, we turn on Jaws, one of my favorites, and we eventually fall asleep. That might be a good thing because the part where Quint gets eaten just kind of grosses me out.