Adventurers

Chapter 1

"Niel and I were just heading to Holiday to get a nice cold refreshment after a long day of mowing people's lawns in what seems like a hundred degree weather." While explaining to my mom what we where doing and where we were going, we already had one foot out the door.
Holiday wasn't far away, about five minutes. On our way, we had talked about making fliers for lawn mowing. "What should our brand name be? Should we make our own t-shirts to match our fliers?" I wondered. It took Neil a minute to answer; he might have been thinking or was in his own la la land.
"Our brand name...the only thing I can think of is Neil and Steel. That doesn't include your name."
"The business was your idea and that's the only thing we can come up with so let's use it."
First we looked at bottled beverages then realized we could get more fountain drink for about the same price. I went with a large fruit punch and Neil went with a medium mountain dew. I went to the candy aisle while I saw Neil stop in the chip aisle. There were so many choices to choose from, I decided on sour skittles. We had joined up at the cash register and I saw he had a bag of hot Cheetos. Our total then came to $7.52 Neil handed the cashier a twenty dollar bill we earned from one of four lawns we mowed.
When I got home, my mom had made dinner and my dad was home from the grocery store with my sister. When I sat at the table, I noticed no one had eaten and it was everyone's favorite, lasagna. I said grace and nobody had bowed their head or closed their eyes, yet they were breathing. For five minutes, I was shoveling food into my mouth, until I heard, "Did we scare you buddy?"
After listening to silence along with the chomping of my teeth it startled me and I almost choked. My family started laughing like they had just seen a cat fall into a toilet.
"Hey buddy, we got a surprise for you and your mom. Joslyn picked it out." Dad and Joslyn just grinned and chuckled a little.
When the rest of the household got to the lasagna, it was cold but that didn't stop my dad. Mom and Joslyn went to the microwave. Joslyn tried to get there first by running and her lasanga plopped on the floor. She picked it up and a clump of crumbs and dirt were on it.
"Serves you right, don't forget we don't waste good food. Try blowing it off."
Dad and I were watching the whole time. We were trying so hard not to laugh but a huge roar of laughter came from everyone but Joslyn. Joslyn lost her appetite.
While we were eating Joslyn came up to dad and she's not very good at whispering but all I heard was 'cat'.
Dad then responded with "After dinner and desert." Mom had made a double chocolate devil's food cake for desert. When dad said desert, Joslyn's eyes grew to the size of kiwis.
"No desert until food is eaten." I respect mom's rules but she doesn't follow them, and they're annoying when they're put on you.
Joslyn's piece of lasanga was sitting on the table staring her straight in the face still drizzled with filth. I had a fourth of my fruit punch and said, "take a bite, swallow, sip, repeat."
After desert Joslyn came out with a box with holes in the sides and I heard meowing. Nobody had to guess what it was, they already knew. I heard Joslyn mumble under her breath while I only caught bits and pieces of what she said,"Stupid cat...ruined the supri..."
"Peter!! You got a cat!! We barely have enough money to pay for the four of us!!" I could tell mom wasn't happy so I took the box and Joslyn to the other room while the parents argued low so they wouldn't have us hear.

*1 week later*

"What's for dinner mom?"
"I don't want to cook, let's go to Olive Garden."
"Can Neil and his family come?"
"I don't know ask him."
In order to go do fun stuff often, I have a flip phone but I'm not ashamed. Joslyn has the Iphone 6 plus therefore, I do fun stuff more often than her. We both share an IPad mini we got from a pawn shop. It has horrible battery life but that's my way of playing games and it works just fine for me. Joslyn doesn't understand how I can't be ashamed of having a flip phone. Nobody has them. She acts like she is sixteen or seventeen but she's only ten. Later in life I can see her in a medium-small apartment with all the latest technology.
"Hello?"
"Hi Neil, Its Ben. I was just wondering if your family wanted to come to Olive Garden with us."
"Hold on"
He must have muted the phone because I couldn't hear him asking his parents.
"Hello Ben, this is Neil's mom, we have plans but if you can stop by and pick him up then it's fine with us."
"Ok Thanks bye"
"Bye "

"His mom said that they have plans but if we can pick up Neil then he can go."
"Ok, your sister is staying home and having cereal however we need a little extra cash for him. We will have a conversation in the car with him. "

*Exactly 6 houses away*

"Hey Neil, we only have enough money for us three so the next lawn mowing payment, Ben needs three fourths of the money and half will go to us so that it's fair to you. So you each would get a fourth and we would get half."
"Ok fine with me."
Olive Garden was about fifteen minutes away.
"Hey Neil, when I asked you should we make t-shirts to match our fliers, you didn't respond, we could make them white with silver writing cause ...Steel..."
I'm afraid that we would need to Invest in something that will get our business out there but we can go to the D.I. to get two cheap shirts and a silver Sharpe for now, we can't be spending too much money because it's only for two seasons, we still are growing.....I hope."
Neil did have a point. I don't think that anyone at the age of twelve quit growing. "Ok then we can do the D.I. options and do a shoveling business in the winter. I like being busy, how bout' you.
"Would we just keep Neil and Steel? Wait! I can sketch my idea. I will have it ready for you tomorrow."