Roommates.

Chapter 1: Lemonade.

Adam, Ross, Barney, and Jin were all sitting in the living room, watching television. Ross and Thundermuffin were busy talking over their finances, so Barney, Jin, and Adam all chatted among themselves about important arguments the house hold had been discussing recently.

"Guys, we have to at least decide on this. Thin mints are the best girl scout cookies of all time." Adam pressed, wanting to reach common ground.

"Yeah, obviously we could agree on THAT much." Jin agreed.

"No ways, peanuts butter sandwiches cookie is best!" Barney argues. "Thin mints is seconds place."

"Barney are you kidding? Thin mints is the very definition of happiness!" Jin yelled back in disbelief.

"Um…guys we have a problem." Ross chimed in softly, finishing his conversation with Thundermuffin.

"What is it now Ross? Make it quick, Barney's insulting thin mints again." Jin said, looking at Barney in disgust.

"Do you guys remember that Tony Stark guy?" Ross asked nervously.

"You means the guy with the suits who wanted the oranges?" Barney asked back.

"Yeah…that guy. He wants us to pay for the suits we stole." He answered back.

"What? That was from forever ago!" Adam said in shock.

"That's not it. We also gotta pay for the damage we did to the store…and for that Bruce guy's car…and computer for that matter…" Ross finished, remembering all the charges Thundermuffin had told him.

"How could they be holding a grudge like this for so long!" Adam exclaims.

"And that computer had a hardware issue, it wasn't my fault!" Jin yelled in his defense.

"Hows are we gonna payings all that off?" Barney asks.

"They've given us some time to try and work up the money but if we don't get it by then we're in trouble." Ross answered.

"Wait, Adams, can't you sells that butter your family discovering or something?" Barney suggested, knowing it was a touchy subject with him.

"Yeah, Adam it's kind of an emergency." Jin agreed.

"No way, not gonna happen, my butter is precious to me its part of the family!" Adam refused defensively.

"Well I don't know what else to do then." Jin said in frustration.

"Heys guys, back in my countrys I had a killer goats milk business, why not try that?" Barney offered.

"People here don't necessarily enjoy goat milk Barney. We'd have to find a drink more people could be interested in." Said Jin in reply.

"Like a lemonade stand?" Ross questioned getting unusually excited.

"Who could not being excited for the goats milks?" Barney asked , offended.

"I mean, isn't a lemonade stand a little childish?" Adam questioned.

"LEMONADE STAND!" Ross yelled.

"It is but it's the best idea so far. And no matter how long it takes as long as we start working off the debts now we'll be in better shape." Jin reasoned, pointing out that it was their best hope.

"I guess so. I just don't know where to really begin with this." Adam replied with a sigh.

"LEMONADE STAND!" Ross yelled again.

"Ross, why are you yelling like that?" Adam asked covering his ears.

"Yo I like lemonade." Ross spoke in a softer voice.

"You won't be drinking it, you'll be selling it." Jin told him.

"I know, but I like lemonade. Not the flavor, just the substance itself." Ross explained.

"Ross…wha…. OK never mind let's just get started I guess, I'll make the lemonade, Jin, Ross, you guys build the stand, Barney…take a shower or something I don't know." Adam spoke as he went into the kitchen.

"Will do." Jin said.

"Got it." Ross agreed.

"Shickelurr." Barney exclaimed, and they all began working.

Time skip 2 hours

The guys had their stand set up with the lemonade ready, and Barney freshly showered. They sat back and waited, waving over at people who passed.

"Dude, we've been here all day and made 4 bucks." Adam complained.

"3 bucks, one of the smalls was bought by Ross." Jin corrected.

"I can't help it ok? Lemonade is my passion." Ross defended.

"Ross, you said you liked the substance though, not the flavor of it." Said Adam.

"Yeah but you know!" Ross answered, without really having an argument to reply with.

The group sat there and thought about what they could possibly do differently, until Ross suddenly had an idea.

"Guys I got it!" Ross exclaimed, and ran off back to the house.

'What? What was that all about?" Jin asked.

"It's Ross who knows." Adam sighed.

"Yeah, I thinks he crazy." Barney agreed.

The three sat at the stand for another 30 minutes, making 5 more dollars. Ross then returned with a package.

"Ross where have you been?" Jin asked.

"Guys, I went into my emergency bag and I found these." Ross put the package on the stand to reveal it was full of bendy straws.

"Why did you have that in your emergency bag?" Barney asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Ross said.

"Ross how is this supposed to help us?" Adam asked angrily.

"Ok it's really simple. We get the bendy straws. We use them in the drinks. People come." Ross said, using his hands to illustrate each point carefully.

"Ross, no one…" Jin was cut off by a man who came up to the stand.

"Is this the stand with the bendy straws?" He asked.

"Uh...yes, can we help you?" Adam asked the man. Right after two more people showed up. Before they knew it they had racked up a large crowd of costumers. After things slowed down a bit, The group decided to pack up for the day with a total of 112 dollars.

"Ross, how did you get all those costumers?" Adam asked.

"The bendy straws got them, not me." Ross said.

"But how did they even know we had bendy straws?"

"..Yea." Ross answered.

"Yeah, he's got point." Barney agreed.

"No he doesn't. That's not a point!" Adam argued.

"Everyone likes bendy straws." Ross said.

"Fine." Adam sighed in defeat.

The next day they opened the stand again, and yet more people came to the stand. Adam, who was busy making the lemonade, finally got a moment to come to the front to relax when he entered in on a conversation.

"Ross, this was a great idea!" Jin exclaimed.

"Hey guys what's going on?" Adam asked.

"I made another change to the drinks." Ross told him.

"What did you do now?" Adam asked.

"He puttings little umbrella into drinks! Hah hah!" Barney exclaimed.

"Ross, where did you get these?" Adam asked, holding one of the little umbrellas between his fingers.

"From our trip to Hawiiwii." Ross said.

"Hawaii, Ross, Hawaii." Jin corrected.

"That's what I said, Hawiiwii." Ross restated.

"And let me guess, everyone loves little umbrellas?" Adam predicted.

"Yes they do." Ross nodded.

"I know it sounds crazy but these changes are working. We've already raised twice as much as we did yesterday and its hardly even noon yet!" Jin exclaimed.

"Well I mean, we can't argue with those numbers I suppose." Adam nodded, still in disbelief of the progress Ross managed to make.

The group made a much larger profit that day, and for the next few days they kept the pattern going, until one night Ross woke everyone up for a meeting.

"Ross, why did you wake us up, we're exhausted!" Jin complained.

"If we want this enterprise to take off, we need to hold these meetings at least twice a week." Ross explained, for some reason wearing a suit at 1 AM.

"Wow, enterprise is a big word for you Ross." Jin mocked with a yawn.

"Thundermuffin just taught it to me." He bragged, then pulled out a large wipe board with a stand and uncapped a marker.

"OK team, so far we've already raised 1768 dollars, which is good, but to work off the debt in a reasonable amount of time, we need to make more money more fastly." Ross opened.

"It's faster." Jin corrected.

"Exactly what I said. Fastlyer." Ross replied before going back to the board.

"What I want from you guys is ideas, what do you got for me?"

"OH! Apple!" Barney yelled.

"Barney that's no-'' Adam was cut off

"Great idea Barney! We expand our market! Apple juice, grape juice, orange juice!" Jin exclaimed.

"I like what I'm hearing from the two of you!" Ross said, writing on the whiteboard.

"Barney didn't even get an idea he just said apple!" Adam yelled, gesturing towards Barney where he was happily sipping down a glass of goat milk.

"Hey hey! Don't trying to takings credits on my idea dirt!" Barney yelled back

"Credit! That's it, we offer banking on the side!" Ross exclaimed.

"Ross! No one is going to trust their banking needs to a lemonade stand!"

"Not with that attitude!" Ross scolded.

"How well we do all of this anyways? I can't do banking and make a hundred different kinds of juices I'm just one guy!" Adam pointed out.

"We get Thundermuffin's buddies to work for us! They owe us after they trashed our house in that rave he threw." Jin explained.

"Ugh, this is ridiculous, I'm going back to sleep." Adam said, and walked back to his bedroom, laid down in his bed, and drifted off.

The next day, Adam walked into the juicing corner of the stand to begin squeezing and pouring more juice to find it completely reorganized with new fruits and new equipment.

"What is all this?" Adam said to himself.

"Why hello valued employee." Ross said, walking back to greet him. "Enjoying the changes I made back here? My pleasure, really."

"Yeah, it's nice and all but I didn't think we'd actually be…you know…expanding so much."

"The shark must keep moving forward to catch the worm." Ross told him

"That's not the expression at all, but sure." Adam said as he went back to juicing some lemons. He hated to admit it but the upgrades Ross made, like the electric juicers, were going to make his job a lot easier.

"Ah look, Thundermuffin's friends have shown up to help." Ross noted. Adam turned around and saw a bunch of chickens wearing miniature grass hula skirts.

"Ross what are they wearing?"

"The new uniforms! Jin says according to studies places get more sales if they have a uniform that establishes a sense of pride in their business." Ross explains, handing him a grass skirt.

"Ross…I am not wearing this." Adam says, putting the skirt down. Jin and Barney walk to the back, wearing the uniform which for them consisted of a skirt and a coconut bra.

"What's the big deal Adam, we're wearing them its comfortable." Jin questioned.

"Yeah man, I likings this." Barney agreed, twirling his skirt energetically.

"Guys look at you. You're men in public wearing a grass skirt and coconut bra. Ross is wearing a suit, why doesn't he wear the uniform?"

"I'm the manager for one thing, cause it was my idea. And two…you don't get the bra, you get the bra when you start showing a little more optimism around here." Ross scolded, shoving the skirt back into Adam's hands.

"You know what? I don't even need you guys, I'm outta here! I'll start my own lemonade stand." Adam storms off back to their house, and begins making plans for his own stand to put Ross' stand out of business.

Time skip to next day

Adam wakes up ready to open his new business. He gets dressed and walks out to the living room where he finds Ross sitting on the couch.

"Ross, what are you doing here?" Adam asks.

"I live here." He replies, taking a spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

"Yeah but what about your lemonade stand, shouldn't you be working?"

"We don't own one anymore." Ross says, eyes fixed on the television.

"What do you mean?"

"Another company bought it."

"What company would buy a lemonade stand?" Adam asks with great curiosity.

"The good folks at Microsoft would. Something about a failed project before, I don't know. But they bought our stand and renamed it Lemonade 10."

"Ross! That was our only way of making money to pay off our debts!"

Ross pulled out a piece of paper.

"This is the amount they bought it for." Ross said, scribbling a number down with a pen.

Adam read the paper, and instantly dropped it at his feet.

"Oh my god…"

"Adam."

"Yes Ross."

"We won't have to work for awhile."

(Note from the author: I hope you guys enjoyed this, its one of my two newer projects, the other one was uploaded yesterday. For now my schedule isn't very clear but I'll make sure to put it on my profile when I think it up. Thanks for all the support I've gotten, and I'll see you guys around. Stay creative.)