Chapter 53

"Would you like to buy some Girl Scout Cookies?" Jaz bellowed, pounding her fist on the door of some stranger's house. I rolled my eyes and watched her make a fool of herself, standing out on the sidewalk and far away from her.

Daisy, standing next to me, laughed as a surprised woman opened the door. "She sure knows how to get someone's attention!"

"Yeah," I muttered, as Jaz waved her arms and frantically pointed to us. Nudge, at Jaz's side, was bouncing up and down excitedly, holding a few boxes of cookies. "Though I'm not sure if that's a good thing."

"She wants three boxes of Thin Mints!" Jaz shouted. "Three boxes!"

"I heard you the first time!" I murmured, grabbing some cookies and heading towards the front door of the house. Grimacing, I practically shoved the cookies into the lady's arms. "Here you go."

Jaz hummed to herself as she collected the money from the lady. "Don't forget to say thank you!" she hissed in my ear.

"Yeah, whatever. Thanks." I turned around and headed back to where Daisy was waiting on the sidewalk, next to the wagon that held all of our cookies.

"Thank you for supporting the Girl Scouts!" Nudge shrieked, then she and Jaz ran after me.

I sighed. "Are we done now? Also, I'm hungry and I'm pretty sure no one will notice if just one box goes missing," I added, reaching for a box of those Samoa cookies.

"No!" Jaz yelled, grabbing my hand. "It's for the customers, not us!"

I rolled my eyes, brushing off my ugly green skirt that I had to wear. "Fine. Then let's get moving. We need to sell all these dumb cookies if we want to go on the camping trip, right?"

Daisy nodded, smiling. "Yeah! Let's go!"

Daisy and Jaz walked up ahead, chatting, while Nudge and I dragged the heavy wagon full of cookies behind us. As you can imagine, I was not exactly having fun selling Girl Scout cookies. The only thing I was looking forward to in Girl Scouts was that camping trip. But our weird troop leader, that Laura lady, said we had to sell every last box of overpriced cookies in order to go camping.

I groaned, yanking off my green vest and tossing it in the back of the wagon. I was tired of wearing that thing.

"Max, my feet hurt," Nudge whined for what felt like the fiftieth time today. I didn't blame her – we'd been out here selling cookies ever since school ended three hours ago.

I looked down at her feet. "Maybe you shouldn't have worn your Barbie flip-flops today," I commented, frowning, but Nudge pouted up at me. I felt bad for the poor kid, so I shrugged. "Climb in the wagon. I'll pull you."

Nudge's eyes lit up. "Really? Thanks, Max!" Standing on her tiptoes, she planted a kiss on my cheek, then clambered into the back of the wagon.

If the wagon had been heavier before, it was even worse with the added weight of an eight-year-old bird kid. Good thing I was stronger than most other kids my age. I wondered what the wacko nutjobs back at the School would think if they saw their super-human experiment was being used to, well, lug around a wagon full of Girl Scout cookies.

I shook my head. Don't think about the School. I'm never going back there.

"Max?" Jaz's obnoxious voice cut into my thoughts. "Hey, Max?"

"Huh?" I asked, looking over at her. "What? Time to sell more cookies?"

"These cookies are really good!" Nudge's voice said from behind me. I turned to see her shoving a Thin Mint in her mouth. "Hey Max, wanna try one?"

"Sure," I said, leaning over and grabbing a cookie out of her already half-empty box, and cramming it in my mouth.

"No!" Jaz shrieked. "For the customer! Not you!"

Daisy laughed nervously. "I guess I can just pay for that one," she offered, shrugging.

I felt bad – even though Daisy's family had a lot of money, she shouldn't have to pay for the stupid cookies. "Oops," I said, "it looks like we accidentally lost a box of cookies somewhere!"

Jaz frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. "Lying is bad."

I rolled my eyes. "Riiight. Come on, let's just sell the rest of these and finish up here."

"We still have one hundred and thirty-seven boxes to sell," Daisy reported, looking at a clipboard.

I put my hands on my hips. "Wait, how many have we sold so far?"

"Thirteen," Daisy replied.

"Ugh!" I groaned. This was the worst idea ever.

~~::~~

The next day after school, it was time to sell the dumb cookies again. This time, we were supposed to set up a table outside of a local grocery store and attempt to get people to buy the cookies.

Jeb dropped us off at the store – Daisy, Jaz, Nudge, and I, and approximately one hundred boxes of cookies. He shook his head as he unloaded the boxes from the car. "Are you sure you can sell all of these?"

"We're sure!" Jaz replied, hopping from one foot to the other. She was wearing her Girl Scout uniform again – we all were.

Fang smirked from the passenger seat. "Have fun."

I glared at him. "Oh, we will." Earlier, I'd almost punched him when he made fun of the stupid outfit I had to wear. Boys were ridiculous.

Jaz beamed and waved at him as Jeb drove away. "Bye, Fnick! I love you!"

I rolled my eyes, grabbing her arm and dragging her over to the table we'd set up. "Alright, no more gross mushy stuff. Like, ever."

It was a chilly Wednesday afternoon in late February, and shoppers were bustling in and out of the store. "Would you like to buy some Girl Scout cookies?" Nudge called, waving to them. A few people smiled, but no one stopped.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Have I ever mentioned how stupid this is?"

Daisy was taping a poster with the words "Buy Girl Scout Cookies" to the front of our table. "I think it's fun," she said softly, reaching for the tape.

I frowned. "Well… maybe to you. But selling cookies all day isn't really my idea of fun."

Daisy laughed. "Yeah, that's not really the most fun part of Girl Scouts. But camping is really exciting!"

I stared at Daisy, with her fancy braided hairdo and sparkly nail polish and fashionable pink shoes. "You don't seem like the camping type," I commented.

She grinned. "People aren't always what they seem, Max. You should know that!"

I smiled a bit. "Yeah. I guess."

Daisy smiled too. "I know you're not that excited to be a scout right now, but it's going to get really fun. I promise!"

Before I could respond, Nudge shouted, "Hey! We have a customer!"

I turned around to face Mrs. Jenkins. I groaned internally. She was probably here to yell at me about some homework assignment I missed or something.

"Hello, girls," Mrs. Jenkins said. "You're selling cookies, yes?"

"Yeesss," I murmured, looking at her hesitantly. "Why? You wanna buy some?"

Mrs. Jenkins narrowed her eyes at me, but Jaz cut in before she could say anything. "We have Thin Mints, and Samoas, and Tagalongs, and – oh yeah! We have this shortbread kind too!"

"I'll have three boxes of each," Mrs. Jenkins said.

"Huh?" Daisy and I said at the same time. Jaz just stared at Mrs. Jenkins, her mouth wide open.

Nudge was the first one to take action. "Wow! You sure like cookies!" she commented, grabbing cookies off the table and shoving them into a bag. "What's your favorite kind? I like the Thin Mints the best! Oh, are you going to eat these all by yourself? Or do you have kids? Or grandkids? Or great grandkids?"

I slammed my hand over Nudge's mouth before she made Mrs. Jenkins too angry. "That's enough, Nu- I mean, Krystal!"

Nudge glared at me. "It's Tiffany-Krystal!"

Mrs. Jenkins, to my surprise, chuckled. And not in the evil way that she normally does whenever she picks on me in class. "Is this your sister?"

"Huh?" I said. "Um, yeah. This is Tiffany-Krystal. She's in second grade."

Mrs. Jenkins looked down at Nudge. "I see." Then, looking back at Daisy, she asked, "How much for the cookies, Miss Wells?"

Daisy frowned, punching some numbers into a calculator. I wondered if Mrs. Jenkins was trying to give us a surprise math test by buying so many cookies. "Um… $72, please!"

Mrs. Jenkins reached into her purse, pulled out her wallet, and handed Daisy the money. Nudge stared at it. "We're rich," she said in awe.

Jaz sighed. "I wish. It's not our money to keep."

I handed the bag full of cookies to Mrs. Jenkins. "Um, here you go."

"Thank you, Maxine," she responded.

I clenched my fists, muttering, "My name is Max."

"I'll see you tomorrow," Mrs. Jenkins added, turning to head to her car. "Have a nice night, girls."

"Wait!" I yelled after her. "Um, weird question, but why did you buy so many cookies anyway?"

Jaz sighed, smacking her hand against her forehead. "I hope she doesn't get mad and ask for a refund now."

Mrs. Jenkins shrugged. "I'm a teacher. It's my job to support my students, isn't it?" She held up the bag of cookies. "Don't you think so, Max?"

I stared at her. She'd actually gotten my name right. "Mrs. Jenkins-"

"Good night, Maxine," she responded, and then she was gone. I rolled my eyes - well, never mind about her calling me the right name.

I shook my head. "What a weird teacher."

"We have more customers!" Daisy yelled.

"Nudge, stop eating the cookies!" Jaz protested.

"These cookies sure are good," Nudge remarked, opening another box and cramming three cookies in her mouth.

I grinned despite myself. "Let's get down to business. We're going to sell every last box of these cookies!"

~~::~~~

A/N: Thanks to everyone that has stuck with me this far - I really appreciate you guys! Today's chapter had a slower pace, but the next chapter is finally the camping trip, so stay tuned! I hope you're enjoying the ride so far!