Charlotte Morgan and the Lemonade Stand--Chapter 13 Gavin's Idea

  This is my next book. Charlotte Morgan and the Lemonade Stand.  

It is still in the work-in-progress phase. The cover I am posting here is a temp cover derived from the first book.  But I like sharing my work here first.  The book is leveled for third grade readers and up.I am using the #steemiteducation tag because the book is about using math and earning money.   

To read what has happened earlier click the link for each individual chapter for chapter 1. Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapter 10, Chapter 11, Chapter 12

Summary: Charlotte and Gavin discuss new ideas to make more money. 

Chapter 13 Gavin's Idea 

“Sally and I decided that we can meet after school while I walk Charlie,” I said to Aaron and Marcus as we walked the track at the beginning of recess. 

“That’s cool.” Aaron replied.

 “Did you tell them about Gavin’s idea?” Sally asked.

 “What idea?” Marcus asked. 

“Gavin said that someone asked for Popsicle when he did his lemonade stand,” I replied. “And I thought maybe if we did that we could charge more for each frozen lemonade.” 

Aaron clapped his hands, “Yeah! You could charge like $5. That would be a great mark-up!” Aaron stared off into space, apparently imagining great riches. 

Sally interrupted his fantasy, “But the question becomes, how much does it cost to make a frozen lemonade?” 

Aaron shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know? What do we need? Wooden popsicles sticks…” 

“Molds, the things that hold the lemonade…” interrupted Marcus.

 “And a cooler with ice to be able to keep them frozen,” I said, as I imagined going through all the steps that were needed. 

“So that’s a cooler, ice, popsicles sticks, and molds,” said Sally, who seemed to be keeping a list in her head. “That sounds like a lot. Maybe charging even $5 might not be enough.”

 “It will depend on how much all that stuff costs,” said Marcus. 

“How are we going to get all of this stuff?” Aaron wondered.

 “I don’t know,” I replied. “I don’t know.” 

“A bag of ice can’t be more than a dollar, and if we get three…” said Aaron. 

“Then that’s three bucks,” replied Sally.

 “Do you have cooler?” asked Aaron. 

“Yes! We do! We use it when we go to the beach, and we put our snacks in it!” I yelled because I was excited to know that was one less expense.

 “What about the things to make popsicles, the holder thingies,” Aaron pretend to hold a popsicles and pull it out of the holder. 

“I think their called molds, since they make the shape of the popsicle,” I replied. 

“Yeah, that. How much are those? Do you have any?” Aaron asked. 

“I have one. I think it makes six,” I replied. 

“Well, that’s not enough!” Aaron replied. 

“Clearly that wouldn’t be enough. But I would need to get more,” I said. 

“Hey!” Gavin shouted from the monkey bars in middle of the of the track. He and Calvin always sprinted their lap around the track, so he was always finished first and went to playing on the monkey bars before anyone else.  

“Why does he do that? Why doesn’t he just come up here and talk to us?” Sally wonder aloud. 

“What!” I shouted back. “Come up here if you want to talk to us! We’re clearly still walking our lap!”

 Gavin jumped down off the monkey bars and Calvin followed him. “Are you guys talking about your lemonade stand?” Gavin asked. 

“Yeah, so what?” replied Marcus. Marcus still didn’t trust Gavin, he thought that Gavin was still going to bully us for being The Number Investigators. 

“Hey look! I am just trying to be nice. I was just wondering if you guys had come up with any other ideas for your stand?” Gavin replied.

 “I told them about the idea of the popsicles of frozen lemonade you told me about yesterday,” I said. 

“You could just buy frozen popsicles and resell them,” Gavin said. 

“Why would people buy things more expensively from us that they can get at the grocery store for less?” asked Aaron. 

“I don’t know. I’m just giving out ideas.” 

Calvin joined in the conversation, “What about baking cookies and selling those?” 

I rolled my eyes, “Y’all are making this more complicated than it needs to be. I don’t have time to make cookies.” 

“Ask your parents to make them,” suggested Gavin. 

“My parents would kill me if I asked them to bake cookies, especially since the point of all of this is to pay my mom back.”