Jeffrey finally met up with his two friends Samantha and Preston.
"Hey guys, what's up?", Jeffrey asked.
Preston responded, "Nothing much, I just- AUHH woke up early."
Samantha brought a bag full of supplies and was ready to focus on the project.
"Is there anything we want to talk about first or do we want to just continue on the project where we left off?", Jeffrey asked.
"I think we should finish our presentation and poster board first. We still haven't finished phase 1 of our project", Samantha offered.
Preston agreed, "sounds good to me, let's prepare the things for the science fair."
So that morning, at Jeffrey's house each of them started printing out graphs of the measurements, reprinting writing errors and large fonts, and cutting them out neatly. Jeffrey made sure to keep the Slime Factory logo present on their presentation and jars of Oobleck. Preston focused on keeping everything organized and clean. Samantha quizzed them on Presentation and which material each of them would present on.
Overall the project went quite smoothly and over the course of two weekends, they were pretty much in a finished state. The project itself doesn't take a lot of time, especially with three people. However coordinating a good time to work together and just finish was quite difficult, but they managed it.
Jeffrey sat on the couch in exhaustion, Preston and Samantha still looked quite energetic in contrast.
"So you think we should say, We've been making our community aware of our scientific project and they've been quite pleased with the results?", Preston asked Samantha.
Samantha replied, "Exactly, we should take a few photos of our classmates with jars of Oobleck to show how popular it is and that we're doing something beyond just making a project."
Preston and Samantha were busy at work coming up with ideas to promote Oobleck and slime.
Jeffrey decided now would be a good moment to interrupt.
"Hey guys", Jeffrey began to say.
"Is there any good way to deal with this money and supply issue?", Jeffrey asked cautiously.
"I was honestly hoping that either you or Samantha would work things out rather than each of us just carrying cash separately", Jeffrey mentioned.
"I don't know, we were hoping you had a plan to manage it", Preston said.
"Yeah, I think we both trust you on it", Samantha backed Preston up.
Jeffrey got a little nervous, if he was responsible that meant he was going to have to manage how they did things. Jeffrey sucked at getting people to like him, so he didn't really want to mess up the good working relationship he had with the two of them. Especially when he had to ask people to do things for him.
"Uh.. I don't know. I'll try?", Jeffrey said hesitantly.
"Yeah, you'll do fine", Preston reassured him and he returned to the project with Samantha.
"Gosh darn it, I'm in trouble", Jeffrey thought to himself.
"I feel awkward to ask, but how can I get people to listen to me without feeling like I'm telling them what to do", the thought crossed his mind.
It seemed that only Jeffrey was concerned about this issue, but his partners Preston and Samantha had other ideas and were quite focused on it.
Jeffrey decided to just go for it.
"Hey guys, mind if we discuss how we manage our sales and distribution of our science project", Jeffrey offered.
"Sure, how can we help?", Samantha asked.
"Uhh, first off do both of you have the money on hand?", Jeffrey mentioned.
Preston went into his backpack and pulled out a library book. Samantha got a wallet from her bag. They were both filled with a large number of $20. Seeing this Jeffrey got nervous again.
"Uhh, can we find a safer place to put it? If you want I can purchase two more cash lockboxes and you can store it inside so you don't lose it or get it stolen", Jeffrey offered.
"Sure", Preston agreed with his plan.
"Really quickly the next thing is actually buying supplies, Do any of you want to be in charge of it?", Jeffrey paused asking the two of them.
Samantha and Preston both nodded their head no.
"Come on guys, between the three of us no one wants to do it?", Jeffrey asked a little urgently.
"Nope", Samantha affirmed their previous answer.
"Fine, I'll do it. However, maybe we'll get someone else to do it in the future. It's a lot of material and we need to figure out a good way to do it", Jeffrey suggested before moving on to two of his other concerns.
"Well there's a lot more things we need to talk about, but let's just finish on talking about how much we made. We need to keep a record of this so we don't lose anything, but according to my notebook we sold around 42 jars of Oobleck and slime, 26 jars of Perfume slime and 16 jars of glow-in-the-dark Oobleck", Jeffrey mentioned really quickly.
"Wow that's a lot of money, that means we have about $800", Preston said out loud.
"yeah but we also spent about $200", Jeffrey mentioned.
"What? How?" Samantha was a little surprised at the large number.
"Because buying supplies is so expensive", Jeffrey explained.
"Plus we still have the business expenses of having to drive around, find people, delivery fees and more", Jeffrey talked about some of the things he purchased.
"I think just to make it a good habit we take save 50% of it, 10% to pay ourselves, and spend the rest" Jeffrey mentioned.
"Yeah that sounds good", Preston gave Jeffrey a thumbs up.
"One last thing besides everyone needing to keep a record, do any of you guys know a lawyer or tax preparer. We're going to need to explain how we're making money", Jeffrey asked.
"We could ask our parents", Preston suggested.
Both Jeffrey and Samantha disagreed.
"That sounds like a bad idea, do we really want them to interfere with our project. I think it's a good idea, but I still want to go at it alone and keep it between us", Samantha said.
"Yeah, I don't mind asking for help. However, I also really want to do this on our own", Jeffrey said agreeing with Samantha.
"I was just suggesting it, we'll since you insist. I say we make it Samantha's job for now, since Jeffrey's so busy with getting the supplies and managing money", Preston said accomplishing his goal of pushing work onto his other team members.
"What do you mean 'so busy'? It's a lot of work to worry about how we can continue our second phase?", Jeffrey said a little upset.
"It's just counting money how hard could it be?", Preston teased Jeffrey.
"If it was so easy you should try keeping records and making sure we don't lose it", Jeffrey was a little on edge.
"Guys, guys. Let's focus. I'll find someone we can talk to about our money issues. However for now, let's just give Jeffrey the money and he'll figure out how it all works", Samantha said starting a new conversation.
"So can we please go back to working on the project? Preston and I were discussing a few ideas about how we were going to talk about our project to the other groups of friends around school", Samantha asked Jeffrey.
"Yeah, sure", Jeffrey knew he wouldn't get them interested in another topic and decided to let it go. Jeffrey had his own ideas and ambitions, but in life and as with group projects everyone had their own ideas. Even if Jeffrey insisted on doing things his way, it might not be better than how others might do it.
He wasn't always right, plus it was ultimately Preston and Samantha that made Oobleck and Slime as popular as it was. All he did was make sure the science project found itself in the right hands.