Monday 

Amber tried to explain that they weren’t allowed outside help, but Cousin Hope wouldn’t listen.  She’d got that stubborn look as soon as she’d heard what Kayleigh Collier had done.

“Right,” said Cousin Hope, putting her hands on her hips, “Run this past me again.  This week’s Enterprise Week, which means that everyone gets a big bag of crap…”

“It’s not all crap,” Amber’s friend Gwen interjected, “Some people get shampoo and makeup, and some people…”

“Like I said, everyone gets a big bag of crap.”  Cousin Hope was twelve years older than Amber and Gwen, so they didn’t argue.  “And for the rest of this week, you’ve got to advertise and sell your particular crap to the Year Eights, but they aren’t allowed to give you any actual money.  Only…  What were they called?”

“Denham Dollars,” said Gwen.  She opened up her bag and took out the paltry nine they’d managed to earn today.  Most of the other groups had got at least thirty.  “Because Mrs Denham’s the head of Business Studies, and it was her idea.”

Cousin Hope picked up one of the Denham Dollars and inspected it.  She didn’t look impressed, probably because it looked more like a purple raffle ticket than actual money.  “Your dad is not going to like that she called them ‘dollars’ instead of ‘pounds’,” she told Amber.

“She only called them that for the alliteration,” explained Amber, “There isn’t anyone in the Business Studies department whose name begins with P.”

Cousin Hope shrugged, and she handed the Denham Dollar back.  “Well, it looks easy enough to forge, whatever it’s called.  All we need is a scanner and a pack of purple construction paper.”

Amber frowned.

Cousin Hope raised her eyebrows.  “Too unethical?”

“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” mumbled Gwen.  She didn’t sound too enthusiastic, but Amber knew she meant it.  Winning the contest by printing off hundreds of Denham Dollars just seemed… cheap, somehow.  Too easy.  It would take all the fun out of it.

“If you say so.”  Cousin Hope clasped her hands together and stretched.  “But we’ve got to think of something, or Kayleigh Collier and her friends will walk away with the prize and never learn a thing.  How many shampoo bottles have you got left?”

They had fifteen.  They’d been given twenty this morning, and they’d actually managed to sell two, early on.  The other three had been the ones Kayleigh Collier had stolen.

If they’d been allowed to choose for themselves where their stalls were going to go, Amber’s group would have done just about anything to avoid being next to Kayleigh’s.  She was one of those people who wasn’t happy unless someone else was miserable.  It didn’t seem to matter who it was- she was just as content trying to trip up the boy with the stammer in Maths as she was pouring Dr Pepper all over Paige Williams’ bag for flirting with a boy she liked.  If there was a small, subtle way of getting at someone, one that wouldn’t cause a huge amount of trouble but would make their day just a tiny bit worse, Kayleigh was in her element.  Amber was pretty sure that Kayleigh did want to win the Enterprise Week contest, but she knew that hadn’t been her only reason for doing what she’d done.  Kayleigh did stuff like that just for the sake of it.

Amber had barely turned her back for two seconds, and when she’d looked back round, her stall had two shampoo bottles fewer and Kayleigh’s had two more.  And, just in case she hadn’t noticed, Kayleigh had looked away and let out a low, snorting giggle.  Gwen had gone straight to Mrs Denham, but she’d been no help.  Kayleigh had given her big innocent eyes, and Mrs Denham had told Gwen and Amber that a poor workman blamed his tools.  And for the rest of the day, Kayleigh had just grinned at them.

Cousin Hope picked up a shampoo bottle, held it between two fingers, and examined it.  “It doesn’t look exactly like the little pots of jellybeans they sell at the corner shop, but it’s close enough.”  She reached into her back pockets, fetched out some change, and handed it to Amber.  “Go to the shop and get me five loads of jellybeans.”  She shook the shampoo bottle.  “We’re going to start watering this stuff down.”