Tuesday

On Tuesday afternoon, Amber put twenty shampoo bottles on the stall.  Fifteen of them were the usual golden-brown colour, but the other five were bright green and labelled Limited Edition- Alien Formula.

Mrs Denham, who’d come round to check everyone’s stall before the Year Eights were allowed in, looked at the green shampoo and frowned.  “This is not what you were told to sell, Amber.”

Amber, who’d been expecting this, smiled.  “We’re developing our brand identity, like you said.  We’re trying to stand out from the market.”  Amber was really, really proud of her alien idea.  Cousin Hope had just wanted to add red food dye so it wouldn’t look as if it had been watered down, but then Amber had seen that they had the green kind left over from Halloween, too.  She’d wanted to add it to all the bottles, but Gwen had persuaded her to start with five and see how well they sold.  That was probably best.

“Amber, you were given a specific product to sell…”

“It’s the same product,” interrupted Harry Barnes, the third member of Amber and Gwen’s group.  He hadn’t been the biggest fan of their idea, mainly because he was worried they’d get into trouble for the watering-things-down aspect, so Amber was pleased to hear him speak up.  “The green food dye’s just a marketing gimmick.  People can still wash their hair with it, same as before.”

Unable to think of a suitable put-down, Mrs Denham stared at the green bottles for a good twenty seconds.  “Just don’t forget what this contest us all about,” she said eventually, “It’s not about how creative you can be; it’s about how much you can sell.”  And, with that, she wandered off to annoy somebody else.

Gwen smiled at the others.  “Well, that could have gone a lot worse.  Thanks for sticking up for us there, Harry.”

Harry folded his arms and made a grumbling sound.  “If you get disqualified, so do I, remember.”

Amber glanced over at Kayleigh Collier’s stall, but luckily Kayleigh and her team didn’t seem to have heard any of the alien shampoo discussion.  They were too occupied with throwing screwed-up bits of paper at Fiona West and giving themselves points when they hit her on the head (Fiona and her brother Ben were the only people in 9F who’d had to go into a two instead of a three, so they were a bit of a soft target.)  They’d find out eventually, especially if the green shampoo turned out to give Amber’s group an edge, but at least they had a head start for now.  “Harry?” asked Amber, “If me and Gwen stay here and make a start on the selling, could you dash back to the IT rooms and put together some posters to advertise the alien shampoo?”

Harry brightened up.  He’d been complaining all yesterday afternoon about being stuck in the loud, crowded main hall for hours.  “I think I could come up with something.”

“Brilliant,” said Gwen, “We’ll hold down the fort while you’re gone.”  She looked over at Kayleigh Collier’s table, where they’d started to squabble over who got to throw the paper next, and grinned.

 *

Harry took a while to get back, but that was OK.  The alien shampoo had started to draw a crowd almost immediately.  OK, it was a crowd of Year Eights, who tended to hedge their bets and look at every stall in the main hall before they parted with even one of their Denham Dollars, but still, by the time Harry got back from sticking the posters up around the hall, they’d managed to sell four green bottles and two regular ones.

Kayleigh Collier and her friends had definitely noticed by now.  It was hard to miss the crowd that had gathered around Gwen and Amber’s stall.  Even the Year Eights that Kayleigh and Paige had jumped in front of and tried to draw in with their rap number (“We’ve got home-wax and shampoo, bracelets galore / If you want to wow your mates, shop at Stall 24!”) had tended to step around them and continue on their way to the stall with the green bottles.  As the afternoon wore on, Kayleigh spent more and more time glaring a hole through the back of Amber and Gwen’s heads.

After he’d stuck all the posters up, Harry returned with some news.  “Did you know that Kayleigh Collier has a sister in Year Eight?”

Amber cringed.  “Uh-oh…”

“She’s called Tessa,” said Harry, “She’s got a gang of friends together, and they’re going round guilting other Year Eight girls into giving her their Denham Dollars.”

“Guilting them?”

“You know…”  Harry raised his voice to mimic an annoying Year Eight girl.  “Tessa just wants her sister to be happy. Come on, don’t you want Tessa and her sister to be happy?  Do you really need shampoo and combs and ceramic frogs that badly?  Tessa and her sister have actually had a really hard time lately, and all Tessa wants is for her sister to do well in the competition.  You’re taking that away from them just because you want ceramic frogs.  And then eventually the other girls give them their Denham Dollars just to shut them up,” Harry concluded, snorting in disgust.

Amber considered this.  “Has Kayleigh had a really hard time lately?” she asked.

“Who cares?” muttered Gwen, “We have a really hard time every time we get within a mile of her.”

Harry shrugged.  “I don’t know.  But I wouldn’t take her sister’s word for it, either way.”

Amber nodded.  She looked over at Kayleigh, still glaring at them, then turned back to the others.  “I think we might have to go back to Cousin Hope’s first idea.”