Roswell Fanatics

Velvet Sky:Hey, welcom to the fic...yep, they are getting in a little deeper but I think it will be okay when the shock wears off.
Lizza: Well since you asked so nicely in your pm yesterday here you go...I almost forgot about it I was so busy with other stuff...enjoy.
Natalie36: Well, the cat's out of the bag now so to speak. Keep reading!
Thumper1942: Hey there, welcome...and you're right, they are not nude, only pretty!
Carolyn: LOL...my dad was like that, food was food, just bring it on and lots of it. Although his very best favorite, and it actually turned my oldest son's stomach, was Dried Lima Bean soup cooked in hamhocks and then when they got cold he made a lima bean sandwhich on home made bread laced in plenty of butter. The man died at 86 weighing no more than he did the day he married mom. Ate like a horse. Lucky old fart!!!
Eve: Yeah, they won't be in too much trouble as soon as the fellows find out what is really going on.
Cardinal: All of the girls know about the sleeping arrangements but Liz...they just didn't feel like sharing something with her that she knew nothing about. I don't know why, just my quirk I guess...

Chapter: 18
Still Wed. 6/12

When the four young adults were seated in a quiet area of the restaurant as Michael had requested, Michael looked at Maria and then Liz…

“Okay you two, spill.”

Liz and Maria looked at each other in total confusion…they had no idea what Michael was talking about and Max was just as confused. This wasn’t like Michael, not really. He might act this way with Maria on occasion but he very rarely, if ever, put a question to Liz like that.

“Spill what Michael, what are you talking about?” Maria wanted to know, she was clueless.

“Okay, the four of you, and you both know which four I’m talking about, have been up to something for quite awhile now…and although I feel you are together and that makes you safe I still need to know what the hell is going on. You both have new printers and a full case of ink cartridges each. Even if you’re planning on getting ready for school you sure as hell don’t need to be carting cases of ink across the United States…now what is going on here. Are you doing something illegal?”

Max’s jaw dropped and then he looked at Liz and raised an eyebrow...

“Maria has a new printer and a case of ink cartridges too?” Michael said in answer to Max’s silent request toward Liz…”Liz, what is going on?”

Liz started chewing on her bottom lip and Maria just sat there with her arms crossed, resting in front of her on the table while glaring at Michael.

“We can’t tell you. It would make the other two mad.” Maria said as only Maria could.

“Bull Shit Maira! Now give. If you think it will make the other two mad then we won’t tell them we know, now what is going on?”

Maria looked at Liz and Liz just sat and shrugged her shoulders in defeat as she settled herself against the backrest of the booth. She had wanted to tell Max from the beginning but she wasn’t so sure Isabelle would want her brother seeing her half naked. Although he probably already had...seen her half naked that is, they do live together after all. And besides, they did talk about bringing their boyfriends in on the secret so they could get them to help stuff envelopes. Liz looked over at Maria and nodded yes.

“Okay space boy, here’s the deal. We are selling a calendar on the internet and we need the printers to do envelopes and labels.”

Max looked at Liz like he had just heard the biggest secret in the pentagon and Liz; well she didn’t think she had ever seen her boyfriends eyes that big and round. They were practically bulging out of his head…his ridiculously long eyelashes were practically covering his forehead they were raised so high in shock…

“What kind of calendars Maria?”

“The kind that people want to buy Michael…what kind do you think?”

“Are you selling porn Maria?”

Michael couldn’t believe it and Max was still shocked….All Liz could do was giggle she was so nervous and Maria had to grin when she got a load of her friends face.

“No Michael, it is not porn…they are very tasteful pictures, we would never sell porn.” Maria responded quietly…

“Just how tasteful?” Michael wanted to know.

“Well, only one of us posed totally nude but you can’t really see anything Michael; they’re really beautiful, really!” She was trying very hard to be convincing.

“Tess…” Max said quietly, “Tess is the only one that would pose nude.”

And both Liz and Maria looked at Max in shock…’how could he know this?’ They both thought to themselves.

“How are you selling these?” Michael continued…

“We have a web site.” Liz said, getting braver now. She was quite proud of that web site; they did a great job on it.

“And who maintains this web site?” Michael wanted to know…

“We do. We pay Yahoo for support but we maintain it.” Liz answered.

“Uh huh and just how is this business doing?” Michael wanted to know.

“Well, we deposited over one hundred two thousand dollars today, that’s why we needed more printers; we need to print 5000 envelopes a week, more if we can get them shipped. What we really need is for someone to help us stuff these envelopes after we print the addresses and postage on them. We’re going to rent a storage facility to store the calendars in and put some folding tables up so we can work there in private. Can you help us stuff?” Liz asked…she really felt brave now that the cat was out of the bag.

Now there were two young men with their jaws hanging wide open sitting there in total shock…finally Max got his voice.

“Did you say one hundred two thousand dollars Liz?”

“Yeah, it’s actually one hundred two thousand eighty four dollars, that’s our first days deposit…we placed our first order for 5000 calendars this morning. We also need to borrow Mr. Harding’s truck to pick up about 209 boxes at Kinko’s.”

“One hundred two thousand, as in dollars?” Max’s eyebrows were trying to crawl up to his hairline by now…

“Yes Max…we’re only going to sell calendars until October and then we might do it again next year.”

Michael was still sitting there looking at the two girls who didn’t seem to be a bit fazed by any of this conversation by the way. But of course they had had time to digest this gradually and they really had too much on their minds to think about it anyway, so it wasn’t so shocking to them. They were still trying to wrap themselves around how they were going to get the job done.

Then Maria had a brainstorm…

“You know what would be great?”

“I can’t imagine!” Max answered…

“Next year we do a boy calendar!” Maria squealed; her three dinner partners sat there in shock, well two of them anyway. Liz just smiled as she thought about it a little more...’ that would be nice.’

“Well eat up…we’re going back to my place and look at this web site.” Michael said.

Max was still in shock and sat and ate his burger in total silence as his mind ran in a million different directions…’one hundred two thousand dollars, my God what have they gotten themselves into?’ And he just kept on chewing.

*

Natalie36 Well, at this point it was either break up or smile...
Carolyn: Well, Michael never was one to pull any punches...
Killyjoy:Just keep on dreaming big guy, I'm sure she has no problems with her sexuality, and why should she?
Ilionka.Green: Well, I don't think they're over the shock yet, but they'll be fine.
Lizza: Here you go sweetie, just as promised...enjoy!
Cardinal: You know you're buddy too well!!! I tried to do a special calendar for him but this damned new computer just isn't cooperating the way it should.
Killjoy: I made one for you and if I can get it copied over to photobucket I will definitely pm you with it...it's quite nice if I do say so, it's just that I can't get it uploaded...damned new "bigger and better" POS.
Eve: Yes, he certainly does have some awesome eyelashes that's for sure...it's a shame to waste them on a man isn't it?

*

Chapter: 19
Still Wed. 6/12

When Max pulled up to Michael's he had had some time to register just what his girlfriend and her buddies were up to and he shook his head as he made his way around the jeep to help Liz and Maria out of the back seat, Michael was already at his door opening it.

After they all got a Snapple out of the fridge and made themselves comfortable on the couch Michael booted up his computer and looked at Maria with one raised eyebrow…she took over. She pulled the laptop over closer to her and keyed in “Calendar Girls” and an array of choices showed up on the main screen. She found their site and clicked the mouse. There they were…and Michael and Max both sat there slack jawed once again. It was beautiful and the only thing Max could do was to pull Liz closer to him and kiss her forehead, the only one not nude or semi-nude, and he was happy…He sort of knew this was the way it would be but he was still happy. ‘God, she’s beautiful’.

Michael on the other hand damn near choked. Maria was right, Tess was nude but nothing was revealed in a slutty looking way and Isabelle was a vision to behold.

“Where did you have these pictures done?” Michael wanted to know.

“I took them.” Maria replied. “I borrowed the school camera and equipment and we took them ourselves. After we had the calendar laid out the way we wanted it and everything was saved to disc we deleted all files. Nothing is on any of our computers permanently, the disc on the camera at school has been erased and there are only two copies. Kinko’s has one and we have one.

“How are you going to explain all of this money to anyone?” Max asked.

“Oh, we had to get a corporate ID; Isabelle read about it in one of your dad’s business law books. Then we went to Las Cruses and opened a bank account; we hired an accountant and we even elected officers and have board meetings and keep minutes, just like big girls. We are all legal, open and above board. We are all over 18 and it makes us business women.

“We ordered our first five thousand calendars, deposited over one hundred two thousand dollars, which will more than cover our expenses for right now and the orders just keep rolling in. We are set up with the post office online and have deposited funds to cover our first eleven thousand dollars of postage, we will add to that as we need it and as you know, we bought printers to cover the printing of all the envelopes and postage labels that we’ll need. All we need now is man power. Friday we will know whether or not we need to hire help stuffing or whether we can do it ourselves. We thought we’d hire a couple of kids to help us stuff if we need extra hands. Tess said we could charge their labor to contract labor so we won’t have to deduct and pay income tax for them as long as we don’t pay any one of them over $600.00.” Liz explained.

“Who helped you with all of this?” Max wanted to know.

“Well everyone we spoke with actually. We started out with the idea two weeks before school was out then we went to the bank in Las Cruces and then to the accountant in Las Cruces and each and every one we saw answered our questions and pointed us to our next step. We just sort of follow the yellow brick road and it keeps leading us down the right path. Our corporate name is “LIMelighT Inc.”, it’s kind of cute don’t you think?” Liz answered…she was just so relieved that Max knew and he didn’t seem to be upset about it at all…yet, that she was just too happy not to share all of their experiences.

“Here,” and Maria entered a password, “let’s check out the hits since we got off work.” And the next menu showed up and God, there had been over 12,000 hits since this morning….

“Oh God Liz, we’re going to need a lot more help than you can imagine; look at this!” And all four teenagers sat and looked at the computer screen and couldn’t believe their eyes.

“Well, Maxwell, it looks like we know what we’ll be doing with our summer.” Max just sat and nodded in agreement and Liz and Maria were flabbergasted, once again.

“Liz, do you think maybe we should halt this at a certain number instead of a certain month. I don’t think we can handle all of this.”

“Maybe if you share with two more people you can have a whole lot more help. Eight hands are better than four.”

“Yeah Liz, what do you think, another corporate meeting? These two seem to be okay with it.” Maria answered…

“Yeah, you’re right. Kyle and Alex would be a great help. Especially Alex…maybe he could figure out a way to plow through all of these hits and dig out the paying customers from the Looky-Lou’s and Tess could get our money deposited and keep track of the good credit from the bad better, we won’t be sending any merchandise to denied credit cards that’s for sure. We really need some administrative help here. I’m almost tempted to tell dad that I want the summer off.”

“You know Liz; we both might just have to take the summer off. That wouldn’t be a bad thing really. If the four of us worked 8 hours a day on this instead of just trying to fit it into our schedules we could probably handle it all ourselves and not feel so stressed out over it.”

“Yeah, let’s think about that…we’re going to be making a whole lot more money with this than waiting tables. Hell, we already have.”

“So true…I’m giving notice tomorrow, you think about it.”

“No, I’m with you. Dad’s probably going to be disappointed in us but hey, it is our last summer before college.” and so the decision was made; full time Limelight employees!

“Just what did you guys plan on doing with all this money?” Max wanted to know.

“We thought we’d have some spending money for summer fun, now it seems we have the money but we don’t have the time.” Liz answered and Max pulled her in and hugged her. He leaned in and whispered in her ear…”I like your picture Liz, it’s very tasteful.”

She mouthed a “thank you” back and they smiled as Michael put his lap top away.

“Well guys, if I’m going to have Miss Parker, business woman extraordinaire, home by 10:00 we’d better get moving. It’s been very enlightening Maria, and let’s hope you can spare some time out of your busy schedule for some fun.” Max grinned…

“Thank you girlfriend, we’ll see you tomorrow.”

Max and Liz were off and Maria and Michael were happy once again.

*

Eve:Well, it looks like the girls may be getting money for college for sure. All they were hoping for was some spending money...things are looking pretty good for them so far!
Carolyn: Yeah, I would say that both young men were pretty impressed, also impressed with that first deposit...too bad we're so old Carolyn, we could go into business!!!
Lizza: It's getting interesting that's for sure...
Cardinal: In this case maybe Kyle will think "nekkid" is good! What do you think? I think Killjoy will agree with Kyle.
SmilieUK: Well so far these orders just keep piling in and like one of the girls mentioned, they don't really understand it because anyone can look at these pictures on the net anytime they want to. Maybe it's the fact that they can hang them on the wall. What do you think?

Chapter: 20
Still Wed. 6/12

As Michael cuddled with Maria, all thoughts of sleep forgotten, he was thinking about this evening’s disclosure.

“You know Maria, this thing has really taken off, do you think it’s something you should be doing and trying to attend school as well?”

“We don’t intend to do it while we’re in school Michael. I think we should discuss just when the cutoff date should be before we do anything else. We can’t expect Isabelle and Tess to take care of all of this after we take off for the East to school…they’re going to be having classes as well as we are…maybe we should close it off at the end of August with the final ship date on Sept. 1. It will be pushing it as far as getting off to school but I think it’s better than waiting until Oct. It just wouldn’t be fair to them.”

“You’re right, it wouldn’t and the way those orders are coming in I think it’s going to take all of us to keep up with the administration and shipping. You can’t expect them to handle that; it isn’t hard work but it’s time consuming and we don’t know just how long the printing and stuffing is going to take and Kinko’s can only handle 5000 calendars at a time…I don’t think we can handle five thousand calendars a week.” And he laughed…this venture didn’t even come close to what he had been imagining they were up to.

“You’re right Michael…we’ll have to call a meeting for tomorrow and change the cutoff date. We’ll run this by Isabelle and the rest and see what they think. “

“Great, and as far as renting a storage facility, don’t. You can use my place to stuff and store. The weather is nice and we can put the boxes on the back patio and stuff them in here. We’ll get a folding table and we’ll be comfortable. Don’t worry about that added expense. That way, you’ll have more money to cover some of the loss of an earlier cutoff date.”

“Thank you Michael…that will be a big help.” And Maria scooted closer, getting more comfortable as she slowly drifted off for the night.

*

Max pulled into the back parking lot of the Crashdown right at 10:00 p.m. and Liz grabbed his hand and smiled up into his beautiful face…God, she could look at him for hours and never get tired…

“Come on up Max; it’s pretty out tonight and we can sit on the roof and talk.”

“Fair enough Liz, but only for a little while…okay?”

“Okay.” And she smiled as Max opened her door for her and they made their way in through the back door of the Crashdown. Her dad was helping stack tables out in the dining room and one of the new girls was grabbing the bucket and mop as Max and Liz made their way upstairs.

“You know Max, I don’t think I’m going to miss this at all.” And Max chuckled as he watched her hips sway with every step she took …..’YEP, I’m the only one not gettin’ any!’ But that was alright, when Liz was ready he would be ready, but not until, the fact that they spend many nights together is enough right now, he just loved being near her the rest would be icing.

“Hey mom, I’m home. Max and I are going out on the roof.” Liz called out to her mother who was in the apartment kitchen.

“Okay sweetie, remember you have to work in the morning.”

“I know, so does Max, we won’t be long.”

“Okay, there are cokes in the fridge.”

“Thanks mom.” And Liz made her way to the kitchen and grabbed two cherry cokes out of the refrigerator and then she and Max headed to the roof.

Max seated himself on one of the chaise lounges, set his coke on the table next to him and waited for his girlfriend to make herself comfortable between his legs and then he pulled her in closer for the hug he had been waiting for all evening. As he kissed the top of her head she grabbed both of his hands and held them close across her chest…she loved him so much that it sometime hurt just to be separated from him.

She had no idea her friends were all in a sexual relationship with their boyfriends. Not that it was any of her business but it was still a shock. She wondered why they never mentioned it to her, especially Maria. That was the real shocker and she wasn’t quite sure just how she felt about it. It truly wasn’t any of her business but still it was a shock.

“What are you thinking so hard about?” Max asked as he planted a kiss on the top of Liz’s head.

“Oh, I don’t know…I’m just surprised that Maria never mentioned that she was sleeping with Michael. I sort of suspected something was going on with Tess and Kyle and I never gave Isabelle and Alex a second thought but I’m really surprised that Maria never said anything. How did you find out?”

“Ahh sweetie, don’t ask me things like that; I’m not going to talk about that with you so just forget it. I’ve known since the beginning let’s just leave it at that. Okay?” Max broke his hand loose from Liz’s hold and reached for his coke…

“I know Max, but if all of them are having sex why is it that we’ve never broached the subject. Am I not pleasing to you? I know we have been very close and we have spent many nights in each other’s arms but we have never gone all the way Max; why is that?” Liz was just curious, not that she wanted to or anything….

Max immediately turned Liz in his lap as easily as he would have done to a stuffed animal, allowing her to straddle his lap, and he looked her square in the face before answering…His heart was thrumming right out of his chest it was beating so loudly and so fast.

“Liz, angel, look at me! We will do that when you are ready and not one damned second sooner and it won’t be because everyone else is doing it but because it’s something that you are ready for.

“I know you aren’t comfortable with the idea of having sex and I will never expect that from you until you are ready. And yes, I want you more than you’ll ever know but there’s a whole lot more to do with it than sex. When we have sex we won’t just have sex Liz we will make love. Do you understand?

“You’re the only one of the four who has a promise ring; I also know that for a fact too. So, yes, Liz Parker I want you, all of you not just parts of you. So don’t ever think like that again…alright?”

Max kissed Liz on the forehead and held her close as she pondered his little speech…what they didn’t know was that Jeff had come up to say good night and he heard the speech as well.

He had a pang of guilt as he listened to Max tell his daughter how much he loved her and he was stunned. He knew their love ran deep and he had wondered occasionally about just how close they were but this was more than close, this was the real deal and he suddenly felt very lonely. He knew at this moment that these two kids would marry some day and it would be a good marriage. He didn’t have to worry about that, but he wasn’t ready to think about these things, not yet.

*
Isabelle and Alex were sitting in the family room of the Evans’ home when Alex excused himself to use the bathroom off the entry way in the laundry room. As he passed the dryer he noticed a brand new printer sitting there with a whole case of ink cartridges, ‘hmm, that’s not a very good printer for an office.’ He thought to himself, and then he thought again, ‘I think I’ll see what Isabelle has to say about this.’ and he continued on his journey to the bathroom.

“Hey Isabelle, what’s with the new printer and all the ink. Is your dad planning on writing to the world or something?” Alex asked, semi joking, when he came back into the family room...

“Oh, I’m just getting ready for school is all.”

“Come on Isabelle, do you think I’m stupid? When you get ready for school it won’t be done at the office supply store it will be done at the mall and we both know it…so what gives here?” Alex wasn’t mean with his questions, just realistic.

“It’s nothing really Alex, just a little project that the girls and I are working on. It’s no big deal.”

“No big deal again. Well I think, if it requires a new printer and a whole case of ink cartridges, it’s a big deal…so come on Isabelle, spit it out.” Alex was getting a little bent out of shape with this whole ‘little project’ business.

“Well, I can’t tell you because the other three will get upset with me…if they agree to tell then I will; now can we watch the movie, or would you like to do something else?” And Isabelle proceeded to situate herself into a more comfortable position in order to reach her boyfriend better.

Alex wrapped his arms around Isabelle, gave her a nice kiss; not a passionate kiss, but a nice kiss, took hold of her shoulders, and turned her back around and said…

“I’ll see you tomorrow Isabelle. I have to go home and think about this.” And he left Isabelle sitting there on the couch wondering ‘what the hell just happened?”

Alex passed Max in the driveway as he was leaving and he looked as though he had no intentions of speaking he was so deep in thought…

“Hey Alex, you leaving so soon? You two don’t have to work tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I know Max but there are just too many secrets to deal with right now and I need to think about this some.”

“Okay buddy, but trust me, you’ll be okay with them when you find out.”

“So, Liz came clean did she? It’s just like her to share, not like someone else we know.”

“Hey Alex, don’t blame Izzie…and it wasn’t Liz it was Maria, I just happened to be there. You know, Maria the talker, she’s the one. You’ll probably find out tomorrow…we’re all growing up Alex, give them a chance, they’re not doing anything wrong buddy. See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, alright Max, see you tomorrow. G’night!” And Alex was gone.

*

Max met Isabelle in the kitchen rinsing out a couple of glasses when he walked in through the back door… He took a good look at his sister and smiled, she truly was beautiful to look at. It’s too bad people couldn’t see what those who knew her saw he thought. She’s really a good soul when you get right down to it and she would risk her boyfriend’s feelings before breaking a confidence with her girlfriends. He admired that in his sister.

“Hey Izzie, I just ran into Alex out in the driveway. He seemed to be in a bit of a quandary, is everything alright?”

“Yeah, we’re good Max, he just needs some time. I think it will all be fixed by tomorrow.”

“That’s what I told him. See you tomorrow Izzie, have a good day if I don’t see you in the morning. Oh, did you get things straightened out in Las Cruces?”

“Yeah, I did. I’ll have to verify my schedule the first day to make sure that I can take all the classes I want but it’s cool, I’m sure it will work out, it always does, all the paperwork is in anyway. Now all we have to do is decide on housing. Tess mentioned something about off campus housing since the four of us will be there. She said Kyle is all for it but he’s concerned about the parents. We haven’t talked to any of them yet and I didn’t have a chance to bring it up to Alex this evening but I’m sure he’ll be all for it. Maybe I’ll check on the availability of apartments or houses on the internet. I don’t think it’s too soon to start looking do you? Have you and Liz considered off campus housing Max, I think it would be great for you two even Maria and Michael.”

“Wouldn’t off campus living defeat the whole college experience thing?”

“I don’t think so…maybe…I don’t know. I just think I would rather be with my friends at the end of the day than a bunch of strangers.”

“That’s what dorm life is all about Iz, to make new friends.”

“No, I don’t want to live with strangers. I can make new friends without living with them.” Something a lot of people didn’t know about his sister…she was shy, even more so than Liz. Although Liz wasn’t really shy she was just cautious and Max smiled.

Max knew that money was not going to be an issue if they chose to live off campus so he just shrugged and bid his sister good night…it was fast approaching midnight and he had to work in the morning just like Liz.

*

Eve: Why is it we really don't mind doing those things for them? I still don't mind taking care of them.
Lizza: I am really pleased that you like my little story...it was fun to write.
Cardinal: I agree, I think Max showed a lot of maturity in this chapter; of course he could still be suffering from shock too...
Carolyn: I think Killjoy would have taken a contract out on the credit card company... I think Max deserved an extra little hug on this one...
Killjoy: Ahhh, it's okay if you're 'smitten'...we understand.

*
Chapter: 21
Thursday 6/13

The following morning Liz met Maria at the time clock and nodded to her letting her know it was time. If Jeff had to hire a couple more girls it was time to let him know so he could get busy with it…they needed to get busy helping Tess and Isabelle as soon as they could.

“Hey dad…”

Jeff was sitting at his desk working on the books and smiled at his two favorite girls…

“Good morning you two, what’s up?”

It was unusual for the two of them to bother him this early, especially when there was work to do.

“We’re giving our notice dad…two weeks is acceptable isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is. Can I ask why?” Jeff was stunned…

“Yeah, we want to do some other things our last couple of months home. We’ll be leaving in about two and a half months and we’d just like to be lazy for a change. We’ve been working here since we turned fourteen dad; granted we didn’t wait tables, but we’ve done about everything else you could think of including latrine duty. I think we need to just chill for a couple of months.”

Jeff was really surprised by this, he hadn’t had a clue that they would be quitting on him before August, but he could understand it. Liz was right, they had been working for him since they were fourteen and they were damned good at their jobs too. He was going to be sorry to lose them but he would have been just as sorry in August as he would be now, this might give him a chance to just ease into it….

“Okay girls, I’ll look through some of these applications and see what I can come up with. Or, how would you like to do that? There are a few in here that I believe you know; maybe you can help me choose the right replacements, how’s that?”

Liz and Maria were both shocked but they were really pleased that Jeff would give them such a responsibility.

“Sure dad and we won’t let you down.” Maria nodded her head in agreement.

“We’ll check out the apps when we take our break dad, and if we know a couple of the girls that we think would be good workers we’ll point them out and you can call them in.”

“Great, now get ready to open.”

“Yes sir!” They both said and giggled as they left the office.

The only thing Jeff Parker had to say was ‘damn’!

Right at 7:00 a.m. Tess came waltzing in and headed for her favorite booth…Maria immediately headed over with the coffee pot and a clean cup and Tess smiled.

“What are you doing here so early?” Maria queried…

“I’m going to check out some storage spaces and I thought I’d get an early start. I checked out the web site earlier and I want to be back early enough to start working on entering addresses and placing a deposit. God, I can’t believe this, it’s going crazy.”


“Yeah, about that Tess, and stay calm…Liz and I just gave our notices to Jeff and we’ll be working with you full time. We looked at the site last night and there’s no way that you and Isabelle can work on this without our full time help. Also, hold off on the storage facility until we can have a meeting. We may have a solution, a free solution, to that problem. Let’s all get together at Michaels around 6:00 for some pizza. Bring Kyle and Alex…

“Max and Michael know and they’re more than okay with it and they want to help us stuff. Like Max said, eight hands are better than four and after we looked at the site last night we couldn’t agree more. Michael said we can use his apartment. We’ll be safe from prying eyes there and he has that large enclosed patio with a locked gate. The weather is nice and any storing we need to do we can do there. I think it will be great; so what do you think, want to meet tonight and have another corporate meeting?”

“I sure do Maria, God I’m so glad they know…it’s been hell keeping this secret. I don’t know how the other guys felt but Kyle was beginning to think I didn’t love him…I think. He’s never told me right out that he loved me before and now he says it all the time. It’s like he needs reassured or something.” Maria thought about that for a minute and then she smiled…yes telling them was the right thing to do.

“I know what you mean Tess; it’s the same with Michael and me. He never said it before either and now that he has, it’s nice to hear; I like it too. Where’s Isabelle?”

“She’s going to meet up here and then we were going to go to the first place on our storage list. Now that we don’t have to go should I call her? She was going to go over to Alex’s before coming over; I think maybe they could have had a falling out over this.”

“Oh dear…call her and tell her to bring Alex over for breakfast, I know it’s not fair to keep Kyle out of the loop until tonight but maybe Alex needs some reassurance sooner.” Maria said… “Tell her what Liz and I did and maybe it will help her situation with Alex. Hey, did you bring your laptop? If not run up and get Liz’s…you can work while Isabelle visits Alex. Just send yourself an e-mail when you’re done.”

“Oh, I don’t have to do that; with this new program I bought I can hook us all up to a main computer; all four of us. Whatever one does it shows up on the main computer…Pauly over at the office supply showed me how to do it the other day. I had to buy a program but it works just swell, remember that software package I bought... all I have to do is hook all of us up to a central location, my computer actually. All you have to do is log into my computer and anything you do in that program immediately hooks into my computer and the work is all done…no e-mailing or anything. Isn’t that great? It sure pays to ask questions and use other people’s knowledge. I’ll run up and get Liz set up right now and then I’ll show you all how it works later.”

“Great, I’ll tell Liz as soon as we have a chance to talk. If you’re not back when Isabelle gets here I’ll just send her up.”

“Great, I’ll see you later.” And off she went.

“Where’s Isabelle?” Liz asked when she and Maria met at the order window…

“Alex’s, we think he’s feeling neglected.”

“Oh, damn, we should have brought them in at the start.” Liz said.

“No, I don’t think so; they would have talked us out of it. Now it’s up and running and they have two choices, support it or leave us alone. So far I think we’re doing okay.” Maria smiled as Michael placed her order on the pass through ledge for her and he gave her a wink…She blushed, actually blushed, and picked up the plate and walked off. Liz and Michael both grinned as Liz picked up her orders and took off also.

About 10:00 a.m. Agnes and Charlotte both walked in the front door and Liz and Maria waited until they were all settled in before heading back to the office to look over the applications Jeff had laid out for them. There were two sitting right on top of each other that both girls got excited about. Betty and Lorraine were both sophomores and both girls had been in Liz and Maria’s morning study hall and they knew that they were hard workers. They both volunteered at the hospital with Tess and Tess had remarked several times at how good they were to the patients and how seriously they took their jobs. It really wasn’t fair not to look at the rest of the applications but Liz figured that these two would be the best investment because they would be there for at least two years since they would be starting their junior year in the fall. Maria agreed with Liz and Jeff listened with interest. They were giving this a lot of thought and he was very appreciative and also impressed.

They gave Jeff the two folders and headed back on out to the floor just in time to greet Alex and Isabelle as they came in the front door. Liz greeted them with a great big smile and motioned for them to come on back to the back room.

“Tess is up in my room working on my computer, go right on up. We won’t be finished until 3:00 today but we’ll have a break around 11:30, before the lunch crowd…we’ll run up and see how you’re doing and Tess can fill you in on what’s going on. We want to have a meeting tonight at Michael’s but Tess will tell you all about that too. And Alex, if you have any input we’re all ears. Go on up; there are cokes in the fridge, help yourselves.”

“Thanks Liz…for more than you know. Talk to you later.”

“You sure will.” And Liz hugged both of her friends and went back out to the dining room.

Jeff just sat and shook his head…"there’s sure a lot of activity around this place since graduation"…and he kept on working.

*

Lizza: Maria and Liz put a lot of thought into their replacements and Jeff was truly happy with their choices.
Natalie36: Moving right along here things seem to be working for the little corporation.
Eve: Knowing Tess' personality, her intelligence and the way she deals with things I don't think Kyle has much choice but to take it all in stride.
Carolyn: Don't waste too much Mylanta on this one Carolyn...
Cardinal: Poor Alex, but as you suggested...Izzie takes good care of him...

***

Chapter: 22
Still Thursday 6/13

When three o’clock finally showed up both girls were slightly worn out due to the fact that they stayed up a little later than usual when working a morning shift but they managed to live through it and were glad to head upstairs to meet their friends…at least they thought they were still there. Michael didn’t get off until 5:00 or he would have been up there as well.

The other three were still there sitting out on the roof in the sun with Alex working on Liz’s lap top and the other two watching in silence. Alex had the program already sorting by zip codes and had plowed through twelve hundred hits and had the credit card purchases tied into the addresses so they could apply the proper amount of postage. All four of the girls were impressed and then Liz motioned for the other three to join her in her room for a minute...

“We need to hire him. The money we are going to save on the storage facility will more than pay for his computer skills. We need to hire him as contract labor. He’s the only one of the guys who doesn’t have a job and we need him with us. We don’t need him working at Big 5 selling shoes or something. Let’s make him an offer he can’t refuse, right now. The girl at the federal office said we need to have him fill out a miscellaneous 1099 form…we can download it from the internet. We just have to file it in a folder along with our other stuff and keep it in our permanent records.” Liz was excited.

“That’s great Liz but with the program he just found for us it will cut our work down to a two person job…what will he do?” Tess asked.

“He can do the sorting and the address stuff, we can print the labels and envelopes when we get our shipment in and then we’ll figure out our duties as needed. I think the biggest thing is going to be the physical labor myself. But we need him in many capacities.” Liz urged.

Isabelle and Maria both agreed…and Tess went along with the majority, but she had some input to give. She was willing to pay Alex but the other guys were going to donate their time and it didn’t seem fair.

“Look, he’s been out there for what, four hours now…if we gave him $25.00 an hour for his computer skills and then accepted his offered help for mailings I think it would be fair. The other guys are willing to help us for nothing and I don’t think we should be paying Alex and not them.”

Isabelle pondered that for a minute and then said…

“Tess is right. He doesn’t expect anything for helping us so let’s pay him for any administrative help he gives us. We’ll give him $25.00 an hour and get a 1099 filled out. If he makes less than $600.00 we won’t worry about the tax end of it, he’ll just be contract labor, okay?”

The other three thought about that for a minute and then went back out on the roof to make a proposal to Alex.

“Alex,” Tess started, “We have a proposal for you. We would like to hire you as contract labor at $25.00 an hour beginning today. We won’t pay you for any other help you give us but we will pay you for your computer skills. Is that agreeable to you?”

Alex immediately stopped typing and looked up at Tess like he had been shot. Then he looked at the other three, Isabelle caught his eye and nodded her head in assent and he just grinned.

“You’re all kidding, right?”

“No Alex, we aren’t. Maria and I have two more weeks at the Crashdown before we can take over our regular office duties for Limelight and we definitely need all the help we can get. Max and Michael have both agreed to help with the mailing and we’re pretty sure that Kyle will get on board as well…if you help stuff envelopes we won’t pay you for that but we figure that, so far today, you have earned $100.00 dollars. And the amount of time you have saved us is worth every penny; so what do you say. Is it a deal?” Liz was truly hoping Alex would say yes and when Alex looked into her big brown eyes he knew she wasn’t kidding.

“Liz, you know you don’t have to pay me…and what is limelight anyway, are you going to work for someone else?”

Liz looked at Isabelle and Isabelle just shrugged her shoulders, she had better things to do this morning than to discuss business with her boyfriend. Maria and Tess both giggled and Liz was clueless…

“We’re Limelight Alex…that’s our corporate name, “Limelight, Inc.” Don’t you think it’s appropriate?” Liz asked.

“I thought you were “Calendar Girls”.” Alex asked…

“That’s our web site but we surely don’t want to be registered with the federal government as “Calendar Girls”. No, our corporate name, the one we’re doing business as is “Limelight, Inc.”. I think it’s very appropriate and it also has all of our initials in it, beginning to end.”

“Yes, it is cute, and Max and Michael know about this?”

“Yes, we told them last night, they saw the printers and the cases of ink cartridges and knew we weren’t buying school supplies so we were forced into telling them. They weren’t upset with us at all.”

“Upset with you, God, why would they be upset. This is wonderful and you are doing a great job at it as well. It’s very well organized and you’ve got things running so smoothly. The government should hire you four.”

They all started laughing then…if the government worked as blindly as they were working the country was really in deep doo-doo that’s for sure. Then again, on further contemplation, maybe that’s how the government was working!

“Is it a deal Alex? And thank you.” Tess said…she had enough of the compliments.

“Can you afford it?” Alex wanted to know.

Four girls laughed in unison. They didn’t know there was that much money in one place in their young lives and they were acting like they had a million instead of their initial deposit. They still shouldn’t be spending it until tomorrow but surely some of those accounts were good…

“Yes Alex, we can afford it.” Maria grinned and then she went over to the chair Alex was sitting on and gave her friend a hug. He was the sweetest guy on earth. And, when you got right down to it, it didn’t make any difference whether they paid their boyfriends or not the guys were going to reap as much benefit from these funds as the girls.

“Sure, I’ll help you with the programs to make your lives easier and go ahead and pay me for today, but I can’t imagine what else I can do. It looks like Pauly steered you in the right direction as far as the connecting computers and also that printer sitting there in Liz’s room. That’s a pretty good printer ladies, its gear driven instead of belt operated, it should work quite well for you.”

And all four of the girls smiled, they were glad Alex recognized the equipment because they only had Pauly’s word for it and they weren’t really too sure about Pauly. The only thing they knew about Pauly was that he was a jock and as far as they were concerned he didn’t strike them as being too bright. They were truly shocked at his knowledge of office equipment; he seemed to really know his stuff.

So, with their new program uploaded Tess decided to give her postage printer a whirl, she still had it in the back of her SUV so off she went with Maria hot on her heels and they came back with 5 boxes of labels, 1000 per box and hooked the printer up to Liz’s computer. Tess had to make another deposit to the post office for $11,000.00 and the transfer was made within minutes.

“My God Tess, doesn’t it bother you to be messing with that kind of money? It would scare the shit out of me!” Alex’s eyes were as big as saucers and the other three girls were starting to get a little shaky.

“Not really Alex…its all decimal points. Maybe the significance of all of this hasn’t set in yet but no, it doesn’t bother me. Not yet anyway.” Tess did some quick calculations on Liz’s computer to make sure that the initial $102,084.00 still had a large enough balance to cover the calendars when they picked them up and then she thought again, with today’s deposit there will be more than enough and she relaxed. There will be more tomorrow and in the meantime they would have enough U.S. postage labels ran for a good start on their first mailing. As a matter of fact, after they got the U.S. labels they could start researching how much the out of country was going to cost them.

They hooked up the cheap little printer to Liz’s computer, called up the post office and started the program to print 5000 U.S. labels at $2.15 per label. She knew she had 3000 plus U.S. calendars and at least 1500 in Canada the rest she would sort out later with Isabelle and Alex’s help. This was so much fun.

Liz was just glad that Tess was doing the books…she knew she would be able to plow through it but Tess was really enjoying it and she had taken bookkeeping classes in school. Maybe Tess should think about changing her major, bookkeeping seemed to be more suited to her than nursing; something for her to think about, maybe?

The 5000 labels printed out without a single problem. They had to reload the labels a couple of times and add two clean ink cartridges but all in all things were working out very well. At least they were getting an idea of how much ink they were going to need for the postage labels. They were able to talk business and fun as they kept an eye on the printer, loaded labels, and watched for ink levels to show up as the computer clicked away. Two hours later they were loaded up with five boxes of U.S. postage printed labels and life was good.

Eve: My husband once told me that I had no concept of reality because of all those misplaced zeroes...he was the one that needed to face reality and realize that kind of money actually existed, but not in our house!!!
Carolyn: I agree, Alex is a great addition to their project. Wouldn't it be nice if it was that easy?
Lizza: I think Kyle shows up this chapter...he's really cute!
Cardinal: At least it seems to be "upstream"!!!
Killjoy: hey, keep looking, I'll bet you find it!!!

*
Chapter: 23
Still Thursday 6/13

They all met up at Michael’s that evening and ordered pizza to be delivered…Kyle couldn’t imagine why they were meeting on a week-day and a Thursday at that but he showed up just the same.

When he walked in the sight of all the office equipment threw him for a loop. ‘What the hell?’

“Hey everyone, what’s up?”

Tess immediately got up from her place at the counter and made her way over to her boyfriend to give him a nice warm welcoming kiss and pulled him over to her chair.

“Hey sweetie…we have something we need to share with you.”

And she proceeded to tell him all about their new business venture. Kyle just sat there and grinned…

“You’re kidding, right?” And then he looked around the room and noticed everyone looking at him with various expressions on their faces and he restated his question…

“You’re not kidding, are you?”

“Nope, we are in the business of selling calendars. Everyone has offered to pitch in and help us stuff them into envelopes and get them mailed. So what we were wondering is…do you want to help too.” Maria asked.

“Yeah, sure…what kind of calendars are we talking here? Is it legal” He asked.

“Totally legal Kyle, we have done all of the things we need to do to make it legal, so are you in?” Isabelle wanted to know.

“Come here and take a look at our web site Kyle.” And Liz scooted over so he could have a seat next to her…Kyle took one look and then looked up at Tess…

“Tess, where’s your clothes?”

“Ah, get real Kyle, you can’t see anything and we are in the business to sell these things. Chill!” Tess couldn’t believe he would be concerned with the picture, no one else was. What she didn’t think about was; she wasn’t anybody else’s girlfriend.

“Well, it is pretty but I’m not so sure I want to share that much pretty with other people.”

“Sure you do Kyle, we deposited over $102,000 on Monday and another $108,000 today and that’s just three days take. What we’re doing here tonight is trying to decide when to stop selling because we don’t want this to interfere with school in the fall.”

Kyle sat and looked at his girlfriend like she was an alien from another planet…

“Did you say one hundred and two thousand dollars as in real money?”

“Yes Kyle, don’t think about the money part of it think about how we’re going to get this stuff shipped. That’s our biggest problem.”

Tess couldn’t see what everyone was so excited about…they needed to figure a way to move these things. Maybe the impact of the entire thing hadn’t registered yet. Maybe she was so busy working on it that she didn’t have time to think about it.

“Okay, okay, count me in. I’ll help you stuff. Now about this meeting…why are we here again?”

“Because we have to think of a reasonable cutoff date, we need to let our depositors know just when we intend to stop shipping.”

“Oh, okay…102 and 108 equals 210…I’m not supposed to think about that.” He thought out loud and the rest of the room laughed…

“Okay, here’s what I’ve got figured, if we can’t get Kinko’s to print more than 5,000 calendars per week, and it looks like our orders are going to exceed that, maybe we should hire another company as well.”
Liz said.

“Liz, let’s just wait and see how long it takes us to print addresses and stuff 5000 before making any decisions like that. Our main concern is having all paid orders out of Roswell by the end of August. We can’t dump this on Isabelle and Tess. It involves all four of us and we need to be here to help them.” Maria rationalized.

“Yeah, I know that, but what if we have some roll overs. I can work on the address program in Boston and print postage labels and send them out here.” Liz was thinking about business now.

“No, that won’t work. We’re all going to be starting college, we don’t know what kind of a work load we’re going to have and we can’t be messing with this stuff in the interim. Don’t even think of it.” Isabelle said…

“Besides we don’t know how many more orders we’re going to get anyway. Let’s wait and see how long it takes the eight of us to stuff these things and then we can make a more definite decision. I think our last order should be placed the first of August. That will give us time to get the shipment in…get all the books finished and off to Biby and wrap this up before we need to leave town. It just makes sense. Any customers that give us credit card numbers after August first we ignore.” Tess said. They all agreed.

“Good, we need to let our customers know that they have until August first to place their orders. We don’t even know if we’ll get anymore orders?” Liz said…and then she checked the site again.

“Oh dear!” And they all said ‘what?’

“There’s another 18,000 hits, from all over the world!!! My God, we aren’t that good looking!” Liz gasped. Max sat down next to his girlfriend and kissed the top of her head, whispered in her ear loud enough for everyone to hear…

“Yes.You.Are.” And all the guys laughed, they really were that good looking in their eyes and apparently other people’s eyes as well.

And they all relaxed, shut down all the lap tops and had pizza and a movie, which they voted almost unanimously that it would NOT be “Braveheart”, there was only one hold out on that choice. They really needed to relax and have some fun…the last three weeks had been rough on all eight of them, for varying reasons but still rough.

*~*~*

Carolyn: the boyfriends are looking at all of those dollar signs...
Eve: You are certainly right about those college expenses...
Cardinal: Hey, killjoy told me he has all of these pictures already. He wallpapered his house with them... Kidding of course...I think. And I agree, they are that good looking!
Michelle: so happy to hear from you and I truly am glad you are enjoying this...it was fun to write but that doesn't always mean someone else will like it.

Chapter: 24
Friday 6/14

The end of the week rolled around and Tess, Isabelle and Alex headed on over to Kinko’s to pick up their order using Ed Harding’s truck. Michael had given Isabelle his key when she stopped in for coffee before heading on over to Tess’s. Isabelle wanted to make sure everyone was on board for tomorrow’s assembly line and the three Crashdown employees assured her they would be there. They already had 5000 U.S. postage labels printed and stored over at Michaels and now all they had to do was start on the envelopes. Things were moving right along.

After they delivered the boxes to Michaels and had them all unloaded Tess headed on home to return her dad’s truck and to pick up her own vehicle, then she headed back to Michaels. Isabelle and Alex already had 10 boxes of envelopes out of the cartons and had them stacked on the table with postage labels adhered to them.

Alex had them rolling onto the envelopes as Isabelle fed them to him fresh out of the box. Tess grinned at the two of them and couldn’t believe it. It had taken them 45 minutes to unload and stamp 10 boxes, only 198 boxes to go, plus print the envelopes.

Tess hooked up the two printers and loaded 20 envelopes into each one of the gear driven printers, set the computers to print zip codes starting with 0 up in ascending order, then stood back and watched. When the first 20 finished she loaded up 20 more onto each printer, telling the second computer to print in descending order starting at 96000, doing 40 at a time and then started stuffing the first 40. By the time 3:00 p.m. rolled around they had stamped over 50 boxes and printed almost 40 boxes of addresses. It had taken the three of them about 3 ½ hours and they figured that they would have all 50 boxes completed in 5 hours.

So far it took three people an hour to do 10 boxes of stamping, addressing and stuffing …eight people should be able to do at least 25 or more an hour and that was about half of the order so they could turn out 281 boxes a day with the labels printed and ready to go. They could order more than5000 per week at this rate with Maria and Liz working with them, Tess called Liz…

(Please don’t do the math…I added, divided and multiplied too many times already…if it’s wrong think of it as fiction.)

Liz showed up about 3:30 to work and Maria was 30 minutes behind her, she had to drive home and change and then meet up with everyone. Max, Michael and Kyle would come over right after work. They would have these finished by tonight and then they could work on the out of country accounts and get them ready for next week.

In the meantime Tess got on line with Kinko’s and ordered her next 5000 calendars. They were prepared to receive as many calendars as Kinko’s could ship within one week as long as the orders kept coming in. Maybe they would have some free time on week-ends after all.

When everyone was there and all 208 boxes had been stamped, re-boxed and ready for shipment they sent Michael and Max on a Chinese food run and the girls sat down and had another meeting.

“Okay, here’s what I think. We can get out 5,000 calendars per day without a problem as long as we have our postage printed so here’s the deal. I’ve checked the calendar and we have about 9 weeks to do business comfortably without really pushing it. So, let’s figure out how many of these we want to sell by August first and do an update to the site, telling our customers that August first is the last day to place an order. We should have everything shipped and all finances closed down by August 15th as long as Kinko’s can keep up with us. That will give us time to get to our respective cities and get situated before school starts, what do you say?” Tess was getting a pretty good handle on things now and the other three totally agreed. August 1st it was…no more discussing how long they would be in the calendar business.

*
June 15th

On Saturday morning Tess borrowed her dad’s truck once again to take the calendars to the post office for mailing.

After she, Isabelle and Alex had taken the mail to the post office they headed on over to the Crashdown to check in with Maria and Liz. They were starting their last week today and it was a very somber occasion for everyone. The kids had become used to seeing those two behind the counter there and it certainly was going to be different but when Tess saw her two fellow Candy Stripers being trained by Liz and Maria she couldn’t have been more pleased. This was working out quite nicely. She smiled at Betty and Lorraine and stayed to talk to them for a minute before joining Isabelle and Alex in the back booth.

The post office was happy, Kinko’s was happy and our four calendar girls were definitely happy.

In the meantime Tess got a phone call from John at Wells Fargo wanting to know if she was interested in investing some of the money they were depositing and she wanted to know what he had in mind.

“Well Tess, I think you should talk to Les about that, he would be the best one to advise you on tax shelters, CD’s and the like. Why don’t you give him a call? Your deposits are quite substantial and it might be worth considering.”

“You’re right John; I’ll talk to everyone else and give him a call. We never thought this would take off the way it has so give us a day and I’ll give Les a call.”

“Great Tess, can I ask what you girls are selling?”

“No, if we wanted to advertise it we wouldn’t be on the internet now would we? It is legal though so don’t worry about that, talk to you later John.”

“Yes you will Tess and keep up the good work.”

“Thank you John.” And they hung up.

“Hey guys, as soon as you get a minute can you take a break for a powwow?” Tess asked.

“Yeah, sure.” Maria answered…

So when they had a chance to break away from their new jobs, which was to train the new girls, they grabbed a coke and went over and joined the other two in the booth for a quick meeting.

“What’s up?” Liz wanted to know. She wasn’t put out with the girl for her intrusion on her and Maria but they were on the clock and she wanted to make sure the new girls had a good handle on everything before she abandoned her dad.

“John called and wants to know if we should be investing some of this money to earn more interest than the bank can pay us and if we want to put it into a shelter of some kind.” Tess announced.

“I don’t know about the rest of you but we’ve been in business for what, just a little over a week? Let’s wait until the last order has shipped, the last check has cleared the bank; the last “I” has been dotted and “T” crossed.

“We don’t know how much we’re going to have and I think I’d like to take a week-end trip to Boston with Max and check out apartments. Maybe even rent something and start making some plans for the next four years or more. If we plan on graduate study we’re going to be there for quite a while. I think it’s just a little too soon to be worrying about investing.

“John has no idea what our expenses are, he’s just looking at the deposits for God’s sake, look at the outlay for the post office…the first deposit was $11,000.00 and we came close to going through that over the week-end. No it’s too soon to be talking about investing. When we’re all finished for the summer and we know what we have then we can talk about investing.

“Why don’t you guys go on upstairs and drink free cokes and work on orders and deposits. We’ll need to place another Kinko’s order soon too.”

‘Investing…God, talk about vultures…indeed. We’re making deposits and spending money like hell won’t have it. Let’s just get ourselves through this first and see where it takes us for God’s sake.’ Liz couldn’t get these thoughts out of her head…about that time Maria came up and grabbed her shoulders and squeezed…Liz needed that and then they went on about their Crashdown duties.

*

That evening the group met over at Michael’s again and the ‘investment’ conversation was tabled for the time being; Max just sat and shook his head.

He was really impressed with all four of the girls; they all talked, they all had ideas, they all listened and when it was all said and done they all agreed and there wasn’t one bit of animosity or hard feelings and all the guys just sat and kept quiet while the ‘limelight’ officers made decisions. All businesses should be run this easily.

After they started to make their way home, Max giving Isabelle the keys to the jeep so she could take Alex home and he hitched up with Liz; they decided to head on out to Buckley point for some quiet conversation.

Maria was spending the night with Michael again; Tess and Kyle were headed to the Valenti’s for a while.

Liz had her laptop with her in the car and when the two arrived at their favorite spot they didn’t start in on their usual activity; instead Liz booted up her computer. Max sort of raised an eyebrow as he crawled into the backseat with Liz and then she explained….

“Max, I think we should investigate available housing in Boston and fly out and have a look. We can even rent something if we find something we like.”

“Liz, are you saying you want us to share a place?” Max was in total shock, he had assumed that they would be living in a dorm.

“Yeah Max, I think we should. We know each other’s study habits, we have transportation and there’s no reason for us not to share a place. Don’t you think?”

“Sure Liz, it’s fine with me, I just never thought about it.”

“Well, it’s not like we aren’t going to be able to afford it Max. I think all four of us are sort of leaning toward this set up.” And Liz smiled.

“Well, I know Isabelle and Tess are thinking about getting a place for the four of them and I don’t know what Michael and Maria plan but it makes sense to me since they are going to be attending different schools. Sure, I’d love to go to Boston with you. It will give us a chance to take a look at the place and see what we’re getting ourselves into. When do you want to do this?”

“I don’t know yet, let’s look and see if we can find some available housing, what it’s going to cost and go from there.”

“Sounds good to me.”

And so they started checking things out on the internet…one of the biggest possibilities that stood out for Liz, which she didn’t mention to Max, was a condominium. Talk about investments; property sounded like a great investment! They could get a condominium, live in it and then either sell it or rent it at a later date. She would have to sit down with her calculator and start figuring out her approximate income for the summer. If this business goes well they could do it again next summer and they would have a better handle on things by then too. Now she was getting excited.

And so as Liz and Max searched the web Max was suddenly getting all warm and fuzzy. Liz had been the cause of many cold showers for him in his young life but the idea of living with Liz while away at school was an entirely new concept to him and it was definitely exciting. He just sat and smiled, it was very difficult for him to concentrate on laundry rooms and 2 bathrooms versus the idea of living with Liz which was uppermost on his mind. He just couldn’t keep the grin off his face.

In the meantime Isabelle was talking to Alex about the same situation and Alex was thinking about what his mom and dad might have to say about it. For some reason Isabelle never gave Philip and Diane a second thought when it came to her choice of living quarters.

Of course she and Max came into their college funds when they turned eighteen so basically they didn’t really have to worry about anything like that. Isabelle knew that Tess had a college fund as well but she had never discussed money with Liz. It was kind of Taboo, just like sex…they never discussed that with Liz either, so the only three that might be concerned about monetary problems would be Michael, Kyle and Maria and possibly Liz.

Liz didn’t see where any of them would have any problems as far as money was concerned. It never entered her mind that the money she would realize from the joint venture would not include Max when it came to spending it. All of the meetings and everything else had been with Max in mind not just her. It was for both of them…then she giggled,

Max didn’t understand what was so funny but Liz had a plan…Maria was right, a boy calendar along with a girl calendar next year. It was going to be great and she couldn’t control herself as Max watched in wonderment. How was she going to bring up that possibility? The best way to deal with it would be to wait and see just how much each of them realized from the profits.

Liz drove Max home right around midnight after making plans to meet up for church and then breakfast for some more apartment discussion. They had seen a couple of nice apartments located right off campus but Liz was still leaning toward the condominium idea. The more she thought about it the more she liked the idea. John’s suggestion of investing really set off a bunch of bells for her and she wondered if she needed to discuss this with her dad; she did have her grandmother’s money so her dad wouldn’t be wondering where she got it from…This could get really sticky if she wasn’t careful, she would have to be very careful how she worked this and then she thought, ‘I’m 18 and legal…there’s nothing to think about.’
*
Isabelle brought the subject up to Alex while they sat in the family room watching TV and he almost choked on a piece of popcorn.

“Isabelle, what are you saying, you want to live together as in together?”


“Well Tess and I were talking about it the other day and we think that the four of us should find a large apartment or a house to live in together. I don’t mind making new friends but it’s like I told Max, I don’t want to live with strangers. If you’re against a two bedroom place then maybe we could get a four bedroom place or even a three bedroom place and you could have your own room if that would make you feel better. We could use a study or something…I personally think that two large bedrooms would be sufficient. Think about it Alex, just think about it.”

Maria and Michael were having a similar conversation at Michael’s apartment but their biggest concern had been finances up til now. They were both happy as two clams now that the problem had been solved and they were surfing the net for the best for their buck just as a couple of the other couples were doing.


*

Michelle (1) Hey, if life was that easy we'd all be in that upper 1% as my son says....
Natalie: Yes there are and I think, now that the boys are in this they will have some help.
Carolyn: "Ain't it the truth" everyone wants a piece of the pie...
Michelle (2): You're right, and if I were them I think maybe I would seriously think about a career as a "model" too....
Eve: Nope, I don't think the idea of a "men's calendar" even registered...
Cardinal: LOL...don't sell Alex short, he's a cutie!!!
Michelle (3): You are just full of great possibilities and if I ever get this (###*&&) new computer to work I will do a special page just for you....

***

Chapter: 25
Friday 6/21

That Friday was Liz and Maria’s last day at the Crashdown and the two new girls were working out just famously. Jeff wanted to know what Liz and Maria planned on doing with all of their free time and Liz giggled while Maria explained that they were just going to ‘hang’.

That was all well and good with Jeff but just where the hell did they plan on hanging.

Tess had picked up their order from Kinko’s and the assembly line was in full swing by the time Liz and Maria showed up at 3:30.

Monday would be Maria and Liz’s first full day at Limelight and they were ready for any and all jobs, big or small. Tess informed everyone that she had placed three orders and they would be ready for pick up on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. They had completed all of the out of country today and next week would be presorted by zip code first and then Maria could work on postage charges for out of county again and then Liz could enter those addresses into the computer and run the freight labels to correspond with the addresses. It sounded great to everyone…

Then Liz told them that she and Max wanted to take a trip to Boston soon to check out some rentals that they had seen on the internet and to take a look at the school, the town and surrounding areas.

She explained that they most likely would be there for the better part of six years and maybe eight with doctorates in their future. Isabelle was impressed and Maria just a little shocked….she didn’t want to think of her friends being gone that long. She suddenly got very quiet and the other three took notice immediately.

“Maria, what’s wrong?” Tess wanted to know.

“Well Michael and I were checking out apartments also but I just didn’t put that much time into the thought. I was thinking about renting until next May…then heading home for the summer. I wasn’t thinking of a long term ‘thingee’, like eight years. My God, that’s too long to think about, I don’t want to think about that, NO!”

“Ah Ria, let me clue you in on my thoughts and I haven’t even discussed this part with Max yet so please do me a favor and keep this to yourselves, all of you, at least until tonight. I just dumped the living together thing on him last night, let’s give him a chance to digest that first, then here we go.

“I want to buy something. We will have enough money to invest in something so why not buy instead of rent. If we pool our funds we can have a nice place and it will be a great investment. We can come home for the summer and be assured that our place will be there in the fall. I think it would be a sound investment and we can sell at some point down the road when we decide where we want to live permanently. Well?” And Liz raised an eyebrow and looked at her friends.

“Well I talked it over with Alex last night and he was shocked that I wanted to live together, with him; we may have to rent a four bedroom place. I don’t know why; I haven’t figured out why he feels this is necessary but if that’s what he wants then that’s what we’ll have to do.” Isabelle explained further,

“Tess and I had talked about the four of us sharing a place and now I think that’s what we’ll do I guess. I’ve checked out a few places on the internet and I think we should drive down for a week-end and have a look also. The closer it gets to school the harder it’s going to be to find something so I think we need to get busy now.”

“Why don’t we all plan on leaving on the same week-end that way the folks will think we’re all going somewhere together and we won’t have so many questions to answer.” Maria suggested. They all agreed. One thing you could say for this group of girls was they were certainly agreeable. And so it was decided, the following week-end they would all head to their respective schools to check things out.

“Cheap Tickets here we come,” shouted Liz. She had seen her dad use cheap tickets when they went to Disney Land and she never forgot it.

About that time the boys all showed up and completed the circle right at 5:30 and they were finished with the mailings by 10:00 p.m. and all packed up and ready to run to the post office in the morning.

Carolyn: LOL...You know the parents will find out some day...and some day being the key word here. I'm still finding out about stuff my kids did and they're in their 50's. A preview of the boys calendar will appear, honest...
Natalie36: I hope they're impressed, no matter what happens they have nothing to say about it, right. Although it has been my experience that some parents just don't know when to back off...
Michele: See, I 'tole you to be my beta' I never thought about the post office, although, they can always lie and say they are doing mailings for Limelight Inc. Moms and Dads don't know who that is, right?

Chapter: 26
Monday 6/24/02

Monday rolled around and all four girls were at Michael’s right at 8:00 a.m.
and ready to work. Tess immediately checked the web site and sorted through the paying customers and the one’s just checking things out and immediately started working on her deposit. Liz took over and started separating the in country from out of country and Maria took up her chore of finding the postage for the out of country addresses. Isabelle started printing postage for the in country orders on both postage printers since they all had to be $2.15 and all four worked diligently for a full four hours without a break.

Tess had to deposit more money to the post office account and then placed an order for 15,000 calendars. They were going to pick up 5000 today and then five thousand would be delivered on Wednesday and another 5000 on Friday, the remainder would be delivered on Monday; Tess figured that she would most likely have more ordered before the final 5000 would be delivered and that they would definitely stop taking orders on August 1st. That was approximately five more weeks. If they kept shipping 15,000 per week that should give them enough money for any rent they had to pay over and above the board fees at school. Tess and Isabelle would be getting the best break if Alex didn’t insist on having his own bedroom. Why? Was all Isabelle could come up with?

Liz excused herself when they decided to take a lunch break and none of the girls gave it a second thought…what they didn’t know was that Liz had made an appointment with an OB/GYN the week before and was going in for her first female exam and a prescription for birth control pills. If she and Max were going to be living together it was time for her to start thinking about a more intimate relationship with him. She couldn’t expect him to be seeing her every night and every morning in a cohabitation situation and remain celibate; she wasn’t so sure she wanted to remain in a situation like that either. It was time for her to start thinking along the lines of a more adult relationship with her boyfriend; ‘Lord knows he’s been more than patient about that’ she thought …She had investigated pharmacies across the U.S. and discovered that she could use Wal-Mart in Boston without needing a new prescription so she used the local Wal-Mart to fill the prescription. The timing should be perfect.

And so the week-end came and all eight of our teens hopped into Tess’ SUV on Friday afternoon after having shipped their 5000 calendars and Tess deposited four of them at the airport and then went on her way to Las Cruces with the remaining three to go house/apartment hunting.

Max and Michael were both shocked when the girls had suggested it and Kyle and Alex sort of expected it, although they were surprised that they were headed out so soon. All four of the girls were armed with addresses and when they reached their destinations both Max and Michael were prepared to rent cars with a GPS and they were ready to go.

Maria and Michael went to a Best Western located on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge; it served a continental breakfast from 7:00 to 10:00 daily and there were restaurants right across the street. They spent the biggest part of Saturday morning checking out the various areas, since New York is divided into so many little bergs, and then they drove across the bridge to New Jersey. It was there that they discovered they could get twice the value for their money so on Sunday morning, early, they hit five apartment complexes and found one with exactly what they needed.

The place was fairly small but the bedroom was separate, it had a laundry facility and a very small kitchen but a nice sized living room. It was just the ticket and only one block from the subway. They signed a lease and they paid all the fees and rents due and went home almost broke between the two of them but they had a place to live and Maria wasn’t the least bit worried about it because she knew the calendars were going to come through for them and when they got settled they could each get a part time job somewhere. It was going to work out just fine for them.

*
Tess and Isabelle each had a list of vacancies to take a look at as well as Maria and Michael and surprisingly enough it was Kyle who had the most questions about the places like availability to public transportation, etc. etc. He was just one big bundle of questions that the rest thought were totally inane since they had three vehicles between the four of them and he was one of the ones with a car. Alex just shook his head. He couldn’t believe that they all wanted to live together but the more they talked about it the more on board he was and then he started asking questions like hell wouldn’t have it. Pretty soon Isabelle and Tess just let them go and they stood back and watched.

When all was said and done they did rent a three bedroom apartment, 2 bathrooms, living room, eat in kitchen, all major appliances with laundry facilities in the basement. It was actually within walking distance to the school and it had parking on the lower level for three vehicles. Each unit had parking spaces for an added fee and so they paid the extra money so it worked out just fine for them; their cars would be off the street. They were happy as clams. They spent Sunday touring the school and scoping out all the fun spots in the area.
-
*
Liz and Max arrived in Boston late in the evening on Friday and stayed at the Airport Inn right across from their airline. Max went and picked up the rental car while Liz headed across from the airport to check in. They had both finished with their assigned duties about the same time and Liz met Max out front and they drove through the gated area together and found their room with no trouble at all. As soon as they entered their room Liz grabbed her duffle bag from Max and headed to the bathroom to change her clothes; Max grinned to himself. She was really trying to be brave, no doubt about it.

Max set his duffle bag on the table in the corner and picked up the remote to find something on the TV and then all the programs available came up on the screen in the form of a menu…Max started to scroll down to select something and there it was, pay per view porn. He damn near choked when he saw that and scrolled past it as fast as he could before Liz came out of the bathroom,

‘damn, that’s all she needs to see, she’d have her own room quicker than you could say porn out loud.’ He thought to himself…and then he started to chuckle…’maybe not, you just never knew about Liz, look at this calendar business’ and then he laughed even harder.

About that time Liz came out of the bathroom dressed in her pajama bottoms and her pink tank top with her fuzzy slippers on her feet; her face was scrubbed clean and her hair pulled high on her head, she was ready for bed.

“What’s so funny Max?”

“Oh nothing really, and then everything, who would have ever thought that three weeks ago we’d be here in Boston sharing a hotel room and getting ready to rent a place to live in this coming year.”

“Yeah, about that Max, how do you feel about buying a place? You know John at the bank called Tess and wanted to know if we were interested in investing some of this money in a tax shelter or something. Now, I’m not that versed on accounting or the like but I have heard my mom and dad discuss investments and tax shelters and even though I never really paid that much attention I do know that dad feels that he would rather pay the taxes due on his money now than to wait until a later date and the tax rate goes up and the money you earned today at a tax rate of 25% will probably be taxed at 30% or more by the time you take it out of the investment.

“He said that the tax rate will never go down no matter how good things are running so why don’t we just buy something? We’re probably going to be here for at least six years and possibly eight…you never know. We would have had that many years to build up equity and if the market is good we can sell and buy something else when we’re ready to settle down permanently.”

Max sat there slack jawed as he listened to his girlfriend suggest that they become property owners at the age of eighteen.

“Liz, what makes you think someone will be willing to sell something to a couple of high school graduates?”

“Well, it never hurts to ask Max. I have a printout of a couple of places; I was thinking about a nice condominium that comes with appliances. That way we wouldn’t have to worry about furniture, maybe a bed and a couple of desks, a TV and maybe the money that we save on dorms and eating out we can get some kind of furniture at a later date.

“We really don’t need a lot as long as the place is nice and it has a really good resale value. I was thinking we really don’t need a house, although it might work out, but we don’t need lawns and stuff like that. A condominium is more like an apartment only it would be ours.” Liz was on a roll and Max was fascinated.

Max got up off the chair he was sitting in and joined Liz on the bed and pulled her close.

“If you think that’s something we can swing then yes, we’ll look at condominiums and I agree, I don’t want to be mowing grass either.” Max kissed the top of her head and got up and grabbed his duffle bag…

“Now, I’m going to go brush my teeth and get ready for bed too so you find something you might like to watch and I’ll be out in a few.”

Liz smiled up at Max as he left the bedroom and then she dug her printout out of her bag so she could show it to Max when he came out of the bathroom. She was so excited she didn’t know where to put herself.

The two of them sat together in their bed looking at places, prices, areas closest to school in relation to other places and areas as far as pricing went, it depended on how near in or how far out. The farther out they traveled the more for your money.

They sat and weighed all the pros and cons and about two in the morning Liz was on her last leg. Max took the papers she had brought with her, put them into a nice stack and laid them on the table. He turned the light off over their bed and crawled in.

He leaned in and kissed his girlfriend long and tender and then lay down, pulled her in close and proceeded to go to sleep. Liz had made her mind up right then and there that the life she had planned for them in an apartment or their own place would definitely be different than this…if she waited that long.

The doctor explained things to her very clearly on Monday and she figured just about the time they were ready to leave Roswell would be just about the right time to break the news to Max. They would do this thing right. And she smiled as she snuggled up and went to sleep. This was their first experience alone in a bedroom together without worrying about sleeping in or getting caught in bed, and for all night too; she was really looking forward to many more nights like this as she snuggled in close and went to sleep.

*
The next day they drove around to a couple of the more expensive addresses closer to the school and then headed out farther to check those places out and to scope out the driving time. They stopped at the second place Liz had printed out; it was right off the freeway, gated and very homey looking. Liz fell in love with the surroundings, it had tree lined streets and most of the places faced a park with a duck pond and the pricing was very affordable. A two bedroom was going for $135,000 with 2 bathrooms and a fireplace and then the three bedroom was going for $150,000.00 and it included appliances, a laundry facility off the kitchen two full baths, living and dining rooms and a fireplace. Liz couldn’t believe what she was reading.

Max stopped the car and they went into the sales office. The realtor took one look at these two kids and wondered, ‘what the hell is going on here?’ but stood and acknowledged the two of them and when Max held out his hand to the man and introduced himself and Liz the guy had to wonder. They were just kids but they seemed a little mature for just your ordinary kids…

“How can I help you Max?”

“Well, we’re starting school here in Boston in Sept. and we decided that it might be a better idea to purchase something rather than rent or board so we would like to see what you have. I think Liz likes the idea of a three bedroom place over the two bedrooms. It would be the better investment for us. We’ll probably be here for at least six years and maybe more depending on where our graduate studies take us, but right now we’re leaning toward Boston.”

The realtor, Steve Jenkins, shook his head…he hoped that it looked as though he was agreeing with Max but in fact it was because he was in shock.

Then Liz spoke up…

“Why are these places so cheap? What’s the deal?”

“We don’t think they’re cheap Liz. What do you mean?”

“The other places we checked out were way over these prices, there was one place that was almost a million and these places are going for less than two hundred thousand…what’s wrong with them?”

Steve looked at the young woman with renewed respect, he didn’t think he was going to be able to pull any wool over her eyes; she was the type that would do her homework before buying anything.

“Well Liz, we had some problems with the inspection on a lot of the units and people got word of it and pulled out on us. We’re actually trying to recoup what we have invested in these units so they are practically going at cost.”

“Okay, what have you done to take care of these “problems”? And what kind of “problems” are we talking about?” Liz wanted to know.

“Well, a lot of it was plumbing recalls which have been fixed and of course sewage went along with the plumbing. The list went on.”

“How far “on” and what about this sewage you’re talking about. What kind of sewer system do you have?”

“We’re on a septic system.”

“I see. All of these units share the same septic system?”

“Yes.”

“Well, okay then. Come on Max, thank you for your time Steve but I think we’ll pass. I knew this was too good to be true.”

Max shook Steve’s hand, took Liz’s arm and smiled. ‘Oh this is going to be so much fun’ he thought.

They got in the car and Liz took a look over at Max who was grinning from ear to ear…

“What?”

“Nothing Liz, honest…this is just a lot of fun.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re getting a kick out of it…That duck pond was probably the run off for the cesspool!”

And Max out and out laughed.

“When did you learn about cesspools for God’s sake?”

“Grandma Claudia had a septic system at her house and the damned thing would always get overloaded when we all visited for holidays and the back yard would be a sloshy mess.”

“Oh; so what have you got next?”

“Well if we get back on the freeway and head east we will come to a turn off in about 8 more miles. Is that too far?”

“No, I don’t think so. We can make it work, even if we don’t have classes at the same time, we can use the library for study hall or something.”

“Okay, then let’s try these, they’re right at 450 and 500.”

“Do you think we can afford that?”

“Yes Max, I do. So just take a look, if they aren’t on a sewer system we’ll head back to town and check out some of those.”

“Okay, East it is.” And off he drove…Liz kept thinking, ‘if I take my inheritance from Grandma Claudia we can pay cash and then I’ll just replace some of the money with the Limelight proceeds. This is going to work out just fine; it’s going to be a great investment.’

So, when they got to the next place it was just as pleasing to the eye as the first place and they were on a sewer system, they had a nice park, no pond though, and they were within walking distance to public transportation with direct hook ups to the school.

They both agreed that they liked the four bedroom place the best, they could each have a study and have plenty of room for company if the rest of the gang wanted to come and visit so Liz pulled out her ace in the hole and Max Evans sat in awe.

When the realtor realized there wouldn’t be a mortgage involved the cost of the place dropped fifty thousand dollars and Liz smiled. They not only found a lovely place to live but the money she saved on the purchase price would put some furniture in it as well and she hugged Max.

When it was time to place the names of the owners on the deed Liz was going to add Max’s name as well and Max shook his head ‘no’.

“Definitely not Liz; that is your inheritance from your grandmother and I will not allow you to put my name on that deed. Someday, when we’re ready to be co-owners then and only then will my name be on the deed and I will pay 50% of all monthly expenses for as long as we live here. It’s only fair. When we decide to sell it the original price will be put back into grandma’s fund along with a reasonable amount of interest and then we will talk about things like deeds but not until then. I had no idea you planned on doing this with that money. I could use the money I was going to have to pay for board at school and give you half if you want me too.”

“Nope, Grandma’s money will never earn the interest this place is going to realize. This is a wise decision Max. We have time to take care of this but right now I just want to have someplace to come to in August.”

It was the easiest sale the realtor had ever made and everyone was happy.

And so Max and Liz spent the rest of Saturday in old downtown Boston sight seeing and had dinner at Cheers and then on Sunday they headed on out to the university very early and toured the campus before heading out to the airport. Michael and Maria were flying in to Boston and then changing planes and flying back to Las Cruces with Max and Liz. They had a lot to talk about on the way home and Maria and Liz decided to sit together and Max and Michael took the seat that the other two had been assigned in order for the girls to talk the whole way home. Of course Max and Michael had a lot to talk about too.

*

Michelle: You sound like my oldest granddaughter and the laundry room...she and her fiance just rented an apartment with a laundry and the only thing she can't shut up about is the laundry. She's 27 and she said this is the first time she's had access to a washer and dryer since she left home for college at 18.
Ntalie36: Me too, honest...but my grandchildren all know about stocks, the stock market, interest rates, loans, commodities and the whole Mary Ann. The youngest graduatin on 6/9 at the age of 18. They are a whole lot smarter than we were...we just learned as we went...it's their knowledge that really allowed me the freedom to wirte this the way I did. The youngest has had his own "T-shirt" business since 14. Hey, I know about the turnpikes, grew up back there...the difference is the word "free"... sorry, I should have remembered that!
CArolyn: Let's just say they are smarter I wouldn't say more mature, sometime I have my doubts but their book learning is to be envied...
Thumper: Hi, I know that septic tanks are supposed to be illegal in multi complexes but (fiction here almost) my husband and I rented a mountain cabin on a lot that had five other cabins years ago at a very popular lake in California...All six of these cabins used one septic sysytem...honest. The slush, slug and odor was outrageous so you can imagine what this huge duck pond would be like with these condos...(fiction)
Eve: So glad you enjoyed it. We're getting close to the end though but I have anther on lined up
Smileeuk: They studied hard in school is all I can say and I agree about vacant spaces...I love it too.

***
****Chapter: 27
Monday 6/26/02

And so bright and early Monday morning all four of the girls plus Alex showed up to work for Limelight. Alex was doing the stuffing as Liz and Isabelle printed envelopes and Maria and Tess worked on addresses, postage and deposits. The big topic of conversation as the girls worked was the fact that Liz had bought a four bedroom condominium. They were all flabbergasted, especially Isabelle. She had no idea Liz had that kind of money, you would never know it to look at the blue jean clad, pony tailed young woman. Oh well, the world was just full of surprises.

“Liz, what possessed you to get one so big?” Tess wondered.

“Well, for one thing, there’s room enough for all of you to come and visit; say spring break. Now why would you go to Roswell for spring break when you can come to Boston and see the sights? No?” And Liz giggled, she hoped they would come.

“Hey, you’re right…and then you can come to New York too only you’ll have to bring your sleeping bags because Michael and I are moving into a closet.” Maria laughed.

“Oh come on…” Isabelle said, not believing a word of it.

“Seriously, it’s not as big as Michael’s living room, or maybe it’s just as big, but not by much. The bedroom is just big enough for a double bed and a small dresser. The living and eating area are combined and the kitchen area consists of an apartment sized stove, a small refrigerator and four cabinets above the sink and stove area with another couple of cabinets under the sink, that’s it and then there’s a washer and dryer in what looks like a linen closet in the bathroom…there are cupboards above the washer and dryer that can be used as a linen closet I guess and then there’s a clothes closet the entire length of the bedroom. It’s nice for one, two’s pushing it but we’ll manage. It will cost each of us 600.00 a month but that includes everything so we’ll be fine. We thought we could get part time jobs close to the apartment and that should cover any added expenses we have. Oh and they’ll furnish it for us if we want them to. I think I’d rather go buy something though.”

“Maria, if you’re not planning on staying there through the summer why would you buy furniture…pay the extra money and let them furnish it for you. That way you won’t have to worry about what to do with it when you leave.” Tess suggested.

“Yeah Maria, that makes sense.”

“Well, what about you guys, what are you going to do?”

“We’re going to keep the apartment; we don’t want to lose it. I figure we can all scrounge stuff out of our folk’s houses and what we can’t borrow or just plain take then we’ll buy something cheap.” Isabelle said.

“Well Max and I will just lock our place up for the 2 ½ months we’ll be gone and it will be there when we get back. I don’t see a problem with that but we aren’t going to go out and buy really good stuff either. I want it to look nice but let’s face it we won’t be there that much. Most of our time will be spent at school. We figure we’ll drive together and when one of us is in class and the other isn’t we‘ll just use the library to study. Mostly it’s an investment like John said. I figure property is the best and safest investment there is.”

“Hmm, that’s something to think about. Maybe after we’re settled we can look around for something.” Maria thought out loud.

“Yeah,” the rest agreed and they kept on printing and stuffing. By 5:00 p.m. they had another 5000 calendars completed and ready for the post office. The next day would be spent just as today with the exception of printing envelopes and stuffing… they were out of merchandise. Tess placed another 15,000 to be delivered next week and they kept on working.

By August 15th all orders had been paid for and shipped all funds deposited and Tess had her balance sheet ready to present to Les Biby. She e-mailed him a copy and informed him that she would bring the originals to him with copies of all receipts when she arrived in Las Cruces on August 19th. . Tess had purchased a large expanding folder, divided for various items, and used it to store her receipts for the business. School would start on August 25th and the kids wanted to have a week to get moved in and get settled before then

So, they all rented U-Hauls and started packing up anything and everything their parents hadn’t nailed down and they were off. The Whitman’s, the Evans’, the Harding’s and Jim Valenti all followed in two vehicles behind the U-haul which also held Kyle’s Mustang and Max’s jeep, which Isabelle was going to use. Tess and Isabelle rode in Tess’s SUV and Kyle and Alex drove the U-Haul, the parents were a wreck but Kyle did just fine maneuvering the big rig around. It was only for a few hours and basically freeway driving, so nothing monumental happened.

Max, Liz, Michael and Maria also rented a U-Haul and started their trip across the US together as far as Max and Liz’s place…Liz and Maria were in
the Camaro and Max and Michael in the U-Haul with all the stuff they could grab out of their homes and Max and Michael laughed the whole way to Boston about the stuff their parents had sent with them.

To say that all of the parents were shocked was an understatement and the fact that Liz had bought a place in Massachusetts shocked the hell out of Jeff and Nancy and when the kids took off Jeff and Nancy stood outside of the Crashdown along with Amy DeLuca all holding back unshed tears. The parents were worse than the kids but they were all full of pride at the accomplishments they had all achieved. They were one bunch of swell teenagers that’s for sure.

Jeff and Nancy were going to fly to Boston for Thanksgiving with the Evans’ since the kids only got Thursday and Friday off and then the kids would come home for Christmas. Liz couldn’t wait until her parents saw her and Max’s new home. They were really going to be surprised at how nice they had fixed it up with the extra money Liz had saved on the price of the home and life was good.

*

When Les Biby saw the balance sheet that Tess had e-mailed him he sat and shook his head in wonder. What in the hell had these girls done in the past 10 weeks to realize this kind of a profit. This was unheard of. Of course when he looked at their overhead there was practically none. The sheet read as follows:

Tess used their new address in Las Cruces for any mailing that needed to be handled through the postal service.


Limelight, Inc.
235 Myrtle St.
Las Cruces, New Mexico


Sales report for period ending August 15, 2002.
First and final for the present year.

Gross Sales: $2,935,000.00

Cost of goods sold: $995,000.00
Shipping costs: 435,000.00
Yahoo Web Site Rental 210.00
Supplies: 7,430.00
Mileage: 750.00
Contract labor 300.00
Approximate accounting fees. 5 hrs. @ 75.00 375.00
Sub Total: $1,439,065.00

Gross Profit $1,495,935.00
Estimated Income tax (33%) (493,658.00)

Net Profit $1,002,277.00
======================================================
Capital Investment: $ (400.00)
Owners’ Equity (1,002,277.00)
Allowance for Inc. tax( 493,658.00)
Cash in Bank: ____________ $1,496,335.00
Total $ (1,496,335.00) $1,496,335.00

Les called John at the bank.

“John did you call the girls about investing any of this money? Tess sent me a preliminary P & L for the year and even deducted 33% for the IRS which is way over stated and it still leaves them with a million. My God, what have they been up to?”

“I really don’t know but I do know that their checking account has had only credit card deposits, all of which are good charges I might add so they must have really watched those accounts closely. The majority of their charges have been to the post office on line and the rest are minimal really. I have no idea what they were selling but apparently it was a hot item. I’m sure I’ll be hearing from them shortly if you received a P & L from Tess. I even looked up ‘Limelight’ on the internet and couldn’t find the web site,”

Les chuckled he tried to find it too…

“Well, I know she’ll be here on Monday, she said she would come in and bring all of her paperwork for me. She most likely will bring me copies; I don’t think she would give me originals. These girls may be young but I don’t think any of them are naïve.”

“Well, the Evans girl is Philip Evans daughter, the lawyer in Roswell, he’s nationwide. The Harding girl’s dad is a government employee; the Parker girl’s family owns a restaurant in Roswell and the DeLuca girl’s mother has a bakery and gift shop in Roswell so all of the girls come from some pretty business savvy families.”

“I guess they do. Well did they say anything about investments?”

“Not a word. I did call them but I think they were waiting to see the bottom line.”

“Yeah, probably. I’ll be seeing Tess Monday and ask her again.”

“Fine Les, we’ll do lunch one of these days.”

*