Chapter 60: Dresden Poincaire

"This was it, the last day of school", thought Jeffrey.

As he walked past the school gate, the ground was covered with a thin layer of powdered snow. Jeffrey took a moment to appreciate the winter scenery.

While he was doing so, Preston came up from behind and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Are you alright, Jeffrey?", Preston asked with a person next to him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It snowed", Jeffrey said then turning to notice a new kid.

"Hey, I'm Dresden", Preston's friend waved at him.

Jeffrey was a little surprised, but he waved back.

"So what's up with him?", Jeffrey asked Preston.

"He wants to join us", Preston responded.

"Join us for...", Jeffrey paused a moment, "The science project?"

Preston nodded. Jeffrey sighed for a moment, "I'll have to think about it and maybe we'll have to ask Samantha."

"Can I know why he wants to join?", Jeffrey asked.

Preston waved his friend over, "I think it's best he says why."

"Hey Dresden, tell him the same thing you told me why you wanted to join", Preston shouted to his friend.

Dresden looked a little nervous, but he mustered up the courage to speak.

"I saw you guys were making a lot of money and I wanted to do the same!", Dresden said honestly.

"uh, you do realize this is a science project, right?", Jeffrey mentioned.

"You guys have been making hand over fistfuls of money. I thought if you can do it, why can't I. So I decided to see if I could join your group", Dresden explained himself.

"can you give us a moment to talk", Jeffrey said to Dresden.

Dresden nodded and went to the side.

"That's his reason?", Jeffrey said to Preston as quietly as he could without appearing to upset.

Preston shook his head. They both turned around to look at Dresden. Noticing their stares he waved back. They turned around.

"I didn't know what to do you I decided to let him ask you", Preston explained.

"Haah, I don't know man. He's honest I guess, I mean he's your friend he asked you first. What do you think?", Jeffrey asked.

"He seems ok, he's never lied to be before. That I know of, if you don't like him we can reject him", Preston offered.

"I hate to say this, but I'm not comfortable adding a new project member yet. We should probably tell Samantha as well. If she decides to add a new member then maybe. I've never really done this before", Jeffrey said to his friend.

Dresden could see Preston and Jeffrey discussing, it wasn't too smooth, but it didn't look bad either. Still, Dresden could feel it he probably was going to get rejected.

Preston didn't feel to strongly, but as a member of the project he wanted to make sure that they were a team. He didn't really care who was the leader, but as so far as he could tell this project didn't really have one.

"Ok, but you're the one who has to let him know", Preston said to Jeffrey.

"He's your friend", Jeffrey remarked.

Preston stared at him and Jeffrey reluctantly decided to go over and talk to Dresden.

"Hey", Jeffrey smiled sheepishly at Dresden.

"Hey", Dresden smiled back.

"Here's the deal. I don't mind having you join, but I need to talk to our other project member. It's not just the two of us. We never really negotiated anything about money and I should know because I'm the one managing it", Jeffrey tried to say as calmly as possible.

"Since Preston kept urging me to not reject you. I'll probably have you talk to Samantha and you can talk to her about letting you join. When we come back, after a week or so we'll see how it goes", Jeffrey finished and turned to look at Preston.

Dresden didn't look extremely happy with the result, but for him it was something. Preston although a little dissatisfied, thought that Jeffrey was at least taking everything into consideration. Jeffrey was a little annoyed at the whole situation, but tried to accept it as best he could.

"Anything else?", Jeffrey asked Preston.

"Not really", Preston said turning to leave and talk with his friend.

"One last thing Preston. Just remember the science project is one thing and being friends is another. Try not to mix them up", Jeffrey reminded.

"Ok Jeffrey", Preston said as he left.

Jeffrey didn't know if it was even a good thing to invite his friends. However he didn't really have anyone else to turn to for something like this. So he'd try and deal with this as best as possible.

Jeffrey stood in the snow alone. His gray and blue rain jacket made him resemble a sad blue jay in the school courtyard. He watched the other kids in their group of friends talking amongst themselves.

Jeffrey got bored and went into his bag. He pulled out a science fiction short story he printed out last night when he got home. A good book friend of his recommended it to him titled, "I have no mouth, and I must scream".