Chapter 91: Confrontation

Then during recess Jeffrey gathered up the courage and started to walk toward Dresden.

While he walked towards him, some bigger kids moved to block his way.

Seeing his intentions of getting closer to Dresden they asked, "What do you want with him?"

Jeffrey replied, "it's none of your business"

the kids blocking him, put down their backpack, preventing him from moving forward.

Dresden who was busy talking to another kid, saw the commotion.

"I'll talk to you later", he said to the person he was talking to and jogged over.

"What's going on?", he asked some of the kids blocking Jeffrey.

"This guy wanted to see you", the kid pointed to Jeffrey.

Dresden looked at Jeffrey, "Oh its Jeffrey, he's fine."

Dresden waved to the kids to signal that it was ok and they went about their business.

"How are you doing Jeffrey?", Dresden asked him.

"I'm doing well, how about yourself?", Jeffrey replied.

"Good, good. Great actually, our science project has been making us a lot of money!", Dresden smiled.

Jeffrey was about to say something, but Dresden continued talking.

"I've started to talking to some high school kids and they're very happy to play around with our project. In fact, we need more people to keep up!", Dresden explained.

"Umm", Jeffrey tried to find a moment to interrupt. However Dresden ignored him.

Dresden talked about some of the things he was doing and goals he had accomplished.

"There were some trouble with other kids trying to copy us, but all the new recipes Samantha and Preston came up with did the trick", Dresden mentioned.

Jeffrey was a little concerned at the direction this had taken.

"So uh, Dresden", Jeffrey piped up.

Dresden paused to listen to Jeffrey's question.

"Where are you going with this? Where are we going with this?", Jeffrey asked for the group.

"Promote this project, win the science fair. Isn't that what you asked me to do?", Dresden replied.

"But do we need to make this so big? There's been some bad rumors spreading about us selling Oobleck", Jeffrey brought up.

"Jeffrey, they're just rumors", Dresden reassured him.

"Well, Preston, Samantha and I are just worried where we're taking this. Since we're all in this together aren't we?", Jeffrey asked a little unsure of himself.

"Of course, of course...", Dresden agreed.

"I handle the marketing and you guys handle the experiments and accounting. Win-win", Dresden said.

"Is this about the money? I can hand over more of the profits", Dresden handed him a check of $200 with his signature on it.

"No no, it's nothing about that. We're just worried that's all", Jeffrey said meekly without taking the money.

"Everything is fine", Dresden responded.

"Don't worry too much, tell our project partners that they can keep working on the project and I'll keep promoting it. We'll definitely win the science fair", Dresden smiled.

Dresden walked away and the kids surrounding him came forward. Jeffrey still had questions to ask, but Dresden's entourage didn't look to friendly so Jeffrey left.

Dresden had changed or had he? Maybe it was everyone else who had changed, maybe the world had changed. However Jeffrey didn't recognize the person they invited to the group months ago.

Jeffrey was too busy working at SK flowers to notice the change in group dynamics surrounding their group project. Samantha and Preston were busy preparing for some sort of regional AMC math competition, meanwhile Dresden suddenly turned their project into whatever it was now.

To him, it felt like he couldn't keep up with all the changes that were happening so quickly. It seemed just like last week, he had to drag Preston into the project and they struggled to sell their first jar. Now they were having kids bring whole boxes to middle and high schools nearby.

"Was the world crazy or was he?", Jeffrey thought walking alone at recess.

Soon his two friends Samantha and Preston finished talking and walked up to him.

"So how did it go", Samantha asked.

"What did Dresden say?", Preston said.

"He said that everything were just rumors and that he'd manage the marketing side and we should manage the science and accounting side", Jeffrey responded.

"What do you think Preston are you ok with it?", Samantha asked.

Preston shrugged his shoulders, he didn't really think about it to much.

"How about you Jeffrey, you fine with Dresden doing his own thing?", Preston repeated the question to him.

"Uhh... to be honest guys I don't know", Jeffrey admitted honestly.

"I don't know where this project is going. I don't know where I'm going. I don't know where we're going", Jeffrey started to vent.

Preston and Samantha had a silent conversation.

"What's up with Jeffrey", Samantha mimed to Preston.

Preston put his index finger to his head and indicated the possibility that maybe he was just stressed from school.

"Guys, I'm right here", Jeffrey said to the two having a conversation in their secret language.

"We were just talking about maybe that you need a break and we can talk about this later", Preston explained.

"yeah, the science fair is coming up we can talk about things then. Plus we still have that meeting on Wednesday", Samantha added.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Project meeting tomorrow", Preston said cheerfully.

Preston and Samantha said their goodbyes as they continued to talk about math topics.

"see you in band class Jeffrey", Samantha said.

"Yeah, see you in Mrs. Crawford's class", Preston replied.

*BEEP* *Ding*

the school bell rang once again and all the students started to head to class, Jeffrey included.