Chapter 58: Finding Endowments

The day was over and Jeffrey and Preston were waiting for their third member of the group Samantha.

As they walked up the hill, they sat on the curb next to a small tree. A lot of other kids were getting picked up as well. Soon Samantha came into view and they waved at her.

"Hey Samantha", Preston greeted her.

"Hey you guys, did you bring everything?", Samantha asked back a little out of breath having to carry her trumpet home.

"Yep", Jeffrey pulled out a yellow manila folder. So did Preston, inside were photocopies of their social security numbers, passports, birth certificates and everything that Preston had researched from the local library.

"Preston, Did you really go through the whole dummies for taxes?", Jeffrey asked.

"I had some spare time after Chinese school at Whampoa College and I decided to read through it", Preston mentioned.

"Samantha did the hard part of actually finding an adult that would talk to us", Preston tried to change the topic of the conversation.

"Yeah that was pretty cool, how do you know him Samantha?", Jeffrey asked.

"Uh, one of the girls in my neighborhood is the girl scout troupe leader. After selling cookies, her mom had to prepare some stuff and she told me about it", Samantha explained.

"That's cool, are you thinking about being a girl scout Samantha?", Preston asked.

"Nah, I like being a camp counselor though", Samantha talked about leading a group last summer and some swim classes for junior lifeguard.

"Did you like being a boy scout Preston?", Samantha asked.

"Meh, math circle's more my thing. By the way are you going to prepare for the AMC competition?", Preston and Samantha talked for a bit.

They were both good at math and attended weekend classes. Preston was just slightly better than Samantha, but he also started one year earlier than her.

Preston and her knew each other before and they had shared material and studied together one year. An 8th grader helped tutor them and they got to see what a test looked like.

"How did you solve the cubes problem?", Jeffrey heard Preston ask.

"It's a geometric sequence you can use this equation", Samantha responded.

It all sounded like Japanese to Jeffrey. At times he did know if they were still speaking english or whether they were making up a new language. Preston and Samantha tried to explain it to him once, but he got a really confused look on his face.

It was almost the same look he received whenever he tried to talk about finances and breakeven points. The supply demand curve wasn't that hard, all you needed to do was shift it left or right depending on price and up or down when dealing with larger scales. It really wasn't that difficult.

Preston's Dad came to pick them up. Jeffrey sat in the back while Samantha and Preston were busy talking. He pulled out a book from his backpack, Andrew Clements the Holiday Concert. He had read this book before, however while waiting for The School Story and Landry news to be published he decided to read it again.

As he got to the ending it was still as amazing as the first time he read it. They all arrived at Samantha's house.

There was a small garden in the back and a fish pond as well. She went to the lockbox and punched in the code. A key came out and she unlocked the door to let them in.

*Won won*

The sound of a dog barking could be heard.

"Hey Minseol", Samantha greeted her

"Kick ass", Preston said petting the dog.

Jeffrey avoided it as he had a thing against dogs. He got bit by one as a small child at his Dad's friend's house and he doesn't mess with dogs.

"So you guys what to put your stuff down?", Samantha asked.

"Sure", Jeffrey accepted the offer and place his bag next to an ugly doll. The whole place smelled of sweets, although Samantha said she didn't like candy except for chocolate.

It was a nice house, but with their folders in hand. Samantha grabbed a small laptop and they went to Charles Cullen Sheehan's house. Johnny Griggs from school was his nephew.