92. Ch 92- Seven Heads Are Better Than One

New Year's Day was over, a relatively peaceful event in comparison to the day before and the events of Christmas a week prior. It was mostly spent indoors with family, watching TV specials and listening to music, but was enjoyable nonetheless. Today, however, Jordan did not imagine would be fully enjoyable. While she looked forward to gymnastics practice as she always did, the meeting that she had organised for before she and her friends went to practice was weighing heavy on her mind. She was used to planning parties, such as her infamous pool parties and the Halloween costume party, teaching her how important attention to detail truly was. However, this was different. They wouldn't be planning for recreational purposes, but rather with the intention of trying to save their practice before it was closed down completely, so the need for attention to detail would be more key than any party she had ever planned. She just hoped that they could come up with something that would work, because if it didn't…

She shook her head. 'No, no more thinking like that,' she thought to herself. 'Lincoln's right. I just need to have faith.' So, she headed to the dining room, where her sister was finishing her lunch. "Hey, Jen?"

The older girl looked to her younger sister. "What's up, Jordan?" she asked, putting down the wrapper from her muffin.

"My friends are coming over soon so we can talk about the showcase. Can we borrow one of your whiteboards?"

"Sure, no problem. You need a marker as well?" Jordan nodded. "No worries. I'm pretty much done here, I'll go up and grab one for you, though I might need your help bringing it downstairs."

"I can do that, yeah."

Jen nodded, then stood up and grabbed her plate and cutlery, taking them through to the kitchen and putting them into the sink. She returned soon after and grabbed her soda, then led the younger girl upstairs. "So, do you know when the showcase is yet?"

"Nah. I think Chris will let us know at practice."

"Yeah, it takes time to get a venue for something, especially so short notice. Some of the fashion shows I've done have taken as long as a month to get a venue."

"Really?"

"Oh, yeah. Designing and making fashion, that's the easy part. It's all the other stuff that's difficult." She opened the door to her room and let them both in. "Still, you've got the advantage that there's only one place you can really have your show, and there's not as many people that will be looking to book it. A convention centre or a court, you can use for a lot of things, but the only thing you can really do at a gymnastics place is, well, gymnastics."

Jordan nodded. "Makes sense. Like, you can't use an ice rink for much more than ice skating and ice hockey."

"Exactly." She went over to one of the two whiteboards and removed any of the sheets of paper attached to it, then grabbed a pair of marker pens from the tray at the bottom and put them into her jean pocket. "This one good enough for you?"

"Yeah, this will do just fine. Thanks, sis."

"Alright, well, you grab this side and I'll get the other." Jordan nodded once more, and they did just that. With Jordan grabbing one side and Jen grabbing the other, they began to leave the bedroom. Jordan was the first to reach the stairs, so she had to be careful as she stepped backwards. "You okay down there?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she called back up, keeping her eyes on her feet to see where she was putting them.

"Well, be careful now, okay? Don't want you to fall."

"Jen, really, I'm fine. I'm being careful, I'm not going to fall."

'Why did have to say that?' Jen couldn't help but wonder, shaking her head as a pang of fear went off in her mind. That fear ended up being unnecessary, as half a minute later, they were safely at the bottom of the stairs and in the living room, putting the whiteboard down between the TV and the coffee table facing the sofa's. When she finally let go, she sighed, catching her sister's attention.

"You're not out of breath already, are you?" she asked with a raised eyebrow, to which Jen smirked.

"Hey, I'm in good shape," she retorted, sticking out her chest with pride. "Just glad we didn't break my whiteboard! That thing's not cheap, you know." Jordan rolled her eyes, before Jen hugged her. "That, and you're not hurt, of course."

"Jen, I told you I'm fine, really."

"Yeah, I know, but I'm your big sis. I'm going to worry about you, even if it isn't necessary." They then heard a knock at the door, so Jen let go of her sister and went to answer it, opening the door to see Lincoln stood in front of her. "Hey, Lincoln. Come on in."

"Thanks, Jen," he told her, before stepping inside and approaching his friend. "Hey, Jordan."

"Hey, Linc. Didn't think you'd be here just yet."

"Well, I ended up setting off early. There was a bit of an argument erupting between some of my sisters." Though she was curious about the argument, she simply gave a bemused smile and said nothing. "It's better if we leave it at that."

"I'll take your word for it."

He chuckled. "Yeah. So, are you ready for this meeting, then?"

"I guess. Truth be told, I don't know how this is going to work."

"Well, that's why we're doing it. It's kind of like we're brainstorming, you know."

"True, but I don't really have much experience in giving meetings like this, you know?"

"Trust me, it's easier than you think. Just ask us what we think, and have something to bang against a table or something if people start talking over each other."

She put a hand on her hip and replied, "I'm guessing that's what happens in meetings at your house, huh?"

"More than you'd believe." She gave a slight giggle, to which he chuckled. "Hey, can I use your bathroom real quick?"

"Sure, go ahead. You remember where it is, right?"

"Yep. I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

She nodded as he made his way upstairs, disappearing to the first floor. While he was gone, she went over to the whiteboard and reached for a marker, only to see that here were none. "Hey, Jen? Where did you say you put the markers?"

"Knew I'd forgot something," she realised, fishing the markers out of her pocket and handing them to her sister. "I'll be in my room if you need me, okay?"

"Okay." With that, Jen also went upstairs, leaving Jordan to begin writing on the whiteboard. At the top, she wrote PROMOTION IDEAS and underlined it, then put the marker back down. "Now, all there is to do is wait for the others." As if on cue, a knock at the door was heard once more, making her grin. "Speak of the devils." She went to the door and opened it, seeing the girls and Artie all stood in front of her. "Hey, you're all here! Come on in!"

"Thanks," Joy greeted on the group's behalf as they were let into the house, Jordan shutting the door behind them as they entered the living room. Sitting down on the sofas, Joy couldn't help but grin. "Looks like Lincoln's the last one here this time. After all the jokes about me being late, I can't wait to rub this in his face."

"Hate to break it to you, but I'm already here," the boy in question remarked, everyone turning to see him descend the staircase. Joy pouted at his sudden presence.

"Dang it."

Jordan couldn't help but giggle whilst Lincoln joined the others on the sofas. "Well, since we're all here, how about we get started?" Hearing the others all agree, she walked back over to the whiteboard and picked up the marker. "So, as we know, the showcase is coming up at some point, and it's our one chance to try and convince the managers of the sports centre that they shouldn't close down gymnastics. If we're going to pull this off, then we need to make the showcase great, and to do that, we need to get people to come and watch it. To do that, we need to promote the event. Does anyone have any ideas about how we can do that?"

"Well, whatever we come up with, it has to be something we can do in three weeks," Artie pointed out, "and we'll have to run it all by Chris first. He'll have to let the managers know."

Jordan nodded. "Exactly. We need to get the word out in a reasonable way that won't interfere with school or practice." She saw Sadie raise her hand. "Sadie, you don't have to raise your hand. It's not school, you can just speak up."

"Well, do you remember the work experience day? I worked for the local newspaper, and my supervisor was really nice. If I asked her, she might be able to put something in the paper to promote it."

"That's a great idea, Sadie!" Jordan then wrote Local Newspaper on the whiteboard, adding a sub point of Sadie's supervisor to the right of it. "There we go, now we've got a start!"

"Hey, didn't you make a commercial at one point?" Kat asked the white haired boy.

"Yeah, for your dad's restaurant," Mollie remembered.

"Oh, yeah," he recalled, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, the only reason I was able to get that on TV was because Clyde's dad knew Patchy Drizzle."

"The weather guy?"

Lincoln nodded to Joy's question. "Yep, though from what I remember, they had a falling out. Something racquetball related, I think. Either way, I wouldn't be able to get an advert on TV in time."

"Don't worry about it, Lincoln," Jordan consoled. "We probably wouldn't have had the time to make an advert, anyway."

"Well, what about a radio advert?" Artie suggested. "For that, we wouldn't have to film anything. We'd just need to write a script, and for one of us to record it. I've got a cousin who works at a radio station in Detroit."

"That could work, yeah." She wrote Radio Advert underneath the previous point. "Alright, does anyone else have an idea?"

"Well, we could always make flyers and post them up around town," Lincoln offered. "There's loads of places where we could put them. We'd just have to avoid Flip's, since he'd likely charge us more than we could make through the showcase."

Jordan laughed at the joke. "Yeah, you've got a point, though who would make the flyers?"

"Not to mention, where can we print that many flyers?" Sadie added.

"Well, my Dad's restaurant has a printer that we could probably use. As for who makes it, we don't necessarily have to make just one design. We could maybe do two or three, which would allow us to put up more flyers around town."

Everyone seemed to agree with the boy, nodding as Jordan put Flyers on the whiteboard. "Okay, this is good so far. What about social media?"

"Oh, definitely," Kat agreed. "As soon as we know when it's happening, we should post about it."

"I could create an event page on HeadBook," Joy then suggested.

"Actually, maybe we should wait on doing that," Artie countered, to which Jordan and the others looked at him with confusion.

"What do you mean?"

He sat up straight before answering her. "Well, since school restarts next week, maybe it would be a better idea if we told people we actually know first, and then put it on social media. It'll be easier for us to get people we know to come and support us than strangers."

"He's got a point," Lincoln relented. "If we just post it online straight away, we don't know who will turn up, so it's better if we tell our friends and people we know first."

Some of the girls didn't agree with the statement, talking over each other about why they thought so. This continued for a good ten seconds, but was brought to an end by the sound of Jordan tapping her marker against the whiteboard, drawing all attention back to her. "Thank you," she said when it was quiet again. "I have to agree with Artie and Lincoln."

"There's a surprise," Mollie muttered, but she shut up again when she saw the stink eyed glare of Jordan.

"They're right, because we won't be able to convince random strangers to come, but we might be able to convince our classmates and our friends to instead. Plus, that will make it more special."

"If I may," Lincoln interjected, "I think, if I asked Principal Huggins, he might allow us to talk about it in assembly."

Her smile returned at the suggestion. "That's a really good idea! Since you're good at presenting, do you think you could?"

"I mean, I could, but I think it would mean more coming from one of you. After all, you guys have been doing this longer than I have."

"Hmm… that's true." She then turned to the brown haired boy. "Artie, you've been doing gymnastics longer than the rest of us. Could you do the talk?"

"I doubt it," he admitted. "I'm not a great public speaker."

"Why don't you do it, Jordan?" Kat asked. "You're the best presenter out of us."

"Not to mention, you're the most popular girl in school," Sadie added. "People will listen to you more than they would any of us."

The others seemed to all like the idea, but Jordan didn't seem as confident by comparison. "Oh… are you sure?"

Lincoln noticed her reservations towards the idea. "Hey, if… if you don't feel comfortable with it, then we won't force you to do it. I do agree that you're the most influential out of us, but it's not worth it if you don't want to be the one to talk about it."

"Really?" He nodded, and one look to the others told her that they felt the same. "Well… I guess I could. I just don't know what I would say."

"We can help you with that," Artie offered. "We're not gonna make you do it unprepared, that's for certain."

"In that case… okay, I'll do it." The others gave a bit of a mocking cheer, making her shake her head while laughing. She wrote Assembly on the whiteboard, then added Social Media beneath it with a question mark. "Okay. I think we have enough to work with for now, unless anyone else has a suggestion?" She waited for any of her friends to speak up, but no one did. "Alright. In that case, I think we're done with this. I'll take a picture of what we have, and then we can either head to practice or just relax for a bit, since we've got time before we usually set off."

"Why don't we use the whiteboard to mock up some flyer designs?" Joy proposed. "I've got a few ideas in my head."

"Me too, actually," Lincoln added, which caused the raven haired girl to don a competitive look.

"I'll bet I can come up with something better than you can."

Jordan rolled her eyes as the two began to get competitive, then grabbed her phone from the coffee table to take a picture of the whiteboard. Once she was done, she realised that she didn't have a rubber to erase the writing, so she grabbed some tissues from a box on the table and used them to rub out the list they had made, then sat down to allow Joy and Lincoln's little art battle to commence.

"Okay, everyone!" Chris declared, after yet another practice session was over. "You've all done great today. Now, on Sunday, I'm going to talk to you about what will happen on the day of the showcase, so make sure you're there on time and ready to knuckle down, because from here on out, you're going to have to work harder than before. Have a good day, and I'll see you on Sunday." As Chris walked over to the bench to grab his jacket, Lincoln and the others looked to each other and nodded. They all went to get changed and grab their things, before they went up to the instructor, while he was making a phone call. When he saw them waiting for him, he held up a finger to gesture for them to wait. "Okay, that's great," he said to the person on the other end of the call. "Listen, can I call you back in a few minutes? … okay, great, thanks." He hung up the call, then turned to the sixth graders. "What's up, guys?"

"We wanted to talk to you about the showcase before we left," Jordan explained.

"Oh, okay, sure. What's on your mind?"

"Well, earlier, we were talking about how we could promote it, since we'll need people to come and watch it."

"Ah, good thinking. I did ask the managers about that as well, and what they told me was that they would put the showcase on the centre's website and on the noticeboard outside, but anything on top of that would have to be handled by us. I take it you've got some ideas, then?"

"We do." Jordan held out her phone for Chris to look at. "That's just the basic ideas we have. We had a couple of others, but those are the ones we think would work on short notice."

Chris took the phone from her, looking at what they had written down. "Wow… you guys have put a good bit of thought into this, huh?"

"Well, this is important to us," Artie pointed out. "It's like you said, we're gonna have to be working harder from here on out, and that counts outside of practice too."

"You're not wrong." He then changed photos. "Oh, wow! You even already have ideas for flyers, huh?"

"They're just a couple of rough designs," Lincoln admitted. "I drew the first one, and Joy did the other."

"They're both great, and I think you should do both of them. Two different designs, that's bound to catch different people's attention." Lincoln snuck a smug smirk towards Joy, who rolled her eyes. "Just make sure that you get permission to put them up or hand them out wherever you plan to do that. I can ask the managers if they'll let us print them here."

"If not, my dad's restaurant has a good printer, so I can ask him if we need to."

He gave a grin to the white haired boy. "Way to cover your bases, Lincoln." He then handed the phone back to Jordan. "I've got to say, this is excellent work, guys. If this doesn't show how serious you are about all this, nothing will. Just make sure that you let the younger ones help, okay? After all, this showcase is for all of us."

"They can help us with the flyers," Sadie offered. "It would allow us to cover more bases."

"Yeah, and they'd definitely be able to use the 'cute factor' to get people's attention," Mollie added, to which everyone laughed.

"Okay, I'm really glad you brought all of this to my attention, guys. For now, leave all of this with me, so I can run it by the managers, but I think this will all be good for getting publicity. Now, go on. I'll see you all at next practice." With that, the kids said goodbye to their instructor before heading for the exit, leaving Chris with a bit of a proud smile on his face. Taking his phone out once more, he called the number of the person he was just talking to and waited for them to answer. "Hey, it's me again. Sorry about that, the kids just wanted to talk about something. Honestly, they're pretty great kids, and they really want this to work. … uh huh? … Sunday?! That's perfect! I really appreciate you doing this, it'll really help a lot. … okay, yeah. Alright, I'll see you on Sunday. Bye."