I sat in the detention class room for hours. Von Peter was watching me like a hawk. I was officially doing time.

   My mind started thinking of ways to not only get out of this predicament, but also save my syndicate. I took note of the other delinquents, and let me tell yous, they were bad but not smart. I decided my best course of action was to lay low while in the pen, so I could maybe get off on good behavior. Yeah, it’s sweet 5th grader time.

I was, however, jonesing for a soda. I needed a sweet and sugary carbonated beverage, or else I would lose my mind and then some. I started getting very loopy and delirious, it was like my head started pounding like a drum and my mouth started to water. I was getting sick. I had a few sugar packets hidden in a secret wallet under my pants, which gave me one of my best ideas yet.

You know Mr. Davis back in chapter 2? Well, he just so happened to be the chemistry teacher. I also had some science homework that needed to be done. If I played my cards right, I could make a great bootlegged soda from the supplies in the room across from me. I just needed an excuse to get across.

“Mr. VP!” “Yes, what is it Rick?”

“I have an ingrown toenail that has mostly been removed, and need to see Mr. Davis”. “Why don’t you go to Ms. Branson the school nurse for that?” “Mr. D has that funky experimental ointment he created last week that I want to try”.

Von Peter rolled his eyes, “Alright, but be quick.” he said under his breath. Now was my chance to really use my inner scientific prowess to cement myself in the annals of history.

I immediately  began mixing up the fruit inspired elixirs with the help of Mr. Davis, I came up with a great citrus flavor and added extra sugar to make it both delicious and marketable. I then mixed the syrup with some seltzer water and I had the perfect thirst quencher. Mr. Davis and I sampled the concoction, we were hooked! We then made a batch of 30 cans sealed and ready to be distributed. I am a street genius.

I finished up detention and was a changed man. Tony was struggling to keep up with the profits and the demand. Marco was shipping pallets of the stuff out of the old abandoned school gymnasium where we made the product. The name of our soft drink was Fast Fizz Liz. We even had a secret delivery system to sell to the student body.

Now you may think that my enterprise could not get any bigger, but you would be wrong. We also did other rackets like hiring the nerdy kids to do folk’s homework which I took a cut of. We also had faculty on our payroll to keep Von Peter out of our waters. My crew even expanded our sale of Lizzys to small grocery stores in the county.

We started an advertising campaign for our soft drink, first social media boards, then even local tv commercials. We hired adult actors to sell our products so we wouldn’t get in trouble at the school. Everything was a slice of pizza until there was salt in our systems. You’ll see what I mean in the next chapter.