feud – philosophy – palace – finger – scandal
skyscraper – complacent – handle – crawl – challenge
Real money is changing hands. I couldn’t believe it at first. The feud over the recess toy market has been going since April, but I think the rivalry between Tony Newsome and Alan Wright has been going since J.K.. Then it was over who could head-stand the longest, and now it’s about who can pull in the most loonies and toonies for their old action figures, Mighty Beans, glow-in-the-dark bracelets, Tamagotchis, and Bratz.
Tony has a “cash talks, traders walk” philosophy. He’s an only child and his parents are loaded, so he gets everything he could ever want and more; the more he slings on the schoolyard twice a day for cold hard CAD. He’s got a solid handle on comic books and trading cards, so his customers are mostly boys. They line up in the sand around the playground where he runs his skyscraper shop. One by one, Tony’s fourth-grade bouncers let kids up the stairs to look at and purchase from his wares, before leaving down the slide with a new toy that they’ll have to hide from their parents.
To be fair, Tony was the founder of the industry. He started bringing in stuff first and then before long, everyone was making deals. But now it’s just the two kingpins, and Alan’s becoming a real challenge. He’s more flexible, allowing trades with his stock of toys inherited from five older brothers and sisters. Not to mention he has the girl demographic almost completely on lock. He’ll either trade for something he wants personally or for something he can sell for big pay later. Tony was complacent with that until Alan rearranged the picnic tables into his own palace where he then started hosting a free market huddle of bidding wars and giant sales. Now it’s tense.
As a sixth grader, I took it upon myself to stop the little tattles on their way to the teacher on duty. They get a bad deal on their Lego and want to point fingers. I convince them it’s not in their best interest to spoil the fun. I won’t have this end in a scandal. No, this ends with the best entrepreneur on top. Toy-clenching fist will crawl over toy-clenching fist until one boy reigns King — sitting fat on top of his loaded piggy-bank. Besides… all the sixth grader’s have a pool going and my money is on my younger brother.
