Chapter 6

Chapter 6 Underselling underselling (underselling) v. Pricing the same goods for less than the competition. Jessie knew that Evan was up to something. First of all, there were all those phone calls last night. At least ten of them. Then, he'd come knocking on her door this morning, asking if he could have the pieces of foam core she had leaning against her bedroom wall. "No way," she'd answered. "That's for my Labor Day display." "Oh, give it up. Today's Thursday. The contest is on Monday, and you don't even have an idea," Evan said.

第六章低价销售（低价销售） 同样的商品定价低于竞争对手。 杰西知道埃文在密谋什么。 首先，昨晚有那么多电话。 至少有十个。然后，今天早上他来敲她的门，问他能不能把她靠在卧室墙上的泡沫芯碎片给他。 “不可能，”她回答。“这是为我的劳动节展览准备的。” “哦，算了吧。今天是星期四。 比赛是在周一，而你甚至没有一个想法，”埃文说。

"I do too have an idea. I'm just not telling you." Jessie still didn't have a clue about her Labor Day project, but she wasn't going to give Evan the satisfaction of knowing that. "Then how come you haven't done anything?" Evan said, pointing at the blank foam core and the bags of untouched art supplies. "You're supposed to have pictures and typed-up information and a big title. It's supposed to be like a school report." Jessie scrunched her eyes and pursed her lips in a you're-such-an-idiot look. "Don't worry. It's going to be great, and it's going to win first prize. And anyway, Mom bought all those supplies for me, and I'm not giving anything to you." Jessie heard Evan mutter, "Miser," just as she slammed the door in his face. And now three of Evan's friends were over— Paul, Jack, and Ryan. And all three had shown up with paper bags. And they were all in the garage making a lot of noise, with a big keep out sign taped to the door. Not that Jessie would have gone in there

“我也有个主意。我只是不告诉你。” 杰西仍然对她的劳动节项目一无所知，但她不会让埃文满意地知道这一点。 “那你怎么什么也没做呢？”埃文指着空白的泡沫芯和几袋没动过的美术用品说。 “你应该有图片、打印出来的信息和一个大标题。 它应该像一份学校报告。” 杰西皱起眼睛，撅起嘴唇，一副你真是个白痴的样子。 “别担心。它会很棒的，它会赢得一等奖的。 再说，这些东西都是妈妈给我买的，我什么也不会给你的。” 杰西听到埃文咕哝着“吝啬鬼”，就在她把他关上门的时候。 现在埃文的三个朋友来了——保罗、杰克和瑞安。 三个人都带着纸袋来了。 他们都在车库里制造很大的噪音，门上还贴着一个大大的“请勿入内”的牌子。 杰西不会进去的

anyway. Who cares what a bunch of boys are doing? But she wished Megan had invited her to come over before lunch instead of after. Jessie went into the kitchen to make a turkey sandwich. The boys had left a slimy mess of peanut butter, Doritos, and—yes—sticky puddles of lemonade mix. Jessie quickly looked in the trash can under the kitchen sink. There were twelve empty cans of frozen lemonade mix. Twelve! That was ninety-six cups' worth of lemonade. Ninety-six possible sales. Holy cow! Where had Evan gotten the lemonade? He hadn't gone to the store, and he didn't have any money anyway. Then Jessie remembered the paper bags that Paul, Ryan, and Jack had carried in. She bet the boys had all raided their freezers and brought over a stash. That didn't seem fair! She and Megan had to buy their lemonade today, using the money they'd made yesterday. How were they going to stay ahead of the game if the boys had free lemonade to sell? "Think, Jessie, think," she whispered to herself.

无论如何。谁在乎一群男孩在干什么？ 但她真希望梅金邀请她来是在午饭前，而不是午饭后。 杰西走进厨房做火鸡三明治。 男孩们留下了一堆黏糊糊的花生酱、多力多滋（Doritos）薯片，没错，还有一滩黏糊糊的柠檬水混合物。 杰西迅速在厨房水槽下面的垃圾桶里找了找。 有12个空的冰冻柠檬水混合罐。 十二个!那是96杯的柠檬水。 96种可能的销售。 不会吧!埃文从哪里弄来的柠檬水？ 他没去商店，反正他也没带钱。 这时杰西想起了保罗、瑞安和杰克带进来的纸袋。 她敢打赌，孩子们一定是洗劫了他们的冰柜，带了一些来。 这似乎不公平！她和梅根今天不得不用昨天赚的钱去买柠檬水。 如果男孩们有免费的柠檬水卖，他们怎么能保持领先呢？ “想想，杰西，想想，”她低声对自己说。

She couldn't let those boys win. By the time she finished her lunch and cleaned up her mess (she wasn't going to lift a finger to clean up the boys' mess), she had the beginning of a plan in her head. Which is why she found it doubly confusing when she knocked on Megan's screen and Carly Brownell came to the door. Jessie'd been all ready to say, "I've got a great idea." But then there was Carly, looking down at her like she was an earwig. "Um, is Megan home?" asked Jessie. Carly didn't open the screen door as she looked left and right behind Jessie. "Where's Evan?" "Huh?" said Jessie. Megan came running down the stairs carrying bottles of nail polish. "Oh, hi, Jessie," she said, opening the door. She poked her head out and looked around. "Where's Evan?" "He's at home. Why?" asked Jessie. Carly made a noise like a snorting hippopotamus. "I thought you said he was coming," said Megan.

她不能让那些男孩赢。 等她吃完午饭，收拾好自己的烂摊子（她不想动一根手指去收拾男孩子们的烂摊子），她脑子里已经有了一个计划的雏形。 这就是为什么当她敲梅根的屏幕，卡莉·布朗内尔来到门口时，她感到无比困惑。 杰西已经准备好说：“我有个好主意。” 但卡莉就在那儿，俯视着她，好像她是一只蠼螋。 “嗯，梅金在家吗？”杰西问。 卡莉没有打开纱门，她在杰西身后左顾右望。 “埃文在哪里?”“嗯？”杰西说。 梅金拿着几瓶指甲油跑下楼来。 “哦，嗨，杰西，”她说着打开了门。 她探出头来环顾四周。 “埃文在哪里?”“他在家。 为什么？”杰西问。卡莉发出一种像河马在打鼾的声音。 “你不是说他要来吗？”梅金说。

"No, I didn't," said Jessie. "You said it would be fun to make a lemonade stand with all three of us, and I said, yeah, that would be fun." "So, didn't he want to?" asked Megan. "I never asked him," said Jessie. "Oh. I thought you were going to," said Megan. "Then you should have said, 'Hey, Jessie. Ask Evan if he wants to make a lemonade stand tomorrow.' And then I would have asked him." This was exactly what drove Jessie crazy about girls. They always said things halfway and then expected you to get the other half. And Jessie never got the other half. Carly gave Megan a look. Jessie wasn't positive what the look meant, but she was pretty sure it wasn't a nice one. That was the other thing that Jessie hated about girls. They were always giving looks. Looks that contained all kinds of strange and complicated messages. Last year, in second grade, there had been four

“不，我没有，”杰西说。 “你说和我们三个一起摆一个柠檬水摊会很有趣，我说，是的，那会很有趣。” “那么，他不想去吗？”梅金问。 “我从没问过他，”杰西说。 “哦。我还以为你会说呢。”梅金说。 “那你应该说，‘嘿，杰西。 问问埃文明天想不想摆个柠檬水摊。”然后我会问他。” 这正是杰西对女孩疯狂的原因。 他们总是说一半，然后期望你得到另一半。 杰西没拿到另一半。 卡莉看了梅金一眼。杰西不确定那表情是什么意思，但她很确定那表情不太好。 这是杰西讨厌女孩的另一个原因。 他们总是抛媚眼。 表情中包含了各种奇怪而复杂的信息。 去年，在二年级的时候，有四个

girls who were always exchanging looks with one another—Becky Baker, Lorelei Sun, Andrea Hennessey, and Eileen Garrett. Jessie watched them and knew that Evan was right: They talked without words. They used their eyes to pass secret messages. She also knew they didn't like her, but only because Evan had finally explained it to her over Christmas vacation. Jessie was surprised when he told her this. They laughed so much—how could they be mean? They were the four who started the club: the Wild Hot Jellybeans Club. Or, as they called it, the WHJ Club. Becky was president, and she was always telling the others what to do. They made signs and paper buttons and membership cards. The teacher, Mrs. Soren, didn't usually allow clubs in the classroom, but she made an exception, telling the girls, "I'll let you wear your buttons in class, but only if you let all the other kids join—if they want to." By the end of the day, every kid in class was wearing a WHJ button—even Jessie, who'd never belonged to a club before.

贝基·贝克、罗蕾莱·孙、安德里亚·亨尼西和艾琳·加勒特这些总是互相交换眼神的女孩。 杰西看着他们，知道埃文是对的：他们无言地交谈。 他们用眼睛传递秘密信息。 她也知道他们不喜欢她，但那只是因为埃文终于在圣诞节假期向她解释了这一点。 当他告诉杰西这件事时，她很惊讶。 他们笑得那么厉害——他们怎么能这么刻薄呢？ 他们四个人创立了这个俱乐部：野热豆粒软糖俱乐部。 或者像他们所说的，WHJ俱乐部。 贝基是校长，她总是告诉其他人该做什么。 他们制作标牌和纸纽扣和会员卡。 索伦老师通常不允许在教室里搞社团活动，但这次她破例对女孩们说：“我允许你们在课堂上系扣子，但前提是你们让所有其他孩子都参加——如果他们愿意的话。” 一天结束时，班上的每个孩子都戴上了WHJ的徽章，甚至连以前从未加入过俱乐部的杰西也不例外。