Willis Wilbur Meets His Match

Chapter 1: My Networking Opportunity!

The only time more hectic than the first days of summer are the last days of summer. One glance at my summer bucket list reminded me I had not completed every single memorable adventure I’d set out to do before I became a fourth grader! There were only a few more days left before school started, and I still had to . . .

1. Open an office for my brand-new life coaching business in the strip mall next to Michael Morales’s real estate company. Possibly share a sign together.

2. Taste test five or six fancy cheeses so I can be interesting at future adult parties.

3. Network at a party.

4. Climb Mount Everest.

a. Research tall mountains in Colorado I can climb since Mount Everest is sorta far.

b. Find someone to hike a mountain with me who really likes carrying a backpack because there is no way I can fit all my stuff into one bag, and actually the altitude would make it really hard to breathe, so it’s probably best if I don’t carry a bag at all.

i. Buy a new backpack just in case.

ii. Maybe just walk up a rolling hill instead of a mountain?

There were fifteen other items on the list, but I’d already done those, and I shouldn’t talk too long about my success because I’d have to talk for three days straight. Even though I couldn’t finish the whole list, I would have an opportunity to accomplish number three. Party networking.
And wow, I was dreading it.

“Willis, you know I love business attire,” Margo said. Margo was my life coaching client. A life coach is someone who helps people make goals and progress in their life. She was also sorta my friend. We were in my living room, waiting for my dad to come home and give us a ride to Greysen Robison’s end-of-summer party. “But wearing a blazer and bow tie to a swimming party is maybe too . . . professional,” she finished.

Margo shook her head. “Didn’t you just spend the entire summer educating me on the value of kid activities? And now you’re dressing like . . . my grandpa at a horse race.”

It was probably a good thing I didn’t show her the fedora.

Dressing up helped me feel more confident. And I needed that feeling, especially at a pool party, which I didn’t usually love. Also, I needed to look nice for my potential new clients. I started my life coaching business in June because I wanted to win the scholarship offered by Business Owners Organization, or BOO. Back then, I only had two clients—Margo and a guinea pig named Dog. I didn’t end up winning the scholarship, but I did grow the business in my garage office all summer. Now I had eleven life coaching clients, but there was still opportunity to level up. I needed to hire more life coaches and branch out into other states and record a podcast and start a 401(k), whatever that was.

My sister, Logan, walked into the living room wearing a lab coat. It was a million degrees outside, and she was only wearing a coat because she wanted to look important at STEM camp. Which is very different from wearing a seersucker suit at a pool party.

“Dad’s dropping me off first. I can’t be late.”

“I know,” I said.

“I need to get a good seat at the awards ceremony because I won so many things.”

“I know,” I said.

“I did the spreadsheet for next week’s schedule.” She smoothed out her lab coat. “Margo showed me how to do it.”

“I know,” I said.

Logan frowned at me. “Why are you wearing that jacket? You look like you work at an old-timey candy store.”

“Exactly!” Margo said.

“I’m getting in the car,” I said.

On the drive, Margo and Logan chatted with Dad about Logan’s summer success. She started off at day camp part-time while being my sorta business manager for life coaching. One week, day camp had this science theme, and Logan did so great that Mom switched her over to a STEM camp, and she never looked back.

Logan was still helping me expand my business, but she didn’t seem as excited about it anymore.
Not that I had time to worry about my sister right now. After we dropped her off, I shifted all my focus to the big thing ahead. The party. I stared out the window and repeated positive affirmations in my head.

I will be confident and friendly.
I will find clients who need my services.
I will use my many months of experience to build my business.
I will dazzle and delight.
I will become a billionaire before I turn sixteen.

“You ready, Willis?” Margo asked.

Dad pulled up to the house. A kid in a flamingo inner tube walked past our car.

Ready or not, the party was starting.

Chapter 2: The Big Summer Splash!

Someday I will go to six parties all in one day, like they do at the Oscars. There’s the before-the-Oscars party, then the red carpet, then the Oscars, then the after-the-Oscars party, then the after-after-party, and then . . . a lot of people don’t know about this one . . . there’s also an after-after-after-party. I’ll have to go to all of these parties to congratulate my celebrity clients on realizing their dreams. It comes with the life coaching territory.

But today I was just at one party, and that one was extra overwhelming. First, there were the kids inside the house, who were running around blasting each other with NERF guns and shouting “Zombie War!” I didn’t see how sticks of foam with little suction things on the end had anything to do with battling undead creatures, but imagination games weren’t always my thing.

I skirted around the NERF kids and into the kitchen. There was a veggie platter and fruit salad, but no one seemed to be eating it. Next to that were a few pizza boxes filled with leftover crusts.

A boy I’d never seen before was nibbling on a piece of broccoli.

He smiled at me. “Hey! Sweet party, right?”

“What? Oh yeah. Totally.” I grabbed a few baby carrots. I’d taken sizeable kid inventory of every neighborhood within ten miles of me, not to mention gone through the yearbook of three elementary schools and two middle schools. I had charts and diagrams of interests and activities so I could be prepared to meet prospective clients.

I stared at his long, floppy hair and wrist full of bracelets. Nothing came to me. “Do I know you?”

“Probably not, I’m new. Colt.” He gave me a friendly nod. “Just moved here from the Bay Area.”

“What bay?”

“Ha. That’s funny.”

I wasn’t trying to be funny, but sometimes it happened by accident. “Thanks.”

“Yeah, Colorado is something else. Being inland is weird, but I’m digging the Rockies.”

“Sure.” In case you couldn’t tell, I was not the best at small talk. I much preferred big talk. But once I warmed up a bit, I was really good at chatting up prospective clients. “I like your bracelets.”

He held up his wrist. “Helps align my chakras. I can get you one if you’re interested.”
Adrian James poked his head into the kitchen but froze when he saw me. “Oh hey, Willis. Any pizza left?”

I shrugged very casually. “Nah.”

“Okay.” He zipped back outside. This was about as much as I talked to Adrian in public because we had a shared secret. I’ll tell you more about that later, but for now I had to act cool.

“Anyway, Colt. Tell me more about this bay.”

“That kid that just left? He’s strong purple,” Colt mused. “Intuitive but keeps secrets.”

Adrian was not wearing any purple, and Colt did not know him at all, so it was a weird conversation starter. He tilted his head to the side. “And you are . . . beige. That’s cool. Practical. With a little bit of orange energy.”

My natural instinct as a life coach was to guide someone into a better version of themselves. And in Colt’s case, a less-weird version. Calling someone a color is very kindergarten (and also, I’m clearly azure if I’m any color at all).

“Colt, I don’t know what bay people do, but here we use names instead of colors. I’m Willis Wilbur, neighborhood life coach.” I handed him my card. Wow, did he need it. It was a good thing he met me so soon after moving here.

Colt held my card up in the light and smiled. “Life coaching, eh? How’d you get started in that?”

Obviously, that was a very long story I couldn’t get into with Colt right there in the kitchen. But basically it started when my best friend, Shelley, went to Hawaii for the summer. (She was coming back tonight!) Shelley and I were supposed to go to band camp, but then she left, so I suddenly had to find a summer activity so my mom wouldn’t make me do something horrible like baseball poetry camp. So I found life coaching. I really liked working with others and helping them make positive changes.

See? That’s the long answer. Instead, I just said, “Everything fell into place. I have a great reputation, and I really love my job. As Michelle Obama once said, ‘Success isn’t about how much money you make; it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.’ ”

“Cool. Rock on.”

Now that I’d introduced myself, gotten to know Colt, and told him about my job, it was time to help him see why he could use my services.

“You know, I could help you work through your issue of calling people a color instead of a name.”
“I was just reading your aura, Will.” He laughed. “Aura reading is actually one of the talents I use in my job. Anyway, rad to meet ya. Snazzy blazer, by the way.”

And then Colt walked outside like calling someone the color beige was a totally nice and normal thing to do. BEIGE? Me?

Clearly he was new here. Clearly he had a strange job if reading colors was part of it. Clearly my blazer suddenly was way too hot and not snazzy, so I shrugged it off and followed Colt outside to ask what an aura was, anyway. And also to tell him to switch it to blue pronto.

You’re not going to guess what happened next. Okay, maybe you can. Let’s just say, it was a good thing I took the blazer off because . . .

As soon as I was outside, someone cannonballed into the pool and I got splashed BIG TIME!
Even my bow tie got wet.

“Whoa!” Spencer Limbaco called. “Sorry, Willis!”

Margo ran over with a towel. “I’m not going to say I told you so, but . . .”

I took the towel. This party was not turning out as well as I had hoped. “It’s fine. I’m fine.”

“At least Spencer said sorry,” Margo said.

“That’s because I worked with him and Ella. Couples coaching.” I shook out my hair. Technically, I wasn’t supposed to discuss information on my clients, but I figured here it was fine since everyone knew Ella and Spencer used to bully me. He wasn’t trying to splash me on purpose. That’s progress.

I realized I should bring up this small victory—an apology for splashing—in our next session. I reached into my pocket to write that down, but my pocket with my notebook was all wet. So were my business cards.

“Great. Awesome. Wonderful. Terrific!” I yelled.

“Willis . . .”
I hugged the towel closer to me and took a seat in the shade. Excessive sarcasm? I really had to get control of myself.

I breathed in deep. Drank some water. Ate fruit salad. Envisioned my bright, colorful (not beige!) future. Then I laid out my business cards in the sun.

My phone was in my dry pocket. I used this to call my best friend, Shelley.

“Willis? Aren’t you at the party?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m just making sure you checked in for your flight.”

She laughed. “I’m at the gate right now, waiting to board.”

Then there was a pause, which I was going to fill in with all my frustration and maybe insecurity, but Shelley already knew me so well that I didn’t have to.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “We’ll be together again soon! Go have fun, okay?”

“Make sure you packed earplugs for your flight!”

I hung up.

I couldn’t let the weirdness I felt from that new kid calling me beige get in the way of my own visions and dreams. This party was actually pretty fun, for a pool party. And I still looked professional enough with my bow tie. So I stood up, squared my shoulders, and introduced myself to three new kids. (Well, I was new to them. Remember, I’d memorized almost everyone around me, which is part of pre-networking.)

Everything was fine. Because tonight:

1. I got to see Shelley!

2. I found out my new teacher.