Read Online Cut Back by Todd Strasser - Free Book Online Page A

display for T-licious, he might be able to sell a few T-shirts to those surfers, but Kai, who hated the scams his father pulled on people, made the display as ugly as possible by featuring T-shirts with pigs and ducks on surfboards.
    â€œSo what do you want to do?” Kai asked his father.
    â€œHow else do they get surfer kids to shop?” the Alien Frog Beast asked.
    Kai thought of suggesting that his father hire a sexy girl like Jade to work the counter, but that was out of the question. Instead he said, “You could become a sponsor.”
    â€œHow’s that work?” Pat asked.
    â€œUsually you pick out the hottest, coolest surfer around and the store gives him some free stuff,” Kai said. “In return, the surfer puts the store’s logo on his boards and maybe on his wet suit. Other kids see the cool surfer wearing the store’s stuff and they want to wear it also.”
    â€œSo you gotta have some kind of logo?” Pat looked unhappy.
    â€œIt’s pretty key,” Kai said. He figured that would be the end of the conversation. Any idea that involved Pat giving away anythingfor free, not to mention actually
paying
for someone to design a logo, would pretty much blow the deal clear out of the water.
    â€œThere he is!” someone suddenly said.
    Kai and his father looked down the sidewalk where a man was pointing at them. It was Mr. Asoki, the tourist Pat had scammed the night before. With him was a man wearing a green plaid sports jacket and slacks.
    â€œCrap!” Pat grumbled and dashed into the store.
    Meanwhile Mr. Asoki and the man in the sports jacket came toward Kai. Mr. Asoki was clearly excited. “He charge me seventy-five dollar a shirt!” he was telling the man in the green plaid jacket. “In other store same shirt twenty-two dollar.”
    Kai stayed on the sidewalk. As Mr. Asoki approached, his eyes fixed on Kai and he pointed at him. “Him. He work there too.”
    The man in the plaid jacket stopped. “You work in this shop, son?”
    Kai nodded. By now, other people on the sidewalk had stopped to see what the commotion was about.
    â€œWhy don’t we go inside and talk this over,” said the man in the plaid jacket.
    They went in. Not surprisingly, Sean and Pat had vanished. The man in the plaid jacket turned to Kai. “Would you ask the older gentleman to come out, please?”
    Kai went into the back room. It was empty and the back door was slightly ajar, allowing a thin slice of sunlight in. Pat and Sean had bailed. Kai pulled the door closed and went out front again. Mr. Asoki and the man in the plaid jacket were waiting by the counter.
    â€œThey’re gone,” Kai said.
    The man in the plaid jacket didn’t seem surprised to hear that. He held out his hand. “I’m Eric Blake, with the Sun Haven Chamber of Commerce. And you’re?”
    â€œKai.” They shook hands.
    â€œJust Kai?” Mr. Blake asked.
    Kai tried to remember which
South Park
character’s last name Pat was using this time. “Garrison.”
    â€œWell, Kai, it seems Mr. Asoki has a problem with what you charged him for his shirts,” Mr. Blake said. “Mr. Asoki, can we see that receipt?”
    Mr. Asoki handed the credit card receipt for the shirts to Mr. Blake, who turned it over to Kai. “Mr. Asoki has discovered that othershops in town will sell him the same shirt for considerably less.”
    â€œTwenty-two dollar,” Mr. Asoki said.
    â€œSeventy-five dollars a shirt seems a little extreme, don’t you think?” Mr. Blake asked.
    â€œSure does,” said Kai. “Must be a mistake.”
    â€œOne that I imagine you can correct very easily,” Mr. Blake said, tilting his head toward the cash register.
    Kai opened the cash register. Twenty-two times four was eighty-eight. Three hundred minus eighty-eight was two hundred and twelve dollars. Kai counted out ten twenties, one ten, and