Chapter 16: Back to School

The next day was back to school. They found that they were by no means the only tired teens thinking they needed a holiday.

On the Wednesday evening, Sven phoned Dylan “I hope you have now recovered from the holiday!”

“Just about!” replied Dylan.

“I had a call from Francesca’s partner this afternoon” explained Sven “He was so impressed with the website you did for her that he wants you to do some more for his other businesses”.

“Excellent!” replied Dylan “Will it be OK if I ask Anna to work with me again?”.

“Sure. It’s good experience for her. Can you do a preliminary visit or ask him if he would like to come to our offices, then I would like you to do the estimate” Sven asked.

“The real world” laughed Dylan “Estimating will be good experience”.

“I’ll send you some details then you can arrange to meet him”.

“OK I’ll report back with a rough estimate” said Dylan.

Dylan got on with his homework and the next day he phoned Francesca’s boyfriend and business partner to make an appointment.

That evening Sven phoned again “We have a problem Dylan”.

Wondering what he had done wrong, Dylan waited for Sven to continue.

“I got a call from Sofia’s Dad earlier. She had shown him your website for the shop as she knew he was wanting a better one for his nightclubs” explained Sven “The trouble is he wants you personally to do it. He is anxious to get started soon but you already have enough work”.

“What if I were to front both projects and get someone to help me?” suggested Dylan.

“I’d worry about quality control” replied Sven.

“The guy I have in mind is good. I worked with him on a couple of projects, so I know his stuff is well structured and easy to maintain”

“Sounds like your Computer Science teacher Ben has been doing a good job!”

“I know Javier’s parents are struggling to pay his school fees since his dad got made redundant, so he would really appreciate the chance to make some money” explained Dylan.

“OK. Ask him if he’s interested and get him to come here for an interview, it would probably be less intimidating than our offices” Sven suggested.

The next day Dylan managed to find Javier alone between lessons and asked “Javier, can we meet up in private at lunch. There’s something I want to ask you about?”

“Sure, we could take a walk after we eat” Javier suggested.

They met up beside at the sports ground. While Dylan was captain of the junior soccer team, Javier was the leading goal scorer. They were also members of the school computer club so knew each other very well.

“Javier, I’ve been doing some web design work for Anna’s Dad. She is really interested in marketing so helped me a lot. Or first website was for a new teen girl clothes shop called ‘Posh Frocks and Knickers’ and it went really well”.

“No kidding!” replied Javier “The girls in my class seem to spend most of the day drooling over the clothes and the boys drooling over the home page with Anna”.

“Well, it got noticed and I have offers to do more websites than i have time for” explained Dylan “Any chance you could help me out?”.

“Wow! That would be cool. Will I get paid?” asked Javier.

“Of course. We fill in an online timesheet and the money magically appears in our bank account. The conditions are that our grades don’t drop and we don’t reduce the time we spend on sports. Anna added another one that I don’t neglect her!” laughed Dylan.

“Not a problem. My grades are fine, I have no intention of reducing my sport and I don’t have the worry that half the school wants to get into my girlfriend’s panties” replied Javier.

“OK. The thing is that the people wanting me to do the websites expect me to be doing it. I hate asking you, but would you mind acting as my partner to start with, just long enough for them to realise you are at least as good as me?” asked Dylan.