The Get Rich Quick Club by Dan Gutman

1
Nothing to Be Ashamed Of
    I, Gina Tumolo, love money. So I guess it makes sense for me to dream about it.
    I, Gina Tumolo, want to be a millionaire.
    There, I said it. I know it’s not cool to say it, but it’s the truth, so I might as well admit it.
    Ever since I was a little girl, I have loved money. In fact, the first memory I have is of money. I was sitting on the couch watching TV one day, and I found a dollar bill stuck inside the cushions. I must have been four years old.
    I remember looking at those mysterious markings on the bill. The pyramid with that creepy-looking eyefloating through it. What did it mean, I wondered? It all seemed very mystical and magical and wonderful.
    I realize that money is just pieces of paper and disks of metal. But from a very young age, I was aware that those papers and disks were powerful. They could be exchanged for other things. You could turn them into just about anything .
    This was amazing to me. You could actually walk into a store, hand somebody some green pieces of paper, and then take something from the store to bring home with you. To keep!
    Incredible! And the more of that green paper you had, I quickly learned, the more stuff you could bring home.
    Wow! What a fantastic idea! I wanted to get as much of that green paper as possible.
    I never had many toys when I was little. My parents didn’t have much money back then. Whenever I asked for something, they would give me the old line “It costs too much,” or “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” Maybe that’s why all I ever wanted was to accumulate as much money as I could.
    We learned in school that King Tut became the ruler of all Egypt when he was about my age, eleven. He owned all the treasures of the kingdom. Bill Gates, I know, started Microsoft when he was barely twenty, and it wasn’t long before he became the richest person in the world.
    Why not me? I asked myself. Why can’t I, Gina Tumolo, accumulate a vast fortune at a very young age? What’s stopping me?
    Nothing. Other kids want to be in the Olympics, or they want to become rock stars or presidents. Good for them. I want to be a millionaire. My goal is to make my first million before I’m a teenager.
    This is the story of the most amazing summer I ever had. It was the summer I started the Get Rich Quick Club.

2
A Simple Solution
    I live in Farmington, Maine, which is about thirty miles from Augusta. That’s the state capital.
    It was dreary the day after school let out for the summer. I was bored and lonely. There’s a field out back behind our housing development with one big tree in it. I was walking around, trying to think of something to do with my summer, when I spotted something in the tree.
    I went to get a better look. As I got closer, I realized the thing in the tree was Rob Hunnicutt. He lives a couple of houses over and goes to my school. Rob was in the other fifth-grade class.
    Rob was sitting up in the tree, and sitting next to him was his pet pig, Chester. Not many kids own a pig, but Rob is a little…I guess you could say unusual. He has wild blond hair, and I’m not sure he knows what a comb is.
    â€œWhatcha doin’?” I asked.
    â€œExisting,” Rob replied. “Chester and I are inhaling air and letting it escape into the atmosphere.”
    â€œWhy are you doing it in a tree?” I asked.
    â€œWell, I was thinking that one day this tree might get cut down and made into a fence or a cardboard box or somebody’s garage. I wanted to enjoy it while it was still alive.”
    â€œOkayyyyyy….”
    Maybe “unusual” isn’t the best term to describe Rob. In truth, most kids think he’s a bit of a yo-yo. Sometimes when he says things like that, I think he’s putting me on, but I know he isn’t. Rob just sees the world differently from other people. He’s probably a genius.
    â€œWhy don’t you join us,” Rob suggested.