“A button factory,” Francine said, and laughed.
That summer, Maya tracked down the original owner of the textbook. An old ad in the margin pointed to a used bookstore in a town three hours away. She drove there with her father. The owner, a woman named Francine “Fierce” Kowalski, was now seventy-two, with silver hair and eyes that still calculated value in every object she touched. elements of business skills textbook
The notes were signed with a single initial: “F.” “A button factory,” Francine said, and laughed
The team went to regionals. They didn’t win, but they didn’t go broke trying. “A button factory