“Okay, here you go,” Jake said, and shoved it in Brian’s
face, then went back to his own table.
I stared, hardly daring to say a word. Finally, I did, “Are
you okay?”
Brian sat back down and picked up his napkin, wiping
some of the gunk off his face. “Yeah, he’s done that to me more
than once, so I’m used to it by now. I just need to go to the restroom to make sure my face doesn’t end up all sticky,” he said
and hurried off.
I watched him go then grabbed my tray, dumping it at
the sink on my way out and went to the rest of my classes without anymore incidents.
At home that afternoon, I did my homework and
chores, then finished my story. After that I played computer
games until it was time for bed.
After I’d brushed my teeth and changed into my PJ’s I
lay in bed wide awake thinking, and talking to Wesley.
“What do you think Wesley?” I said, “Should I let him
read it?”
“Well, I for one made a great accomplishment in the
book, and you did by writing it, if I were you I would do what
Brian said,” came the reply.
“How do you know about Brian?”
“In your head, remember?”
“Right,” I muttered.
“So, what you gonna do?”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to enter it in the contest?” said Wesley.
“Fine, I’ll enter it!”
“Score!”
“Shut up, Wesley,” I said, before drifting off to sleep.
The next day at school, I put my story in my locker and
went to my History Class. After History was English, Brian and I
were in the same English Class. When I entered the room, I
went straight to my desk. When Brian came in he sat at the
desk right next to me. I looked at him in surprise.
“What?”
“You seriously sit there?”
“Yeah, you might notice things more if you looked up
every once in a while,” he said with a grin.
I smiled. “I decided to enter my story.”
“Really? That’s great! Where’d you put it?”
“My locker. Why?”
Brian’s face clouded. “I heard two of Jake’s buddies
talking in the restroom, Jake is planning on stealing it during
2nd period.”
“Brian, second period is now!”
We stood to go, but just then the teacher came in, saw
us standing and said, “Sit.”
We obeyed, very reluctantly. So we sat there, barely
listening to the teacher going on and on about something or
other, till the bell rang. Brian and I were out of our seats and
gone before the teacher could say anything about assignments.
We walked quickly down the hall, barely able to keep
ourselves from running the whole way.
When we reached
my locker and found it ajar, we leaned against the wall with a
groan.
“Wait, the office, maybe Jake plans to enter it as his
own!” Brian said, and we rushed off again. We got to the office
in time to see Jake walk out, when he saw us he just gave us a
smirk and walked away.
We walked into the office and up to the desk. “What
was Jake doing in here?” Brian said to the principal’s secretary.
“He was entering one of the contests coming up,
why?” she replied.
“We have reason to believe he stole my story and entered it in the writing contest as his,” I said.
“Do you have proof?”
I looked down and shook my head sadly. We didn’t
have any rock hard evidence to prove that Jake had done it.
“No,” Brian said, “but I know how to get it.”
I looked at him, “And how do you plan on doing that?”
He told us his plan. The secretary, fortunately for us,
agreed to help us.
“What’s going on out there?” came a voice from the
principal’s office.
“These boys say that Jake Potter stole Tobias Moore’s
story and entered it in the Writing Contest as his,” the secretary
said.
The principal came to the door. “Do they have proof?”
“No, but I have a plan to prove it,” Brian said. And told
the principal what he’d told the secretary.
So the secretary called Jake to the office and me and Brian waited in the principal’s office with the principal till Jake came.
Once Jake came in, the principal asked him to sit
down, then he said, “Jake, these boys tell me you stole something of theirs and entered it in a contest as yours.”
“I didn’t enter anything in the writing contest,” Jake
said.
“I believe that you just told me you did, Jake, so I’m
suspending you for a few days.”
So in the end I got third for my story, and a new friend
out of the whole ordeal. Mom was pretty happy when Brian
came over for the first time, although we spent most of the
time upstairs in my room playing computer games. Actually it
was mostly me playing and Brian trying to remember everything I told him about how to play the games.
Jake wasn’t happy getting suspended and swore that
he’d get back at us, unfortunately for him he did it in front of
the principal and ended up getting expelled instead, and I’m
pleased to say, neither Brian nor I have seen him since.
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