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Ring, Ring, Ring - the fire alarm went off! Ms. Landen, the teacher, told all the students to leave their things behind. Jeff dropped his football and left. That was the first time they had a fire drill in 5th grade, so they didn’t know where to go from their new classroom.
Ms. Landen shouted, “Go down the stairs on the left.” They all ran down not knowing why they hadn’t gone over that before. Everyone pushed each other on the stairs. As they went outside, Jeff and John noticed that Dan and Bob weren’t there. Just as Jeff was about to talk to Ms. Landen, Dan and Bob showed up.
Dan said, “We were stuck in the stairs with other people.” Ms. Landen just told them to line up. So they did and they got counted off. After about five minutes of waiting, the fire drill was over and they were let in.
Ms. Landen said, “Since we were going to go outside in about 10 minutes we might as well stay outside”. Everyone seemed to be okay so they all ran to play except Jeff and John.
Jeff asked Ms. Landen, “Can John and I go get my football?” Ms. Landen said okay, so they ran up the stairs three at a time excited to get the football. Jeff just got a brand new football so they were excited to use it. As they reached their classroom, they ran towards it at lightning speed. Jeff went over to where he dropped it. He went over to his desk and saw it’s wasn’t there.
Jeff said, “I could have sworn I left it here”.
John said, “Maybe it rolled away.” So they looked around in the whole class and couldn’t find it. Now Jeff was worried because his parents would be so mad at him if he lost his football. By the time they give up, recess was already over and everyone came back in.
Ms. Landen asked Jeff, “Where were you two.
“We were in the classroom looking for my football but I can’t find it” Jeff said. Ms. Landen asked if anyone had it, but no one replied. School ended and
everyone went home. Dan and Bob left quickly. Jeff was too upset to talk to anyone. Jeff and John were supposed to go to Jeff’s house to play with the football, but now they couldn’t. Jeff wasn’t worried about that though, because he was more worried
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about what his parents would say about him losing his football. He decided that he would tell his dad that he accidentally left it at school.
Jeff said, “John, I don’t think you should come over today.”
“Okay,” John said. On the way home, Jeff told his dad that he accidentally left his football in school.
Jeff’s dad believed him and asked, “Was it different playing with the new football then with playing with the old one?”
“Yeah it was, because the old one was all worn out.” The rest of the way home no one talked. When they got home, Jeff went straight to his room and did his homework. After that he decided to go get some fresh air and took a bike ride. As he started, it got cold. He was about to go back home when he saw Gabe holding a football when he told them he never had a football before. It looked brand new and like the one that Jeff had. Jeff was mad because Gabe and Jeff were friends and Gabe just took his football. Jeff ran up to him and tackled him and grabbed the football. They both landed on the dirt on their back. Jeff and Gabe weren’t hurt and got up quickly. Jeff noticed that it wasn’t his football.
Gabe yelled, “What was that for?” Jeff quickly thought for a second.
“I tackled you because I was pretending we were playing football.”
Gabe just said, “Oh, well do you want to play football with me and my friends?” Jeff
said that he had to go home and left. On his way home he thought that maybe he should look in the lost in found in school. It was Friday, so he was going to wait. He went home and ate dinner. His mom made his favorite food, but he didn’t even taste it. As he went to bed, he thought of what he would do if he couldn’t find his football.
The next day he went to John’s house and asked if he wanted to play. As he got there, he noticed that Bob was there and he was playing football with John. Bob would never play football, but now he was. He seemed to be trying really hard to be good.
“Hey guys,” Jeff said.
“Hey,” they both said. As Jeff walked closer he saw that they were both really tired.
“How come you’re playing football now?” Jeff asked. “Because I want to be able to play with Dan,” Bob said.
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“How come you just now wanted to play football?” Jeff asked.
“Because before, Dan and I would play games at his house but now “He has a new football so he always invites his friends over to play football, and I always just watch, so I decided to go play football.”
“Wait, he got a football?”
“Yeah, and it’s really good”
“How so?” Jeff asked.
“Well it has really good grip and has a white stripe going down it.”
“Well that’s cool,” Jeff said. “I was just passing by so I got to go home, so bye.”
Bob and John both said bye, and Jeff left. On the way home, he was thinking about Bob saying that Dan got a new football. We all knew that Dan’s parents would never get a football because his parents were having money problems. Plus, according to Bob’s description of the ball, it seemed to be an expensive one. It kind of sounded like the ball that Jeff had, but he wasn’t sure. So he just went home and had dinner
The next morning he was planning on just staying home but John asked him if he wanted to come over to play. Jeff came over and they played some videogames and played outside for a bit when Jeff said, “Have you been invited over to Dan’s house this week?”
“No,” Jeff said.
“Me neither and when I came over to his house he was playing football with his
friends and when he saw me he threw the football into his garage and said that he was going to call me, but his battery died. “He also said that his game just ended so I couldn’t join in,” John said.
“That’s weird, almost like he didn’t want you to see his football.”
“And yesterday when Bob was over at your house, he said that Dan got a new football and the way he described it sounded like he had my football,” Jeff said.
“Your right,” John said. “Maybe he did take your football. “You think we should go over to his house and ask him if he has it?”
“Yeah,” Jeff said. They both walked over there and saw Dan playing football with Jeff’s football.
“Hey Dan,” they both said.
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“I was wondering if we could join”, John said.
“Well we just got finished so no.”, Dan said.
“No we haven’t, we just started. They can join my team”, Gabe said.
“Cool”, Jeff and John said. As the game went on Jeff finally gets the football and noticed that it was his.
“So this is my football”, Jeff said.
“What are you talking about this is mine.”, Dan said
“Now that I think about it, this ball does look like the ball Jeff brought in on Friday, and he lost it on Friday, and didn’t you get yours on Friday too Dan?
“Okay, I did take it because I always wanted a football.”, Dan said “If you give it back to me I won’t tell anyone”, Jeff said.
“Fine” Dan said
“And maybe I can give you one of my older footballs.” “Awesome,” Dan said
“Well, how about we go play some football,” Jeff said.