Note from Aadi: Hi Everybody, I recently participated in a store writing contest (my 1st ever) and won the 2nd prize. This was the story.
“HEY, Phoebe,” Lenny asked, ” Are you excited for the finals today?”
Phoebe rolled her eyes and feigned an overjoyed smile. “Yes, of course, my dear brother, I am simply elated for the hardest test of the year that YOU get to skip.”
Lenny grinned. “Well, it’s not my fault that I’m-achoo!- horribly sick.” “Plus, if you get an A on the test, as Mom quoted, there will be ice cream.”
His 14 year old sister gritted her teeth. “You’re lucky you got footage of me sneaking out last week, or Mom would practically melt your face off.”
“SKINNY BOY! TALL GIRL! GIT TO THE BREAKFAST TABLE, NOW!” their malicious babysitter, Dina, screamed from downstairs.
“Oh, how I despise her,” Lenny grumbled as he walked off.
Phoebe muttered something about getting revenge, but under her “don’t mess with me” demeanor, she was really worried. She was usually an A+ student, but since she received her new Airpods X+, all she’d been doing was listening to her favorite songs and forgetting to study. On her last assignment she’d got a B-minus. Seriously, a B-minus! I bet my GPA is 1.5 now, she thought.
On top of that, her math teacher wasn’t the sweet Ms. Delineau, nor the kind Mr. Marker. She had to get the cruel Mrs. Werenheimer, who looked like a professional alligator wrestler. It didn’t help that Phoebe had lost her lucky pencil, either. That pencil had literally saved her behind, more than once. She had even thought of putting posters up around the neighborhood of how the pencil looked, felt, and even smelled, but she knew that wouldn’t help her popularity status.
“Feel your breath, and open your mind,” Mrs. Wasilewski soothed the class. “Let everything flow through your body in a cooperating stream. Close your eyes. Let everything go. Phoebe, stop scrunching your face up. Relax.”
Finally, Phoebe couldn’t take it anymore. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Wasilewski. I’m so stressed about finals, and I can’t focus.”
Instead of getting mad with Phoebe for her excuse, the wise meditation teacher smiled calmly. “That’s completely fine. Drink some water, take a walk around the building, shake yourself off, and return. A simple math test is just one molecular piece in the jigsaw puzzle of life.” Phoebe beamed. “Thank you, Mrs. Wasilewski.” These teachers should get paid more, she thought. At least the nice ones.
Lenny gazed at the window, bored as ever. I thought faking being sick would be more fun than this. His parents had banned him from all screens for fear that he would get a headache. Overprotective parents much? he silently groaned. He looked around his room. Maybe he could find something in his closet to entertain himself with. He hoisted the big box labeled TOYS over his shoulders and emptied everything out. A broken toy race car, a shoelace, a fishing pole, and a pencil pouch. Maybe I can sneak out and drop off this pencil to Phoebe. I remember her saying something about a lost lucky pencil, he thought. Plus, It’ll be less boring than lying on my bed playing with a fishing pole. He snatched the pencil pouch, made sure it actually had some pencils in it, carefully opened his window, and made a risky jump onto a tree branch.
He slowly climbed down and walked to school. He scanned the benches for Phoebe and her friends, Jessica, Frankie, and Halina.Yes! He spotted the bright red bush of hair that was Halina. Not far was Phoebe, probably stressing about her test. What a worrier!
“HEY! SIS!” Lenny shouted from across the field. “I KNOW YOU LOST YOUR LUCKY PENCIL, SO I CAME TO GET YOU ONE!”
Phoebe stared at him as if he was an alien.” I BET THAT PENCIL’S FULL OF ITCHY POWDER , EXPLODING INK, AND ALL YOUR OTHER DUMB PRANKS!”
Lenny ignored her.”I PROMISE THEY’RE NOT! YOU’RE PROBABLY JUST CRANKY! I’LL LEAVE IT IN YOUR LOCKER!”
Lenny ran to her locker, put in the combination (Phoebe muttered it in her sleep sometimes), put in the pencils, and casually walked off, completely confident that he had done his job.
A Little Later . . . . .
Phoebe rushed to her locker and grabbed the pencil pouch that Lenny had tossed in there from before.She closely examined each pencil. A short one decorated with flowers, one with pink and yellow stripes, and a simple, crimson colored one with a white star in the center. After one final look, she chose the last one and darted off to take her test.
“All right, class,” Mrs. Werenheimer announced. ” This test ain’t gonna be easy, people. Since y’all are in the Honors class, the 12th and 15th problem will involve some advanced algebra and the li’l bit o’ trigonometry that we’ve learned so far. Now, write your first and last name on top, and . . . GET TO IT!” Phoebe stared at the first problem. She had definitely not studied for this . . . wait what? She was doing it, but she had absolutely no idea what was going on! Her pencil . . . it really was lucky! She even sped through the extra credit problems. She finished everything 25 minutes before the rest of the class. Even the famous nerd Linus Dapperling finished later, staring at her with newfound respect.
Mrs. Werenheimer stared at her suspiciously as she confidently turned the test in. “Are you sure you don’t want to check your work again?” the dumbfounded teacher asked. “You have a lot more time.” Phoebe shook her head, positive that she had aced it.”Whatever you say, Ms. Walker,” Mrs. Werenheimer said skeptically.
She walked home, cool as a cucumber, pencil in hand.
As soon as she got within 20 feet from her house, she heard chaos. Pure chaos. And it wasn’t Lenny this time.
“What happened?” Phoebe asked her mom, clearly searching for something important.
“We’ve lost a sacred object of incredible importance to our family,” her mother replied, scrutinizing a certain stuffed teddy bear warily.
“Maybe I can help,” Phoebe offered. “What does it look like?”
Her mom looked into her eyes with a look of complete seriousness. “A pencil.”
Phoebe’s smile disappeared. “Lenny,” she growled.
Phoebe barged into her brother’s room angrily. “WHERE DID YOU FIND THAT PENCIL YOU GAVE ME?”
“In my closet. Where else?,” he replied, as if it was completely obvious.
“Are you SURE?” Phoebe demanded impatiently.
“Indubitably,” her brother responded.
“WELL-” and then she stopped.
She thought about what that pencil had done during the test.
“Okay,” she said and left.
Phoebe paced across her room, thinking hard. This pencil was sacred to her family, but she couldn’t understand why she couldn’t use it. If she didn’t lose it, it’s power wouldn’t just disappear, right?
But then she remembered something. When she was 5 years old, she used to have this stuffed owl named Betty. Even though she loved its soft fur she couldn’t sleep with it. It was too important. She would only use it in the q1 “darkest of times. She would always protect it when baby Lenny came crawling to drool on it. She just had this feeling that she couldn’t let anything happen to Betty. Mom and Dad are probably feeling that too. It’s traditional in the family, and it’s been around for generations. No one wants to be the one family who lost the sacred object. And that’s when she realized the right thing to do was to tell her parents.
“Mom, dad, we have something we want to tell you,” Phoebe began. “Yeeeeess?” her mother replied, confused.
“We took the pencil,” they confessed. “Accidentally,” Lenny added.
Their mom gasped in shock. “You kids are grounded for so long you-“
“But first,” their dad interceded, “How, and why?” Phoebe and Lenny looked at each other.
“Well, I just found it in my closet,” Lenny began.
“And Lenny gave it to me for my test, because he knew I lost my lucky pencil. And then I used it,” Phoebe finished.
Their parents seemed to have a silent conversation with their eyes. “Okay,” they decided. “So you two are saying you found a priceless artifact that has existed since 1156 B.C. in a bedroom closet?”
The siblings looked at each other, embarrassed. “Pretty much,” they admitted.
Her parents stared at them intensely.
“Okay,” their dad broke the silence. “We have to tell you some news.”
The kids braced themselves for their punishment.
“We knew the whole time,” their parents declared.
“Fine-” Lenny started. “Wait, what?”
“Oh yes,” their mother smiled mischievously. We were simply testing you two, and, well, you passed.”
The siblings looked at each other in complete surprise. They were both bursting to ask questions, but Lenny beat her to it.
“What if we failed?”
“Then,” his father started, clearly enjoying this, “there would be consequences.”
“But be happy you didn’t fail,” their mom continued. “And now,” they said synchronously, “Let there be ice cream.”
THE END
P.S. Phoebe aced her test, obviously.
Aadi's Awesome World! 