Evan Frankel, 5th grade,
Dec. 2012; rev. Jan.2013
Jake The Unlucky
Jake Spackle was a good boy but he had a problem, he was always
very unlucky! No matter where he went, what he did, an incident would
always occur. Like one day, he was sitting quietly on the couch, when
suddenly the lamp on his mom's desk tipped over and hit him on his head.
Or the time that his pant zipper got caught while he was going to the
bathroom and he had to stay in the stall for three hours until his mom could
come rescue him. So on the first day of school, he knew something bad
was going to happen.
Jake looked at the school, and it seemed the school looked back at
him. He entered the building and passed the principal, Mr. Roberts. But at
that moment, a strap fell off Jake's backpack and landed right under Mr.
Roberts' foot. Mr. Roberts slipped. As if in slow motion, he did a flip in
midair, and then landed on the floor. Mr. Roberts glared at Jake, and then
said, "I will let you off this time, but lets refrain from anymore shenanigans".
Jake found his way to room 107, his class. He immediately saw his
friend James. They started off the day by writing a paragraph about their
summer. He wrote about his hole in one during mini golf, his discovery of
an awesome seashell, and his ride on a motorboat. He handed it in, but he
forgot to write his name, so he got an F-. How unlucky!
"Well, maybe my day will improve," thought Jake. But it didn't. He got
paint all over his face during art time, and he accidentally poked his eye
with a pencil when they were working on math.
Then it was time for science, which was Jake's least favourite part of
the day. Last year, they had dissected frogs, which Jake thought was
completely gross. And today, he could smell oil from 10 yards away. As it
turned out, they would be mixing oil with vinegar, and seeing what
happened. Ms. Madison, the science teacher, chose Jake to pour the first
cup of vinegar into the pot of oil. Jake stood over the pot, but he was afraid
it might explode or something. Of course, nothing exploded, but the oil
made thick bubbles and a great popping sound. Jake thought that was
extremely cool, so he leaned in for a closer look. "You really shouldn't do
that" said Ms. Madison. But by the time Jake realised why, he had already
fallen into the pot. The oil, luckily, had not been heated, if it had, Jake
would have boiled to death.
Jake had insisted that he was fine, but Ms. Madison sent him to
the nurse's office anyway. The nurse, Mrs. Hatchem, checked to make sure
that Jake had not swallowed any oil. After she made sure he was clean,
she found him some clothes from the lost and found. When Jake returned
to room 107, he noticed that everyone was whispering and laughing,
probably about him.
Finally, it was time for recess. Outside, he got into a stick war with
James. They saw the Mrs. Muller, or Bull as the kids liked to call her, walk
over, and James threw away his stick. So when Bull arrived, she thought
Jake had been attacking James with the stick. Jake had to stay in for the
rest of recess.
"James?" Jake asked at lunchtime.
"Yeah?" He replied.
"Why didn't you tell Bull that I wasn't trying to attack you?".
"Because you were".
James was obviously not going to be of help, so Jake picked up his
tray of food and walked away.
As Jake was walking, he tripped and his food tray sailed through the
air and landed in the middle of the faculty table. All of the ketchup
splattered onto Mr. Roberts' plate, and the rest dumped onto Bull's lap. Mr.
Roberts gave Jake the hairy eyeball and then said, "Come with me Jake".
He grabbed Jake's hand and dragged him out of the cafeteria.
Jake sat in Mr. Roberts' office, staring at the ceiling. "Jake." he said,
"Why have you been acting out so much?" He sighed, "It's the first day of
school, and already you have had three incidents. I think you should spend
the rest of the day at home thinking about how you can make this a good
year."
As Jake walked home, he thought about how mad his mom would be.
Last year, Jake had forgotten to do some homework, and his mom nearly
flipped. So what would she think of him getting sent home from school?
When he reached the house, he suddenly had the urge to run away, but he
quickly banished that idea from his head. As it turned out, Jake's mom was
not home, so he could play Minecraft while awaiting her return.
Four hours later, Jake sat in his room, reading a biography of
Warren G. Harding. He had been grounded for 2 weeks, so he wasn't
allowed to play Minecraft, see his friends, call his friends, or do anything
fun. Then Jake had a nasty thought, "What will Dad think of this?" Luckily,
Jake's dad was on a business trip in Washington.
"Jake?" Yelled Jakes mom.
"Yes?" He replied.
"Come down here this minute!"
"Okay! Okay!"
He hurried down the stairs and into the living room. But he wasn't
looking where he was going, and he stubbed his toe on a stray bowling
ball. His toe throbbing, he sat down on the couch, watching the lamp
carefully.
"Yes mom? He said.
"I know that you are nervous to start the new school year, so I am
going to take away your punishment. But if this ever happens again, the
punishment will be severe."
Since he was now free, Jake ran out of the house, and to the park.
He met James, and they played football for a little while. Then James
suggested that they go to Dad's Deluxe Dessert Diner. Once there, they
both bought cherry sodas and ice cream sundaes. As Jake ate, he thought
that even though he was unlucky, he could still try his hardest.