The Ball

The Ball

“This is what really happened. I brought the basketball into the lunchroom. I was wearing this big green sweatshirt of mine, it went underneath.

You know how we can’t go back to the classroom from the caf, but they don’t let you bring your own recess stuff to lunch either. And they’re short of balls, and they always are, you only get one for a few minutes. Who can play a game in a tiny piece of recess? They always tell us we need more physical activity, but then they only have five balls and two bazillion kids!

Anyway, when I sat down I couldn’t get close enough to the table to eat the soup with my fake fat tummy, and I didn’t want a big soup spill down my pants, you know what that would look like! So I pushed the basketball to the back which kind of made it look like I had a huge bum so everybody was snickering when they saw it. And then Randy whacked at it, and it popped out and rolled down the aisle, and that’s when Mrs. Myers saw it, and jumped and dropped the tray and broke those dishes. So if it’s anybody’s fault it’s Randy’s!”

“But Randy didn’t bring the ball into the cafeteria, against the rules...” Mrs. Brandon said.

“Oh yeah...” said Alex. “But...”

“I’ll still be calling your parents.”

“Crap.”

“But on the other hand, I will order more balls for recesses. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.”

“Am I still in trouble?”

“Not with me... you’ll need to talk with your parents about that.”

“Oh, I won’t get in trouble with them, they’re the ones who told me to hide the ball under my shirt!”

“Then, maybe I’ll be giving them a different call...

“Oops...”