– CHAPTER ONE –
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Luke awoke early the next morning. Early for him at least. His parents had already left for work.
He forced himself to roll out of bed. He wanted to sleep longer, but he knew that if he did, he would be late for school.
He got dressed, then took his time finding breakfast. He decided to have Wheat Crispy cereal with potato cakes. The crunchy meal sated his hunger, providing him energy for the day.
After breakfast, he looked at the clock. He was late! He must’ve eaten longer than he thought.He dashed out the door, grabbing his book-bag on the way out.
Since the schoolhouse was only about a block away from his house, he made it there in record time. He stopped to pant at the doors, as he had run the whole way.
He hoped there wasn’t a replacement teacher today. His regular teacher, Miss Lavalina, had been talking of going on a vacation. If a replacement teacher was behind the doors he stood before, he was in trouble. Big time.
Though he dreaded knowing for sure, he had to go inside. He opened the door slowly. Sure enough, a new teacher stood behind the desk at the front of the classroom. As he slipped inside, he had some hope that she wouldn’t notice he was late. But no luck.
“Ah, Luke! How good of you to show up. Finally.”
Some of the kids turned in their wooden seats and stared. A few snickered at him.
Without responding, he walked over to his seat on the far left side of the room and sat. He didn’t know how this new teacher would punish, and the last thing he wanted was to stay after school.
“Do you have a reason to be late?”
“No, ma’am.”
He expected the worst. After all, replacement teachers were cruel. At least in stories he’d heard.
“I could have you stay after school today…”
Luke was shattered. Now he might never get to go out with the other kids. Waiting for what he thought he knew was coming, he slouched down in his seat.
“But everybody loses track of time. Even me.”
Suddenly he was happier than he had been the entire morning. He breathed a sigh of relief. At least the new schoolmaster was forgiving.
Without saying another word of the matter, she turned and wrote something on the chalkboard behind her. When she stepped away, Luke was glad to see that the first subject was arithmetic. Though most dreaded it, he excelled at solving the equations as were written on the board.
Today, luck was on his side.
The one room schoolhouse wasn’t near large enough for children in three different grades. He sometimes grew impatient, as the teacher would take turns with grades, and he was left waiting for his next assignment while the grade below or above him was given theirs.
Luke was in third grade. The second graders usually just left the third graders alone. Most of the fourth graders bullied or made fun of all those younger than themselves. Brock is a fourth grader.
The rest of the day was mostly uneventful. It was raining during recess, so they had to stay inside. The lunch the teacher had brought made his stomach turn in knots. He couldn’t wait for the last bell to ring.
Finally, it did. It happened at just the right time, too, as they were preparing for an English pop-quiz.
Not waiting for the teacher to give him tons of homework, he dashed out the door, the other kids behind him.
Jackson, the kid who had invited him on the fishing trip, stopped him at the road. He was about the same size as Luke, though he was a year older than him. He was known for being an excellent student. Some even said he had never gotten a B on a report card in his life.
“You goin’ with us?”
Luke nodded.
“I just need to grab my pole from the house. I’ll meet ya at the lake!”
He then jogged down the dirt road toward home, in an even better mood than he had been in the day before.
Soon enough, he was approaching the lake. It was named Lake Tanou, but everybody called it “The lake” Because it was the only lake for miles around.
He spotted Jackson and a few other kids sitting on the shore. From what he could tell, there was Brady, the class clown, Jordan, the best athlete in the school,
and Mark, who was a straight-A student in almost every subject.
As he approached them, he seen a brand new fishing pole laying on the ground next to Jackson.
How did he afford that? He wondered.
Drawing even closer, Luke realized that it wasn’t a regular cane pole like he had. It was the fancy kind, with a metallic reel that looked like it cost a fortune.
He wanted to ask who owned it, but he decided against it.
He dipped his bobber in the water. The wriggly worm on the hook at the end of his line was sure to attract some bait-fish, at least, but he hoped for the big one.
Hours passed. It was almost night now, and he hadn’t got a single bite. Neither had any of his friends, either.
“This is ridiculous!” Jackson exclaimed. “We should have at least gotten one fish by now.”
Luke nodded in agreement. He then began to wrap his line around and around the end of the cane pole, slowly retrieving his bobber.
All of the other kids besides him and Jackson had left a long time ago. Maybe he should’ve as well.
Jackson stood and stretched. Then, he turned to look at the expensive fishing rod, still laying on the ground.
“Oh!” He exclaimed.
Luke put down his pole.
“What?”
Jackson picked up the valuable piece of equipment and held it toward Luke, A smile on his face.
“This is for me?!” Luke said excitedly.
Jackson nodded.
“This is the surprise I promised! I forgot to give it to you earlier.”
Luke reached out and took his gift.
“Thank you so much! I can’t thank you enough!”
He then picked up his cane pole and dashed home to show his parents.
But in the midst of such peace and happiness, neither of them could have imagined what was about to happen.