Bring It On
Josh Tsai
Introduction
This is the story about the life of two fellows and their best buddies. Their names are Manny Fargo and Donald Johnson, who likes to be called Jim. Do not expect a serious story; these guys are still in their fourth year at Riverside Elementary School. Manny sits on the very right side of the room in the back, Jim sits on the very left at the front. Sometimes best buddies have to be separated in a classroom where there is a teacher. Their teacher's name is Mrs. Mink, and she's not all that bad, but you probably understand what kind of teacher she is like because of how far apart she has sat Manny and Jim. I would like to introduce more people in his class to you, but nobody likes books where all the characters are explained in the first chapter, and you are probably asking yourself when the book will begin, so let's bring it on!
Chapter 1: Mrs. Mink
Mrs. Mink is one of those teachers you would stereotype as "nice when the kids are nice." Manny was sitting in his seat all the way in the back of the room, thinking about what to draw on his science test. Why do they give out tests? he wondered. Older people don't know much about science, so how do they expect kids to know it? He decided to give it a try. He wrote his name at the top in fine print just in case the teacher could read it. He wished they had taught him cursive in third grade, like his brother Paul, who was in high school already. They had taken cursive out of the third grade curriculum, so nobody could learn it anymore. He thought about how his signature would've looked in cursive. Now it had to be in regular old print. Now for the date, what was it again? He looked up at the board. "March 27, 2115," he wrote. School's almost over, he thought to himself again.
Manny looked up at the clock. It was just about 2:20, and science was the last period of the day. He couldn't believe that he had already taken twenty minutes to write his name and date. Oh well, he thought, I guess it's time to get going.
The first question was, "Who discovered electricity?" The choices were, "A) Thomas Jefferson," "B) Benjamin Franklin," "C) Thomas Edison," and "D) Benjamin Blueberry." Okay, thought Manny, there are two Benjamins and two Thomases. He was sure it wasn't a blueberry, but that's all he remembered. He circled the answer "C," because "C" is usually a correct answer when the question is confusing. He looked up at Jim at the other side of the room, who was diligently working. Chrystal, the girl that sat in front of him, was already finished and reading a book. Manny immediately got bored and started drawing a car in the margin of the test.
That was pretty much how the rest of the test went, but Manny amazingly finished his test right as the bell rang, filling the rest of the test with "C" answers. He ran to Mrs. Mink to turn in his test and went to pack up his stuff at his little cubby and hook.
"That test was so long, wasn't it?" Manny asked Jim.
"Actually, I didn't think it was too hard," Jim replied.
"Really? I couldn't remember if the inventor of the light bulb was Benjamin Franklin or Christopher Columbus," said Manny.
"Oh. I put Thomas Edison for that one," said Jim.
"Oh yeah, I forgot," said Manny. They went to stand by the door with their stuff to wait for the bell to ring to leave.
"Now remember everyone, Monday is our big field trip to the White House!" said Mrs. Mink. "Come to school at the regular time, but we will meet in the All-Purpose Room to meet our chaperones. Don't bother bringing your backpacks, just weather-appropriate dress."
"Dress?" said Manny, "we have to wear a dress?"
"Yup," said Chrystal, "but your not a girl, so I wouldn't recommend it."
"But Mrs. Mink just said to wear a weather-appropriate dress tomorrow!" said Manny.
"No, that's only for girls. Boys get to wear shorts and shirts," said Chrystal. "And it's not tomorrow, there's no school tomorrow."
The bell rang to leave. Everyone rushed out the door and out in the hallways. Manny really wanted to run through the crowd of students, but there were safety patrols lurking everywhere, so he didn't want to chance a warning. Patrols got to give out three warnings to students, and the fourth time they got to give out referrals. Manny had gotten two referrals in his past five years at Riverside, which includes kindergarten.
Manny finally reached the front door entrance and met Jim standing there waiting for him. They were next-door neighbors, so Manny always got to walk home with him.
"How'd you get here so fast?" said Manny.
"I ran here," said Jim.
"Without getting caught?" said Manny.
"No, I got two warnings on the way, but it's Friday. They'll forget about me over the weekend. They don't even know my name," said Jim, with a triumphant tone.
"I should've thought of that," said Manny. He'd remember over the weekend, he hoped.
They began walking home. They lived on Hilltown Terrace, which was just across the playground and through the thin fence of trees.
"Hey, do you wanna come over today?" said Jim. "We can play basketball on my driveway, and my mom doesn't come home from work until five o'clock. Dad doesn't come home until later."
"Sure," said Manny with a smile.
And that is a typical weekend for Manny Fargo. But the weekend hasn't even started yet, so how would we know yet, anyway?
Chapter 2: Basketball
There is nothing more disappointing than a flat basketball. Well, maybe there is, but not if you are really ready to play and you have an opponent, and a hoop. So don't pay any attention to the titles of these chapters, as they are often irrelevant to the chapter anyway, okay?
"Jim, why are your basketballs always flat whenever I come over? Do you ever pump them up?" asked Manny.
"I can't pump them up. We don't have a pump, and there are sharp rocks on the ground," said Jim.
"What? You don't like sharp rocks?" said Manny.
"I never said I don't like sharp rocks," said Jim.
"Sharp rocks are so cool! You can poke people with them!" said Manny.
"Hey wait, my cell is ringing," said Jim.
It was Chrystal. Manny thought Jim liked her, but Jim just thought they were good friends.
"Sure, but I have Manny over right now. Can he come?" asked Jim. A faint girl's voice could be heard from where Manny was standing, but he couldn't make out what it was.
"Okay, thanks. See ya," said Jim.
"Did Chrystal invite you over," said Manny immediately.
"Actually, yes, but she said you can come over too if you want," said Jim.
"Well, I guess I have nothing better to do," said Jim, trying to sound reluctant, "is she bored too?"
"Let's go see," said Jim.
Chapter 3: Pets
Manny and Jim stood on Chrystal's doorstep. They waited a couple of seconds after they had rung the doorbell. Suddenly, the door swung open.
"Well helloooo young men. Are you here to visit Chrystal?" asked Chrystal mom. Manny and Jim nodded. Then she yelled at the top of her lungs, "CHRISSIE! YOUR GUESTS HAVE ARRIVED! AREN'T YOU EVEN GOING TO GREET THEM???"
Chrystal came running down the stairs. "Mom, I wasn't even ready yet!" she called.
She came to the door. "Sorry," she said, "my mom has pneumonia. It means she can't talk. She can only scream."
"Nonsense, Dear, I can hear perfectly well," said Chrystal's mom softly, as if she thought Chrystal had said that she couldn't hear as well.
"Wait, your mom didn't just scream that!" pointed out Manny.
"Here, come on in," said Chrystal, ignoring the fact.
They walked into Chrystal's living room. It was perfectly clean and inviting. Except for the recliner at the other end of the room, which looked like two dogs had vomited all over it.
"What happened to that chair over there," asked Manny, pointing to it.
"Umm, well, my dogs sort of… threw up on it," said Chrystal.
"At the same time?" asked Manny, quite interested.
"No. Silky threw up on it first. Then Milky," she said. She was referring to her twin dogs.
At that moment, Silky and Milky ran in, smelled Manny and Jim, and then piled on top of Chrystal. Manny was disappointed. Usually he got more drool on his shirt.
"Hello, Milky and Silky, I don't think you remember Manny and Jim," cooed Chrystal. Then she looked up at Manny and Jim. "They suffer from frequent memory loss. Every few days, they forget some things they learned over the past few days. That mean I get to give them new names whenever that happens, and they learn them! That's what I love about these cute little puppies. How about helping me find some names?"
"How about Manny and Jim?" suggested Manny.
"No, she can't do that, those are our names!" said Jim.
"Wait, I know!" exclaimed Chrystal. "What about Dork and Fork?"
"No, that won't work," said Manny, "Because they rhyme."
"Milky and Silky rhymed," Jim pointed out.
"But how will we tell them apart then" How will they tell each other apart?" asked Manny.
"Well Dork is easy to remember, because we are all dorks! But none of us are forks, so that works," she said.
"I think Pork is a better name instead of Fork, because you can eat Pork," said Jim.
"Ew, no, what a horrible thing to say about my puppies!" said Chrystal.
"They are not puppies, they are dogs," said Manny.
"They are too puppies!" argued Chrystal.
"Maybe they're both," said Jim, trying to calm them down.
"That's silly, you can't be two things at once," said Manny.
"That's right," said Chrystal, "so obviously they are both puppies."
"Fine then, I'm hungry. Do you have any hamburgers? Because I'm really in the mood for some," said Manny.
"Sorry, I don't have hamburgers right now. How about some grilled zucchini on rye?" suggested Chrystal. "I personally think it's disgusting, you know, since vegetables can kill you. But maybe they don't work on some people."
"No, they work every single time on me," Manny said positively, "but that's okay, because I get better every time."
"You can't get better from dying," said Jim.
"Well I'm special," said Manny.