Ultimate Gift Off!

Another week day came, the same as it always had before and Ace went through the first part of the day at school pretty much on "autopilot," as he shuffled through the halls to his classes. He was looking forward to lunch time…It was always his favorite time of the school day. He was just about to enter the school cafeteria, when he heard three familiar voices from the other side of the door.

"I'm serious," said the voice.

Ace looked up. It was the voice of Amber Danes, one of the "it" girls in school. She was talking to her friends Madison Monroe and Kirsten Crandall, the queen bee of the high school.

"Jessie will love it," said Amber. She held up a wrapped present.

"Jessie?" questioned Kirsten. She and Madison looked at each other. "What does Jessie have to do with anything?"

"Didn't you know?" asked Amber. "Today is Jessie's birthday. This is her present." She put it in her bag and she, along with Kirsten and Madison, went into the cafeteria.

Ace, upon hearing everything, paused for a few seconds.

"Today is Jessie's birthday?" he asked himself. "Maybe I can give her a present. But what?" He started to think. He smiled as he had an idea. "I got it!"

Later, Ace came through the doors of the high school. He was holding the perfect present for Jessie: purple, musical note earrings.

"I can't believe I found these," said Ace. "Musical notes in her favorite color." He went into the cafeteria. "Man, she's gonna love these!"

Just as he approached Jessie, he saw Amber hand Jessie her present. Jessie ripped the wrapping paper off and gasped with a yell.

"Thanks, Amber," said Jessie. "I love them!"

Ace stopped suddenly, as he saw Jessie holding the exact same earrings he got her!

"I couldn't believe it," said Amber. "I know you love music and purple's your favorite color, so I had to get these for you."

Jessie smiled with anticipation, as she held the earrings up to her ear while Ace looked on.

"I can't wait to wear them," she said to Amber as she gave her a hug.

Ace sighed, turned around, and walked out of the cafeteria.

Later, he came back through the school doors with a new and different present for Jessie.

"She will love this one," he mumbled with a smile. This time, he was holding a pink CD with purple stars featuring Jessie's favorite singer, Lady Violet.

"She'll really, really like this," he told himself again, "Lady Violet's Greatest Hits." He walked back into the cafeteria. "I mean, I don't think anyone else would ge-" He suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Jessie was standing with two of her friends. A girl with short, blonde hair handed her the same exact CD that Ace had in his hand!

"I can't believe it," said Jessie, smiling. "Lady Violet's Greatest Hits?! Thanks!"

'Not again!' Ace thought.

"Uh, Jessie…" said the other girl with dyed blue hair in an embarrassed tone. "…I…uh…got you the same one."

The two friends laughed at the coincidence as Ace looked on. He sighed in frustration and quickly left the cafeteria.

"There's gotta be something I can give her," he said. He stopped and started to think.

Suddenly, the bell rang and everyone started heading back to class.

"Come on!" said a girl to her friend as she rushed to class.

"What are ya rushing for?" asked her friend annoyed. "We'll make it."

"Make it?" Ace repeated to himself. Suddenly, it came to him! "That's it! Make it! I'll make Jessie her birthday gift!" He rushed out of the area.

Later, in the Woodshop class, which was his last class of the day, Ace was working hard on his birthday gift.

"There," he said. "It's done."

On the table in front of him, was a hand-crafted ukulele. It was light tan with brown strings. He picked it up and put a tag in the strings that read,

'Jessie,

Hand-made for you by your biggest admirer…For you to follow all your musical dreams.

Happy Birthday!

Ace'

He looked at it. "She DOES want to learn how to play the ukulele…and now she can."

He rushed out of Woodshop with his ukulele and made his way to Jessie's locker. He turned a corner and, suddenly, he bumped into a girl coming around with a food cart. She lost control of the cart and it rolled fast toward the gym entrance. It bumped right into a guy who was coming out of the gym with a bag of new basketballs. The basketballs went flying in all different directions and one hit the maintenance man's ladder. Without warning, paint from a bucket on top of the ladder splattered all over the ukulele Ace was holding!

He stood there in shock over what just happened.

"What?!" he babbled, slowly lifting up the ukulele. It was covered with blotches of paint.

"What the…!" he yelled again, loud enough for the entire surrounding area of the school to hear.

"Now, what am I gonna do?!" he asked. "I can't give her this!" He looked to the right and left. "I gotta get rid of it."

He started to run, but slipped on the paint and fell. The ukulele went flying out of his hands. Suddenly, someone caught it.

"Oh, Ace," said a voice. "I love it!"

"Huh?" he asked. He looked up and there was Jessie holding the ukulele she just caught.

"You…" he started nervously. "You love it?" He got up.

"Yeah," she said. "You put so much work into it. The splattered paint is a…a very creative touch."

He just stood in silence and shock.

Jessie ran over to him and hugged him.

"Thank you," she said.

"Oh, you know," said Ace, blushing. He hugged back. "Anytime. Happy Birthday, Jessie."

She let go and smiled, as she left with her new birthday gift.

Ace looked on as Jessie went off. He smiled. After a few seconds, he started to leave.

"I can't believe it," he said. "She liked it! She really liked it! Man, I can't believe-" Suddenly, he bumped the same ladder from before and more paint fell from the bucket, this time on him.

He stood for a few seconds as the paint dripped to the floor. Then, he smiled again and laughed loudly as he continued walking, as nothing…absolutely nothing could ruin this moment!