Rich For A Day

The children are given weekly writing assignments in their English books. They come up with some of the best stories. Rebecca recently wrote this short story and I thought I'd share it with you. The topic was: Rich for a Day. Enjoy!

Rich for a Day

     "Any new news?" Mr. Maxwell asked as he came inside from shoveling snow. 

     "No, none that I've seen," replied Mrs. Maxwell as she placed a bottle of orange juice on the baby's tray. "Only more snow. But you watch for me now. I need to clean up this breakfast."

     Mr. Maxwell sat down in a seat at the table and looked up at the small, cracked TV. The Maxwells couldn't afford to get a nice TV. They were running out money because they had been tricked and lost a lot of their money. They had lost enough money to pay for a house. It had been a huge loss. 

     The baby, Jenny, began to cry and Mrs. Maxwell picked her up. "She's cranky," she said with a sigh. "Jason's still asleep and Ellie just left to go to the mall. She'd better not spend much."

     "Oh, don't worry," said Mr. Maxwell, not looking away from the TV. "She knows what state we're in."

     Mrs. Maxwell didn't reply. "Jason!" she yelled. "Get out of bed or you won't get breakfast."  

     "I'm coming!" ten-year-old Jason yelled back. "Wait for me!"

     "Shhh!" Mr. Maxwell suddenly shushed everyone up. 

     "Who want's to join a contest?" said a guy with a baseball cap on."We have a huge snow sculpture contest right now! Send us pictures of your snow sculpture and maybe you can win One thousand dollars!"

     "We can win that," Mr. Maxwell said as he stood up and began to bundle himself up in a heavy coat. 

     "Go ahead and try," Mrs. Maxwell said, as she put Jenny down on the floor. "You won't come close."

     "Oh, I guess not," Mr. Maxwell said carelessly. "But it can't hurt to try, can it?"

     "No, but don't expect to win," Mrs. Maxwell said as she cleaned up Jenny's breakfast. 

     "Mom, can I enter the next Lego contest?" Jason asked as he came downstairs with a piece of paper in his hands. "If I win, I can get one thousand dollars! And you can use the money! You only get this reward every ten years!"

     "Sure, but I doubt you'll win," Mrs. Maxwell said taking the piece of paper. "You know that."

     "Yeah, but I still want to do it," Jason said hopefully. "It's free."

     "I know," replied Mrs. Maxwell. "You can do it."

     Mr. Maxwell and Jason had pictures to send by lunchtime. They sent the pictures before the mailman came, and waited. 

     Twelve-year-old Ellie came home right in time for dinner. 

     "How much did you spend?" Mrs. Maxwell asked.

     "Only about eight dollars," Ellie replied truthfully. "And that was all for lunch. I had enough fun with just looking at all the stuff."

     "Good," Mrs. Maxwell said in relief. "Maybe you can go next week, too."

     "Yeah, that would be fun!"

     The next day, everyone got a surprise. Mr. Maxwell had won the thousand dollars!

     "You didn't tell me you'd entered a contest!" Ellie said, surprised. "Does this mean everything will be better now?"

     "Much better!" Mrs. Maxwell said, hardly believing the news. 

     "Speaking of contests," Ellie said nervously. But she was interrupted.

     "For the Lego contest," the contest guy shouted. "We have Jason maxwell!" 

     "Me?"  Jason said in disbelief. "It wasn't even that good!" 

     "You did it!" Mr. Maxwell beamed at his son. "Wow!"

     "Uh, wonderful!" Ellie exclaimed, looking at the TV anxiously. "We're rich now, right?"

     "Yes, we can pay off the bills now, and actually live happily!" Mr. Maxwell said.

     Mrs. Maxwell was speechless. Rich?! No, she was dreaming. 

     "The winner of the designer's contest is..." the guy on the TV unfolded a piece of paper. Ellie held her breath. No one else was really listening. "Ellie Maxwell!" The name caught everyone's attention. "For five hundred dollars."

     "Ellie, does he mean you?" Mrs. Maxwell asked, looking at her daughter. 

     "Yesterday, I signed up for a contest and did it," Ellie could hardly believe it. "I won!"

     Everyone was speechless. 

     

    That day, the Maxwells had a bunch of fun, spending all of their money so that they only had one thousand dollars left. They donated Ellie's five hundred dollars to an orphanage and to a few other places. They spent Jason's money on having a bunch of fun, and used Mr. Maxwell's money to get back to normal life. The Maxwells decided that they enjoyed being a normal family instead of being rich so they spent the leftover money on things that would help them. They had been rich for one day, which was enough for them.