My favorite corner in the school

“OK, everybody. It's that time of year,” said my science teacher, Mr. Beal. “This Friday we'll have the annual Egg Drop Challenge. Bring your best containers to class. You can work alone or work together.”

Mr. Beal's fifth-grade Egg Drop Challenge was an institution at my school. The goal of the Challenge was simple-you had to build a protective container to keep an egg from breaking when dropped over the stadium wall.

My best friend, Cassie, and I grinned each other. We always worked on projects together. She's brainy; I'm creative. We're the perfect combination, like peanut butter and marshmallow cream, which happens to be my favorite kind of sandwich.

I made my favorite sandwich that afternoon while waiting for Cassie to come over and work on the container. Spreading the fluffy marshmallow cream gave me an idea.

“I have a brilliant design for our egg container!” I said when Cassie arrived. She looked at me eagerly. “We can cushion it with some marshmallow cream. You know, to absorb the shock of the impact,” I explained. “You've got to be kidding, Laura.” Cassie exclaimed. “You have a better idea?” Cassie pointed to a sketch in her notebook. “Actually, I do. We put the egg in a basket with parachute attached. It will simply float to safety.” “It's too easy for something to go wrong. It will never work!” I said. Cassie rolled her eyes, “The parachute is better than that stupid idea.”

I couldn't believe it. Of course we'd had our little fights in the past, but this was different. She'd never called any of my ideas “stupid" before. “Then I'll build mine and you build yours, and we'll just see whose is better.” “Fine!” Cassie threw her notebook into her backpack and stormed out. And just like that, our friendship was broken. Like an egg dropped from the top of a stadium without marshmallow cream to protect it.

When Friday finally came, I had to admit that Cassie's Egg Force One looked pretty good.

By the fourth round, only Cassie and I were left.

Jackson’s family hired a driver. The driver’s family came to stay with them in a small house in their backyard. That’s how Jackson met the driver’s eight-year-old son Tom. From the day he met Jackson, Tom became his fan. For Tom, 11-year-old Jackson seemed to be a big boy. He would always follow Jackson around.

Tom didn’t go to school. He was admitted to a local government school, but he refused to go. He told Jackson shyly that the teachers only made them copy words from the blackboard. Since he hadn’t learned how to read, he could not understand anything that was written on the blackboard.   Jackson felt sorry for him. On Sunday, Jackson saw Tom sitting under a tree holding an alphabet (字母表) book in his hands. Jackson walked quietly towards him and discovered that Tom was holding the book upside down.

Jackson took the book out of Tom’s hands and turned the right side up. “This is how you should read,” he told Tom. Two big tears rolled down Tom’s cheeks. Tom told Jackson, “I want to be like you, but I can’t do anything.” That evening, Jackson told his parents they had to help Tom get into a better school. It was not easy to make Tom admitted to a new school, because the time for admission was over.

Luckily, one principal (校长) looked at Tom kindly and admitted him to her school. The next day Tom went to his new school wearing a new shirt. But when Tom returned from school, he was a bit sad. The other children in his class had laughed at him. He told Jackson, “They all said I am much older than them but in a smaller class. I don’t want to go to school.”

Jackson said, “Don’t worry, Tom, I will teach you to read."

Two months later, Tom returned from school with a bright smile.