Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Happy (07/12/07)
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TITLE: The Blank Paper | Previous Challenge Entry
By Christy B
07/18/07 -
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As Zoë walked into the classroom, she did a double take. The entire room was bursting with pink and red decorations. The back wall was festooned with a puffy tulle garland that reminded Zoë of cotton candy. It had been sprinkled with tiny metallic hearts, which glistened and twinkled every time the door opened. Miss Blankenhammer’s desk was covered with hearts and 24 of them were chocolate! Zoë had learned to multiply just last week, so she recognized immediately that four lines of six was the same as the desks in her classroom. It was Valentine’s Day and Zoë was delighted!
Before she even went to her desk to sit down, she hurried over to the huge pink mailbox in the front corner of the room. Miss Blankenhammer’s fiancé had built it from a computer box. She opened the flap and poured 25 cards into it ~ one for each classmate, one for her teacher, and one for Mr. Brim, her teacher’s fiancé. He was to come to the party this afternoon and blow up helium balloons for all the kids! Zoë could hardly wait to meet him.
Before the party however, the class still had school work to do. Their math paper was a Valentine’s puzzle. =Super easy=, Zoë thought with a smile. Their reading assignment was a story about some animals making a giant valentine for a farmer. Then it was time for writing. First, Miss Blankenhammer gave everyone a brand new pencil. The girls got pink with red hearts and the boys got red with white hearts. Zoë loved the way a newly sharpened pencil felt in her hands. She loved the smell of it. Her little pink pencil eraser even had a red heart in it! She eagerly waited for the assignment so she could use her beautiful new gift.
“List 10 things that make you happy.”
=What?! Ten things that make me HAPPY?!=
Zoë just sat there. She was thinking about all kinds of happy feelings, but she wasn’t writing anything. Time went on. Most of the children had finished their lists and the time was nearing that they would be expected to read them to the class. That was usually Zoë’s favorite part of the writing assignment, but Zoë just sat there. She looked at her paper and got a little sad for a moment that she would not have anything to read to the class, but with a smile on her face she drew an enormous heart with her new pencil and handed her paper to Miss B. Just as Zoë was walking back to her desk, Mr. Brim entered the classroom. She ran to greet him, took him by the hand and showed him where to sit. The time had arrived for each student to share his or her list with the class.
There were numerous mentions of mommies and daddies, Santa, friends, pets (even an old rat could make Billy Tyler happy!), and almost everyone had Valentine’s Day on their lists. Zoë’s paper was last. She walked up to the front where Miss Blankenhammer was holding the giant heart drawing. Miss B. asked her if there was something the matter. Zoë said no. Miss B. reminded her that the assignment was to be a list and asked her to tell the class what made her happy. Zoë said that there was nothing that could make her happy. The room echoed with gasps and moans.
Miss B. asked Zoë, “What about your parents? Don’t they make you happy?”
“Well,” answered Zoë, “They love me a lot, and they take care of me and help me feel better when I’m sick or hurt.”
“Doesn’t that make you happy?”
“No. I have to choose to be happy by myself.”
“What is this heart for, then?” asked Miss Blankenhammer.
“It holds all my happiness,” Zoë explained. “The Bible says, Let thy HEART cheer thee in the days of thy youth (Eccl. 11:9, KJV).”
“So it does, Zoë, so it does!”
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