“Okay, we'll take it,” I overheard my dad say after about an hour of talking to the big man with the red beard.
I was in the next room over playing 'Tonka Trucks' with my little brother, Henry, and my new found friend, this bearded man's son, named Steven. His hair was red like his dad's beard and he had a really cool Batman shirt on. We raced our trucks around the room, which happened to be a construction site at the time, carrying 'Lincoln Logs' to and from his bed for the scattered action figures to build some type of tower at a later time.
“Okay, so it's settled, $13,400?” the bearded man said with a booming voice.
From the echo of his voice in the small house, I half-expected him to be standing behind me when I stammered around. I wasn't…show more content… There were three rows of seats so of course, I climbed over the middle row and plopped down in the back seat. Henry proceeded to do the same.
As we set off back towards our house, I scrounged through my bright orange backpack, all but deaf to the scenery and open fiends that surrounded the road on both sides. I pulled out my most recent homework assignment, a new book, and announced that I would be reading for everyone. I mispronounced three words on the first page before my dad stopped me.
As politely as he could, he asked, “Shelby, how about you finish reading at home so I can focus on driving buddy.”
This hurt my feelings. He usually loved to hear me read. So I stuck the book under the car seat and looked out the window. However all was overlooked and forgiven when we arrived at Papa John's a couple minutes later. And better yet, I got to hold the pizzas the rest of the drive home. The smell of pizza filled my nose and the car soon thereafter. No one could wait it smelled so delicious. We got home about 15 minutes later. I forgot completely about my reading assignment amid a couple pieces of 6-cheese pizza, my favorite. So I slept on a full stomach and an empty…show more content… I uhm..... didnt read my book. I forgot where I put it so I couldnt read it before I went to bed last night.” I replied. That was good. I felt clever.
“Well that's fine I suppose, it happens to everyone, but your teacher said you lied to her about reading it...” he came back with.
“Yeah but it was just because all the kids laugh at me and think I'm stupid because I can't read as fast at them. I didn't want them to think that I didn't read because I couldn't...” I started to tear up.
“It's okay son, I'm not the best reader either. Everyone goes at a different pace. Don't worry about what the other kids think just focus on becoming a better reader for yourself.” he encouraged me. “I have something I think might help,” he reached down and pulled my book out of his bag and handed it to me. “Would you like to read it to me now?” he smiled.
“Yeah, but I don't know some of the words.” I said timidly.
“It's okay. I'll help you with them.” he replied.
So we read through this book about a puppet lied to much and his nose got longer every time he did. He became a real boy and went to the circus but he missed his dad. I wasn't nervous at all this time. I just smiled at my dad after every sentence. In the end I only needed help with one word, the title-