Twenty-five dollar lesson

Nick and Chad are best friends. They have walked home from elementary school together every single day for seven years. On the Friday before Easter break their eighth grade year, they were walking out the doors by the fourth grade rooms and saw that Mrs. E’s purse was sitting on her desk and that she had some money sticking out. Nick convinced Chad to stand guard while he went into the room to snatch the money. Chad did not want to steal the money at all, he just wanted to go home and eat a snack, but since Nick was his best friend, he stayed and helped him steal the money anyhow. After the quick dash to the purse Nick returned with twenty-five dollars. Two ten-dollar bills and five ones is what they had stolen. The two thieves quickly ran out the double doors of the school in the direction of their homes just as they did every day. Once they got off the school property they slowed their pace down to a walk and began the trek home not saying a word until out of the blue, Chad turns to Nick and slugs him in the shoulder as hard as he could.
“Hey, what’s that for?”

“For stealing money from Mrs. E. Why would you want to steal from her?” Chad asked him as the guilt of stealing from his fourth grade teacher was burning inside him.

Nick looked at Chad as he dug into his pocket and said, “Here, here’s your half.”

Chad smacked his hand away and told him to keep it.
As the idea of being the only one with the stolen money weighed on Nick’s mind, he began to have second thoughts about what he did. The boys walked for a while in silence, until Nick out of the blue turned and slugged Chad in the arm as hard as he could.

“What,” exclaimed Chad as he grabbed his left shoulder.

Nick glared at Chad and got in his face and said “don’t act like you’re any better than me for stealing this money, just because you didn’t actually take the money, you still helped me.”

“Well I don’t want to steal it anymore,” Chad demanded as the two stood on the sidewalk facing each other about a block from school. “Besides, what if someone seen us running out of her room, they will know it was us who stole Mrs. E’s money.”

Nick answered him, “Well, what do you want to do about it?” “Huh” “You gonna bring it back to her room and tell her, are ya?”

“Maybe I will, Maybe we both should.”

Nick thought Chad was crazy, “Are you kidding me,” Nick said as he turned his head from side to side as though he was looking for someone to be behind him, “We’ll get in so much trouble for this!”

Neither Chad nor Nick said anything for a short while and as they still remained on the sidewalk looking at each other, they realized what they needed to do. As they peeked into Mrs. E’s room, they saw her sitting at her desk grading papers. She must had heard them because without looking up she motioned to the boys to come in. “Shut the door Nicholus,” Mrs. E said in the same voice she used to discipline Nick with five years ago.

“Mrs. E, we have something to tell you, Chad spoke up first.

“Nick, is this true?” Mrs. E questioned the boy.

Nick nodded his head and stared at the ground, “We went in your purse after school and took some money from it.”

Then there was a long disturbing silence until Mrs. E broke it by saying, “Yes I knew that you boys had been in here, I saw your backsides flying through the double doors as I turned the corner.

This news seemed to make Chad and Nick feel even worse. As their shoulders slumped and their heads hung in shame, Nick put the money back on the desk and said that he was sorry. Chad followed by saying the same.

“You know I was very disappointed when I realized that you boys stole money from my purse. It isn’t about twenty-five dollars boys, you boys know better than this. Your parents would be very disappointed with you would they not Chad?” Mrs. E asked as she looked directly in Chad’s eyes.

He couldn’t even say a word. Chad just nodded a little and gulped.

“Are you going to tell them?” Chad finally asked from under his shameful demeanor.

“I think I will let you tell them,” Mrs. E said as she organized and put her papers away.

Nick and Chad looked at each other, both thinking to themselves that their Easter break was over. Their parents were going to be furious with them.

“Now you boys get out of here, we’ll continue this after Easter break, after you tell your parents. You boys think about what you did today, Mrs. E began to preach.

“It was a terrible thing you did by coming in here and stealing money from my purse, but it was also an admirable thing you did by coming back and confessing. It tells me that you know that what you did was wrong, and that it will never happen again. Which is why I’m not going to tell Principal Cobb. But right now I have to go pick up a few things from the store so I must go.

“Thank you for not telling Principal Cobb,” Nick said as he sighed.

“By the way, when we come back from Easter break I expect an essay explaining all the events of this ordeal including your parent’s signature. See you boys next week,” Mrs. E said as she locked the door to her room and walked in the opposite direction of the boys.