06 Theme Development (Settings) Test Prep Check

"As Luck Would Have It"

¹Becky had everything Sarah wanted: a pool in her backyard, popularity, and new clothes. Worse, it seemed (at least to Sarah) that Becky had the Midas touch. Everything she touched turned to gold. She won the class lottery and with it $50! She guessed how many jelly beans were in the jar in the yearly guess-how-many contest and won all 768 of them. She won every race she entered, every art competition, and every award the school offered. She had all the luck in the world.

²Sarah was an only child. She wore hand-me-downs from her older cousin Clementine. She didn’t have many friends. Her best friend Kiara was really the best in a lot of ways: kind, generous, and loyal. Just the kind of person you would want for a best friend. But Sarah most certainly did not have good luck. She never won anything. On the days she carried an umbrella, it never rained; on the days she forgot her umbrella, dark rain clouds seemed to follow her around.

³One rainy day in April, though, Sarah and Becky swapped luck. That’s how Sarah thought of it, anyway. It wasn’t expected, and it certainly wasn’t planned. But after weeks of wishing for it, Sarah woke up and things felt different. She felt lucky.

⁴She rolled out of bed and noticed a small package on her desk. She opened it: it was a brand new dress, the same one she had been eyeing for weeks. “Mom!” she called. “Did you get me this dress?”

⁵“It’s from your grandmother,” her mother called back. “Early birthday gift!”

⁶Sarah shrugged. Her birthday wasn’t until August.

⁷“And I made your favorite! Chocolate chip pancakes!” her mother shouted.

⁸“Pancakes on a Wednesday?” This truly was a different kind of day.

⁹And it didn’t stop there. On the school bus, Carlos, the most popular boy in school, saved her a seat. Then Mrs. Nelson picked her—yes, her!—to take care of the class rabbit over the weekend. The cafeteria lady gave her two extra cookies and said with a wink, “Your lucky day!”

¹⁰But the best part of the day was art class. Mr. Rodriguez, her art teacher, walked around the room slowly. Sarah hadn’t spent much time on her project. But it was still pretty, still unique. Mr. Rodriguez walked past Becky’s art project and didn’t even pause. Becky looked devastated. Her hair was still wet from that morning’s rain. She had forgotten to bring an umbrella.

¹¹“Well, class!” Mr. Rodriguez said. “I think our winner for this month is Sarah! Excellent work, Sarah—this shows a lot of progress!”

¹²Sarah smiled proudly. “Guess you have some competition,” she whispered to Becky.

¹³Sarah was on top of the world. She didn’t feel like a normal fourth grader at all. Today, she felt like a better-than-average fourth grader, possibly the best fourth grader who had ever existed. She wondered what was next.

¹⁴Becky, she noticed, had spent most of the day sulking. “Let someone else have a shot at being lucky for once,” Sarah thought to herself. Then she noticed that Becky was crying. Small tears dripped down onto her t-shirt.

¹⁵“What’s wrong?” Sarah asked.

¹⁶“I just spent a lot of time on that project,” Becky said between hiccupped sobs.

¹⁷Sarah was beginning to feel awful. After all, she hadn’t spent much time on her project at all.

¹⁸Then she felt Kiara tap her on the shoulder. “You know, Sarah,” Kiara started. She looked angry and hurt at the same time. “You haven’t been very nice today. You’ve been acting like…like you’re the best person in the world.” She shook her head. “This just isn’t like you at all.”

¹⁹Now Sarah felt even worse. It was one thing to have the class pet dislike you, but another thing entirely to disappoint your best friend. “I’m sorry, Kiara,” she said. “It’s just been a weird day.”

²⁰She walked over to Becky and gave her a hug. “Don’t worry,” she whispered, “your luck will change soon enough.” Luck, Sarah was beginning to think, was overrated.