The Story Of Daniel

/e i g h t/

Chapter 8

Nine Years Before

From that day forward, Daniel made clay birds every Freestyle Friday. He made them in different colors and poses, but he always made birds. That was the only type of animal he could make. But, pretty soon, Daniel had too many of them. He made about three or four of them every art class and he was running out of spaces to put them in his room. One day, one of Daniel's classmates came over to him.

"Woah, those birds are pretty cool," he said. "Can I have one?"

"Sure," Daniel said. "I have too many of them."

That day at lunch, everyone was talking about Daniel's birds. They all seemed to want one. And at recess, a lot of kids came to him asking for a clay bird of their own. He gave away the only one he had with him. And that's when he got the craziest, most insane idea. Why not sell the birds? It seemed like the perfect solution. So, the next day Amelia came to Daniel's house before they went to school. They both put as many of the birds in their book bags as possible. When they got to school, the two of them transferred the birds into Daniel's locker.

That day at recess, a girl walked up to Daniel. "Can I have one of your birds?" she asked. Daniel told her that they weren't free anymore.

"Fifty cents for one bird he told her." She had some money left over from buying lunch, so she gave it to him in trade for a purple bird.

Daniel had made his first sale.

The girl told everyone about what she had bought and soon there were people asking Daniel if they could bring money the next day to purchase one of their own. Amelia helped by telling people about Daniel's clay figures.

There was only one flaw to his plan. Daniel could only make them every Friday. Three or four figures a week wasn't enough at the rate Daniel was selling. He decided to ask Miss Noble if he could take some clay home to work with.

"Miss Noble?" he asked, using his sweetest voice.

"Yes, Daniel?"

"Can I take some clay home? I really like sculpting and I only get to come here once a week." He put on his adorably sad face that made him look like a depressed puppy. In other words, it was a face that was hard to say 'no' to.

"Of course, Daniel," she said, smiling at him. "I didn't know you enjoyed sculpting this much." So, she put some clay of various colors in a plastic bag for Daniel to take home. "Here you go. I'm glad to see one of my students so eager to make art."

That was the first time Daniel had lied to Miss Noble and although he wasn't proud of it, he thought it was necessary. When he got home, Daniel used all of the clay to sculpt his birds. The next day, he sold six of them.

***

It only took a week for the little clay figures to become old news. No one wanted them anymore. He thought, Maybe no one has heard of them. So he stood up on a bench at recess and shouted, "Clay birds! Only fifty cents! Any color!"

A teacher that was supervising heard Daniel and took him to the principal's office. Apparently, you weren't allowed to sell things on school grounds. He got a detention slip and his parents were called. When Daniel got home that day his mom was fuming. She told him he was grounded for a while. She said it would give him time to give the money back to his peers.

So for the entire weekend, Daniel was forced to stay in his room separating quarters into piles for the people who had made purchases. He wasn't allowed to invite Amelia over, but she came anyway. She climbed the tree and came in through Daniel's window. Then she helped Daniel sort the money out.