Conflict

CONFLICT

By Ethan

In Manhattan, New York City John lived in an apartment with his two parents, Michael and Erin. Johns character was very athletic and his parents were an equivalent to most parents, nice. It was the last day of school of his fifth grade school year. at PS 290 and would be beginning middle school in a little over two months. John was great at any sport that includes a ball. John and Robert, his best friend, both always play the same sport and are always on the same team for everything.

On the last day of the school year Robert came up to John and asked him, “Hey what sports are you playing this summer? I am playing basketball,” “I am only playing soccer,” said John, “but I will ask my parents if I can play basketball with you, what league are you playing in?”

“The Manhattan Youth Basketball League.”

“Cool, I will ask my parents,” John asked.

Then they both went to their classes, the only thing that the two friends were not together in was school. They both hated school. Only because they were not together in the same class. Because they were huge troublemakers. But that is for another story and another time ,and this is not that time.

At the end of the school day they both went home, and just like

Robert said to do, John told his parents about the basketball league.

After dinner, John and his father looked online at the league. John’s dad signed him up for the tryouts at the same time as Robert. but they did not have to sign him up for soccer because the already had made the team.

Later that week John went to the tryouts. Since he was tall he played at the 5 position (a.k.a. the Center or big man, who takes the tip off at the start of the game,). Robert played the four because he was a little bit shorter than John. During the tryout the head coach of the league made teams for a scrimmage. John was on the yellow team and Robert was on blue. That was the only time that they were not on the same sport. Since they met, in first grade. At the end of the scrimmage John’s team had won the game, and John had 23 points and Robert 20, they both had almost half of their teams’ points. Then for the rest of the tryout John was bragging about how the got more points than Robert had gotten. At the end of the tryout the head coach had chosen 5 players to name that had definitely made the team John was very confident about his tryout. the names that the coach read were: “Number 50 John L. number 11 Robert J....” the rest of the names that the coach said, John and Robert had never even heard of.

Now that John had made both teams, surprisingly, he had to look on both the soccer and basketball leagues’ website to find out when, where, and what time the practices were. John and his dad found out that the basketball practices were were from 8 o’clock to 9 o’clock, then they looked on the soccer website and the practices were from 8:15 to 9:20. Then John said, “The practices overlap.”

At the first night both of the practices overlapped when John was getting ready for basketball, because it’s time came up first.

His hands were shaking because he didn't know if his coach was going to be nice or mean. Also, he was scared about missing his first practice for soccer, even though he was still going to go for the last 10 minutes so he could meet his team.

The next morning John woke up to the sweet sound of his mom screaming from down the stairs to get down there..

“But mom,” John said as he yawned.

“But nothing, get down here right now,I have already held the bus up for... 20 minutes now, oh, not any longer. It is now leaving-the-street. Great Job. It looks like you’ll be walking to school” When John got to school the teacher announced to him in front of the whole class that the had detention for one hour after school. That was how much of his homeroom class that the had missed.

Later that week, on Wednesday when John got his homework back he noticed that he had gotten every single problem, except for one wrong. That question was 15x2=30, it was a true or false question and the answered TRUE, the correct answer.

Once his mom got home after working. She asked for John’s homework so she could see it. Then, once she saw it, she just covered her mouth and gasped as loud as possible. Then she sent him to his room until dinner time. When John heard his mom gasp the thought that it sounded as loud as a metal baseball bat hitting the ground from a jet fifty feet in the air. In his room John was reading a biography about Patrick Ewing. He was really enjoying the book.

At dinner time John’s dad brought up a similar topic, it went like this, “So John, how was your day?” but then then the conversation took a turn “John, your mother and I have been talking. We have been noticing that you have been really tired lately, and your grades have not been great, which is a big change for you. Do you know anything about this?” said Johns dad.

John answered back by saying, “Yeah. I think it is mostly because I have been really tired lately from getting home late and finishing my homework at like, 10:30.”

Then Johns mom said, “Well, we have been thinking are going to make you quit one of the sports, so you can get some sleep. Your only other option is to find information and see if you can play the sports at different times.

Over the weekend John decided to take the challenge of finding information about both of the sports. First the started with basket ball. John went onto the basketball website first. He opened a page that said in bold letters said seasons, this is what it looked like: SEASONS fall spring summer Then John said to himself, “So basketball has multiple seasons.”

Then all John had to do was go onto the soccer website. Once the got on the soccer website he clicked on a tab that said seasons just like what the had seen on the basketball website on that tab it had said that soccer only was in the summer and in the spring for the league that the was doing. Now all the had to do was tell his parents that the had figured out a plan.

At dinner time his mom asked John if he had figured out what the was going to do, John answered them by saying this, “I think that I can play soccer in the summer and spring and basketball in the fall” then his dad said, “I think that that is a reasonable plan. I think that we can go with it for now, but once your grades start slipping you are definitely quitting one of the sports also your mother and I will be very alert about your grades.”

Then John had his first soccer game. the scored two goals and his team won the game 5-4 in extra time. His second goal was the game winner.