THE END OF JAMAL'S SUMMER VACATION

Jamal was having a great summer.  He was eight years old and everyday was a new adventure for him.  His best friend Amy lived just a few houses away from Jamal and they did a lot of fun things together.  Amy and Jamal were in the same grade at school and it was almost time for their summer vacation to end and school to begin for the next year.

Jamal has a little sister named Tamara, she is four years old and a   really sweet little girl.  Another good friend was Timmy who also lived in the same neighborhood.  Timmy is seven, one year younger than Jamal and Amy.  He is always joking around and makes it his responsibility to watch out for Tamara.  When they go to the playground Timmy is careful to keep an eye on Tamara, so she doesn't get hurt on any of the equipment. 

They get on the teeter totter and the merry-go-round and   then the swings.  They always do it in that order because that's the way Tamara wants it done.  Timmy is a very athletic little boy and he has lots of energy.  About the only time you would find him in the house was when it was raining.  Even then he'd be busy doing something. 

Many days when it did rain he'd invite Tamara over and they would sit together and play video games.  As soon as it stopped raining though, back outside Timmy would go to play on his pogo stick or he and Tamara would head back to the playground where they would play for hours.  The swings were Tamara's favorite of all.

Tamara always used the yellow swing, it was her favorite    color. Timmy didn't care what color he used but as usual was always doing something extra like standing on his swing instead of sitting.  Timmy always liked to try new and different ways to do everything.  Maybe he'd grown up to be a scientist one day. 

Jamal has had a wonderful summer.  He'd would wake in the morning, put on one of his mom's towels and become Superman!  Jamal has a big imagination!  Anything fun is something Jamal wants to do.  One day he was out in the woods near his home and found an old tire swing someone had put up years ago.  He swung on the tire all afternoon and made sure to remember where it was so he could bring Amy to try it out.

When he did get to bring Amy, he showed her how he could do circles.  Amy thought Jamal was really a great guy.  She always had a Teddy bear with her that Jamal had given her for her birthday.  They had a really good day.  Amy was happy that school was about to start again and had found out her and Jamal were going to be in the same class.  That was going to be terrific!

Amy also heard they were going to be in Ms. Reba's class.  She was very excited about that because Ms. Reba was one of the best teachers in the whole school.  All the children really liked her!  Amy's favorite school subject was reading and Jamal liked mathematics.  He was very good in math and science.  Everyone said he'd probably be a computer programmer someday.  He was thinking maybe a doctor.

When the teacher was having science   class, Jamal was always one of the first to raise his hand with the answers.  He even helped Amy and his friend Timmy with their math and science homework sometimes.  Jamal had a sweet dog named Jimmy who lived in a dog house outside.  Since they all lived in the state of Georgia, it was always warm, so Jimmy never got cold even in the winter.

Jimmy would wait patiently for all the kids to come home from school.  He was a cute brown dog that Jamal's family had gotten from the pound.  Everyone in the whole family loved Jimmy very much.  The whole neighborhood thought he was a great dog.  Jimmy would sneak over to see Amy every chance he got.  He loved peanut butter sandwiches and Amy always gave him one.  She had him pretty spoiled.  Amy loved the hug and sloppy kiss she'd get for each sandwich.

Jamal and Jimmy would run through the woods to   one of their favorite trees. Jamal loved to climb it and Jimmy would run around the trunk of the tree trying to reach him.  They always had a lot of fun and were the best of friends.  When Jamal got down out of the tree, he and Jimmy headed for home.  Jamal wanted to work on his soap box derby car.  He had been building it for weeks and had it almost ready for a trial run.

Finally, Jamal got the last wheel on and down the hill he went!  Timmy, Amy and all his friends were watching.  Ms. Reba happened by and clapped for Jamal when he made it to the bottom of the hill.  She was very proud of Jamal.  He was not just a good student but very smart in many ways.  She was looking forward to having him in her class.

Jamal found a big bull frog he thought he would scare    Amy with.  He found out real fast Amy wasn't like a lot of girls he knew.  Many were afraid of everything, worms, spiders and big bull frogs.  Not Amy, she knew she had nothing to fear from the frog and went alone with Jamal to see that it got safely put back into the creek in the woods.  Wow, a girl who wasn't the least bit afraid of a frog, Jamal was really impressed with Amy!  Now he really thought she was special!  They headed up to Look Out Pass, where there was a viewer to look down over the town.  Jamal like to tease Amy because she was still a little short and had to stand on tip toes to look through.

Jamal dribbled his basketball on their way home and    thought about the fact that this was the last week of vacation.  He was a little sad and excited about school all at the same time.  He got his bike out and did some wheelies down to Timmy's house.  Timmy had been biking around the block on his bike too.  They talked and decided school was going to be exciting the next week.  They looked forward to something new to do.  After all, vacation can get a little boring sometimes.

When Jamal got home he found his sister Tamara having a tea party with her stuffed bunny.  It wasn't long though, before he found her napping on the floor.  Jamal went out to the back yard to say hi to Jimmy.  He noticed the leaves from the trees were starting to fall.  Jamal thought it wouldn't be long before Halloween and Thanksgiving would be here. 

One of Jamal's favorite foods was pumpkin pie.  He       imagined himself jumping up and down when the first pumpkins showed up at the store.  The big day was finally here, tomorrow was the first day of school.  Jamal got dressed that morning, had breakfast and headed out to catch the school bus.  The first class Ms. Reba had was reading, Amy liked that.  Then Ms. Reba gave a quick test asking what there summer vacation had been like.

   It wasn't a surprise to anyone when Jamal got an A+!  At lunch Jamal saw Amy with one of their classmates eating and went to join them.  David and Amy seemed a little surprised at whatever was in David's lunch box.  Seems his mother had fixed something no one could quite describe!  David thought the next day maybe he would buy a hot lunch in the cafeteria.  Amy thought that was a good idea!

After lunch, Ms. Reba taught a geography class.  Jamal    really liked that.  He dreamed of traveling around the whole world someday.  The school day seemed to be over very fast and Jamal, Amy, Timmy and all their friends agreed they would be happy to be back tomorrow.  It was going to be a great school year with lots of fun times.  Jamal helped pick up some blocks the smaller children had forgotten to put away, then headed for the school bus home.

At home Amy and Jamal started playing in a big   pile of leaves his mother had raked that day.  Timmy watched and played with a big plane he liked a lot.  Jimmy was in his dog house taking a nap, he knew Jamal would take him on a run through the woods pretty soon.  He wanted to catch up on plenty of rest so he could have lots of fun with Jamal.

Timmy walked Tamara down to the playground where   she sat with her bunny and watched a lot of kids playing.  When they got back to her house, Timmy showed her how to cut pretty designs out of paper.  He had just learned how that day at school.  Tamara loved that.  She couldn't wait till next year, she'd be in her first year of school!

  The next morning when the bus was all loaded, Amy turned   and saw Tamara in the window.  She waved and Tamara waved back.  Amy thought, this time next year we'll all be holding Tamara's hand as she gets on the bus with us.  We'll always be the family we are now.  Each one watching out for the other, learning about the world and having fun doing it.

EVERYDAY CAN BE A NEW ADVENTURE IF YOU MAKE IT HAPPEN!