As I pull into the driveway, I can feel my hair blowing behind me. I jump off my bike and run inside.
“Lexi!” My mom calls again, thinking I am still outside.
“I’m right here,” I exclaim as I step into the kitchen. “Can Gabby come over and go bike riding for a little bit longer after I eat lunch?” Gabby is my best friend and we did everything together. We love to bike ride, and now that we are in the fourth grade, my mom lets me and Gabby ride our bikes past the end of our street. My mom likes it, too, and says that it is very salutary, whatever that means, but I think it is just a lot of fun!
“I suppose she can…did she already ask her mother?”
“Yes. She said it was fine.”
“Okay, then it is fine with me.”
“Thanks mom!” I force the sandwich my mom just made for me into my mouth so that I can get back to riding my bike. When I finished, Gabby was waiting for me outside.
“What took you so long?”
“I was eating! Guess what? My mom said that you could come over!”
“Yes!” Gabby and I loved to be together. We always got along so well.
“Let’s go bike riding!” That was my favorite thing to do, and Gabby knew it.
“We just went bike riding! Let’s go inside and play with your Barbies.” Of course right when she made that suggestion, my neighbor, Bobby Flechet and his friends, who were a year older than us came walking down the street.
“Look at these girls! What are you too scared to stay outside now that us boys are here?” Bobby was in our class, and he has always thought that boys were better than girl: in sports, in school, in everything. He was mean to everybody, but at recess, he was especially mean to us girls and always alienated us from their games. If there was one thing I hated more than playing Barbies, it was playing outside with Bobby. Gabby could always stand up to him.
“Yeah, we ARE girls! But, we’re not scared of you!” Bobby stuck his tongue out at her, and she stuck hers out right back at him. “Come on let’s go inside, Lex!” I could not say no to that. I would rather play Barbies than stay outside with Bobby. We played inside until dinner, and then Gabby had to go home. It had been a normal day with Gabby, and I liked normal days.
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The next morning, as I walked down the driveway to meet Gabby at the bus stop, I noticed something was missing. My bike! I immediately ran back up to the house and looked in the garage. Nothing, just the car. “MOM!”
“Yes, honey, what do you need?”
“Do you know where my bike is?”
“I don’t know, just go to school and we will see what we can find in the afternoon.”
“Okay...” My bike meant the world to me. It was a shade of violet that had the smallest hint of pink in it. It had a sparkly, purple basket and a bell on the left handle bar, along with rainbow streamers flowing out of both sides. It was truly ethereal! The only imperfection is the scratch from last winter when I fell at the end of Gabby’s driveway because I was trying to bike when it was snowing. It wasn’t my fault there was ice at the end I thought to myself, as I began retracing every one of my steps. On the bus ride I told Gabby all about my missing bike. What could have happened to it, and where I should start looking. We walked home together, and Gabby explained to me that she had a dentist appointment today, so she would not be able to play today. Good, that gives me more time to look for my bicycle. And with that thought still in my head, I walked home with plans to find my bicycle. I walked in the door and I knew something was wrong by the look on my mother’s face. “What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Honey, your bike is definitely not here.” I felt like crying. What if we never found it? What if I never got to ride it ever again? I rushed into my room in great morose and jumped onto my bed. Just the thought of losing it devastated me. Knock, Knock.
“Lexi, can I come in.” My mother stepped in the room with a gloomy face. “I know that bike meant a lot to you, but we can keep looking, and if we don’t find it, then we will buy you a new one.”
I was not assuaged by that.
“But, I don’t want a new one, I want my bike!”
“Well, we’ll look again, but if we can’t find it, then you have to let go of it, sweetie. You have to be more careful about where you leave your things.” I was furious. It wasn’t my fault that my bike was missing. I remember putting it right back in the garage before Gabby and I went to play inside yesterday.
“Wait! Mom!” I thought of exactly what happened to it, “It must have been Bobby and his friends!” “Alexis! Do not start pointing fingers at anyone! Bobby is a nice boy who would never do anything like that.” I almost spoke again with a rebuttal, but I knew it would not do anything except get me into trouble. If my mom would not listen, then I knew someone who would, Gabby. I dialed her phone number right away, but when the answering machine picked up, I remembered that she had a dentist appointment.
“Hi Gabby it’s Lexi. I know you’re at the dentist right now, but I really need to talk to you, so call me back right when you get this!” I pressed the END button on the phone and placed it on the receiver. I guess I would have to wait until tomorrow to find my bike.
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I ran down the street to meet Gabby at the bus stop the next morning because I was so excited to tell her about my bike. She was standing there as usual with her hair in braids and her blue lunch box in her hand. “Gabby! Gabby! I have great news!” Gabby looked a little confused as I told her about how Bobby and his group of friends stole my bike and the way we were going to get it back from him.
“But Lexi,” Gabby said in a concerned tone.
“What if he didn’t take it? And what if we get in trouble?” Obviously Gabby thought that my ideas were extemporaneous, but I had already figured out a way to be furtive and get my bike back.
“Don’t worry, I have everything figured out,” I reassured her.
When we got home, I found my old scooter and me and Gabby went for a ride once around the the neighborhood, and then when we got back, we put our plan into action. Gabby and I snuck over to The Flechet’s house. I crept into their dark shed, and felt around for handlebars.Yes! I found it! I thought to myself as my fingers gripped the handle. But where are my streamers? He must have taken them off! I carefully rolled my bike out of the shed, making sure I did not knock anything over, or make any noise. As I stepped into the light, I saw Bobby standing there with Gabby, and they were both staring at me like I did something very wrong.
“Ha! See I knew it! You’re a thief Bobby Flechet!” I was relieved that I finally found my bike, but when Gabby pointed, signaling me to look down, I saw that it was Bobby’s Army green bike, with no streamers or bell or basket. I was in a huge impasse. I could feel my face get hot, and I knew it was turning red.
Mrs. Flechet came out, and asked, “What is going on here?”
“Mom! Lexi was trying to steal my bike!” Mrs. Flechet then called my mom, and they gave a harangue about how stealing is bad, and how I am in really big trouble. I felt like a malefactor, and that is probably what the Flechet's thought of me, too.
As we walked home, I told my mom, “I wasn’t trying to steal his bike! I thought he stole my bike!”
“Well, Lexi, you assumed wrong, and it was still wrong of you to sneak into their backyard, their shed is even worse.” We walked up the driveway, and although my dad’s car was blocking my view at first, as we got closer to the door, I saw rainbow streamers in the distance.
I was elated! “Mom! Where did you find it?”
“Go ask your father, honey.” As I ran up to my bike, I saw that he was juxtaposed to it.
“Dad where did you find it?!?”
“ I took it into the shop to fix the scratch from last winter, but I wanted it to be a surprise!”
I laughed. “So you stole my bike! Thank you daddy!”
I felt so terrible that I accused Bobby of stealing my bike. I ran over to his house, and asked to speak to him. I was going to be as tenacious as possible to get him to forgive me, but I did not want him to feel forced.
“Hi, Bobby.” I said.
“What do you want?” He said, I could tell he was very angry with me, and he had a good reason to be. I then explained the whole story of why I went into his shed and why it looked like I was trying to steal his bike. When I was finished, I looked at him, hoping that he would be able to forgive me. “Well, that’s a pretty brave thing to do, especially for a girl. I guess I forgive you.”
“Thank you Bobby!” I said, “I am so sorry I assumed you took it!” I was so happy that Bobby forgave me, and from then on, I knew not to assume anything, and there is a reason for everything.
