The Smith Children and Other Stories
Leonardo Houch
eBook
(, April 6, 2017)
CHAPTER ONE DO THE RIGHT THING AT THE RIGHT TIME“Stop! Stop! Stop!” The music instructor stopped all the kids from singing; he was starting to get really pissed with the eight children he was coaching; he thought they were just naughty kids of Brooklyn that needed to be handled with strictness when necessary.Although some of them thought he was nothing but a very mean and uptight man.“Sir, you need to smile some more” Harry the mischievous one of the eight children said to him one day and they all laughed at what he said, which only made Mr. Daniel also known as “Dan” angrier.“You all sound like you have a toad in your throat, so take it from the top” Mr. Dan said. The children repeated the song they had been singing for weeks all over again. “I just wish we can leave already and stop torturing ourselves” Mary-Jane said to Katie and Annie who giggled at what she said. “Mary-Jane, focus” Mr. Dan said. “Yes sir” Mary-Jane shouted sarcastically and the three girls all giggled. They practiced for a while with Mr. Dan who was fuming at them towards the end of the class. He was exasperated.The lesson looked like it was going to go on and on, and so far they weren’t making effort on the song at all. Suddenly Kelvin thought of an idea that could help them. “Mr. Dan” Kelvin said, “I think we should all sing the songs in two’s, so that we can all practice the lyrics of the song together”. “That’s a very good idea” Mr. Dan replied, “we all heard Kelvin, pick a partner, practice the song together, and you will have to sing the song with your partner just as you have practiced, if your partner isn’t making any progress, report him or her to me and I’ll take it from there”“Okay sir” they all replied. “You all should take a ten minutes break and when we come back we will continue from where we stopped, is that okay?” Mr. Dan asked.“Yes Mr. Dan” they replied. “And nice work Kelvin, that was very thoughtful of you” Mr. Dan commended him.“Thank you sir” Kelvin replied.The children were glad they were given a break except for Harry who didn’t like the idea of coming back to sing. He wanted to play and have some fun but with the coach watching them so he couldn’t.“I have some cake and cookies I baked yesterday, would you like to have some?” Mary-Jane offered all the other kids and Mr. Dan.“We would love to have some” they replied excitedly. The children knew Mary-Jane was very good at baking and they all looked forward to eating her snacks anytime they came around for the music coaching, even their music coach loved Mary-Jane’s cookies. They all ate and played for a while especially Harry. He kept teasing other kids and making trouble which was annoying to the other children.“Okay kids, gather around” Mr. Dan announced after the break time had elapsed. “So do as I instructed earlier.” They all picked themselves in two’s: Harry and Kelvin got to be a team. Everyone practiced the song except for Harry.“Harry, will you please pay attention here and stop playing around” Kelvin said to Harry “You can do all the singing Kelvin, I am not interested in singing any song” he replied. “If you keep playing around, I’m going to report you to the coach” Kelvin said to Harry again.“Go ahead and do just that, do I look like I care? All I want to do is leave here so I can go have some fun; it’s so boring, besides I’m tired of seeing that ugly man’s face”. “That’s not a good thing to say, and if you repeat that again, I am going to report you to Mr. Dan” “I would love to see you try, too-wise tell-tale”. Harry replied boldly.“Excuse me Mr. Dan, Harry has refused to cooperate with me and he just called me a t00-wise-tell-tale” Kelvin reported to Mr. Dan.
