This short story is completely original to me, and not from the book, so don’t try to judge the book by this.
“Hey Demi, how’re you doing?” Nat asked, on his way back from math lessons with Mr. Bhaer.
“Oh, hey Nat, I was just getting some books.” Demi was looking awfully proud of himself.” I got them from Jack.”
“Jack? Jack Ford? Jack Ford who overprices everything?”
“Well, yes, but he didn’t overprice these, they were quite cheap, since he knew I had been missing mine.”
“Missing yours? How do you mean?” this was sounding worse and worse the more Nathaniel listened.
“Well some of my favorite books went missing earlier, I think I lost them going to the tree house,” Demi had built a tree house with Tommy a while ago. “and so when I went looking for them I met Jack who said that he had some of the same books, and that he’d let them go for a ‘steal’ he laughed when he said that, but I don’t know why.”
Demi looked thoughtful here, but it didn’t last. Nat had a horrible feeling in his gut. Jack had always been overpriced and squeezed as much from a deal as he could, but he would never steal, and certainly not from innocent Demi, would he?
The days went by and Nat didn’t see anything from Jack, but one day he saw Demi searching for something.
“Hi Demi, you all right?”
“Yeah, but I seem to have misplaced my books again.” he said this with a worried face. “I don’t know where else to look. I guess I’ll have to get a new one if it doesn’t turn up again.”
“You haven’t talked to Jack again, have you?”
“Funny you should ask, he was just in here and said that he had some more if I wanted to get them. I guess I should, since I can’t find them.”
“No, Demi, I think he’s, um, taking your books, and selling them back to you.” Nat managed to get the accusation out.
“What? Why would he do that?”
“To turn a profit, you know that matters to him, you need to tell Mrs. Bhaer.”
“But he wouldn’t! He’s not mean, he just… uh…”
“Please Demi! Talk to Mrs. Bhaer!”
“Alright, alright I’ll say something!” Nat watched as Demi went down the hall to see Mrs. Bhaer. He knew that other kids might call him a telltale, or a tattletale, but he also knew that stealing was horrible, and so he only found a shred of remorse when Jack came to dinner with slightly red eyes.
School Essays 