Recently I had an incredible visit to the British International School of New York. While I was there, we did a writing workshop and I would like to share one of the stories with you. It was written by Owen O’Toole who is ten years old and has written his very own Jamie Johnson story.
Well done, Owen. Great job!
Jamie peered over the private property fence. The coast was clear. He leapt over the
fence and sprinted down the soft, wet grass. Gliding the ball along his cleat which he’d taken
from his mom, he immediately searched out Drake his arch-nemesis and bully. His eyes lit up
like sparks when he saw how poorly he was shooting. All of his shots were going wide right. For
the next ten minutes Jamie stuck to him like glue, defending him on one side of the field and
scoring beautiful goals on the other.
Every time he scored Jamie got in Drake’s face and yelled
“That’s how you do it in America! Take that!”
On the big 5 v 5 games, where how you played either landed you on the team or got you rejected, Jamie started and finished strong.On his highlight play, he flew across the field and slammed the ball like a wind-up toy that had just beenreleased. The ball, soaring through the air, began to curve at the very last second, making its’s way into the upper 90. There was nothing else to it- it was a beautiful goal!
After the game, Jamie jogged up to the scouts and asked “ Well, how did I do?” One of the scouts looked him in the eye and said,
“The results will come by email. We know where to place you.” Jamie ran off to get to his mom’s computer to get the results before she came home.
Jamie walked into the deli thinking about the game. “What if they didn’t see my goals or thought Drake played better than me,” he wondered. While at the deli, Jamie bought a bagel and ran to the TV. That TV was always playing soccer. It was Arsenal-Manchester United. When he saw Wayne Rooney play he felt strong, strong but nauseous from the nerves. After hogging
the television for quite a while, something caught his eye. After the game, all of them shook hands. Mike had said soccer was a tribal game. Jamie suddenly realized he’d done something wrong.
Why should he try to embarrass Drake in soccer? Maybe the scouts didn’t know how good he was. Jamie was going to stop being mean to Drake even if he was mean to him. He ran home repeating “I will not single out Drake,” in his mind.
Once Jamie was home, he flopped down on his bed, his mind swirling. He got out his mom’s computer. Once he logged on he waited for the familiar sound of an Email. He really wished Drake got a spot. His thoughts were disturbed by the bloop of an Email. He knew what had come. He clicked on the link and read the Email it said,
He looked back at his inbox. There were more than five Emails from Drake, all with the subject of ‘You American Twit!!!’ Jamie rolled his eyes, put the laptop away, sighed and flopped on his bed. Five minutes ago he wanted to be friends with Drake, now he wasn’t so sure.