Hello! My name is Isabella and there are four of us in my family.

On Sunday, the weather was a bit sunny with a bit of wind.

The temperature was thirteen degrees centigrade.

So, I went out to play basketball with my sister.

We talked about school, friends, and places we want to visit.

It was a great morning!

When my sister and I got back home, my family decided to go to the mall to buy school supplies for me before Monday because the weather was perfect.

In the mall, I saw a stationery store and went inside.

I found a purple pencil that I love.

I asked my mother to buy it for me, but she said it was too expensive!

I felt very sad when we left the store with my family.

I went to sleep thinking about how beautiful the pencil was and how I couldn’t have bought it.

Then, on my first day of school, I ran into my friend Mirabel and decided to tell her about the beautiful pencil I found in the store.

Mirabel also likes the purple pencil and she suggested that we do everything our parents ask us to do for a dollar until we have enough money to buy the pencil we both want.

We need to save five dollars to buy the purple pencil.

One day mom and I went to visit Mirabel’s house.

Maribel: – Look, Isabella! I bought the purple pencil!

I looked at her surprised and said:

– Mirabel! How did you buy the purple pencil so fast!?

Mirabel: – I worked hard to buy the pencil, Isabella.

I could see that Mirabel was very happy, but I was jealous because I wanted the purple pencil without waiting until I had enough money to buy my own purple pencil.

Then, I couldn’t wait any longer.

I decided to steal Mirabel’s purple pencil while she was talking to another friend.

I took the purple pencil and lied to mom saying that I felt sick and wanted to go home.

Back home I took out the purple pencil and used it to do my homework.

I was very happy and concentrated on doing my homework with my purple pencil while listening to music on my phone!

Suddenly, my mom came into my room with apples and a glass of water for me.

My mom asked me:

– Isabella, when did you buy the purple pencil? Tell me the truth.

I replied to her:

– I stole Mirabel’s purple pencil – I said ashamed.

My mom replied angrily:

– Let’s go immediately to Mirabel’s house to return that pencil!

When we got to Mirabel’s house she was very sad because she couldn’t find her new purple pencil.

Mirabel worked hard to buy the purple pencil and didn’t know that I took it without asking.

Isabella: – I’m sorry, Mirabel! I took your pencil. I will never steal from you again. You forgive me? – I asked.

Maribel: – Of course, Isabella!

We hugged like good friends do and I learned not to steal again because some people are not forgiving like Mirabel.

Moral: Don’t steal from people. Fight honestly for what you want.

Media Attribution

• Illustrations by Chloe Chan Sin Yee