Ryan was looking forward to sleeping over at his friend Robert's house. Though they had been classmates for a while, the two had only recently become good friends. Ryan packed up his sleeping bag, a pillow, and a few of his favorite toys and games, and then his mom dropped him off at Robert's. Robert met Ryan on the porch and the two did their secret handshake and started playing right away. First they played pirates in Robert's tree fort. Next they played ninjas in the driveway. Then it started getting dark and they went inside of Robert's house. As soon as they walked in the house, Ryan's eyes starting getting red and itchy. He saw a big orange cat sitting on the couch. Then he started sneezing uncontrollably. "I'm sorry, Robert. It's been a lot of fun, but I have to call my mom."

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"William, don't forget your towel!" Mom shouted as she applied sunblock on the baby. William threw the folding chairs in the back of the minivan and shouted through the garage door, "OK Mom!" He then ran up and grabbed his towel. "Georgie!" William shouted. There was no response. Mom packed the baby up into the car seat. "William, can you help me with his umbrella?" William ran down the stairs, almost tripping over a chew toy, and then he helped his mother load the large umbrella in the minivan. "Mom, I can't find Georgie," William said. His mother shrugged and replied, "That's OK, William. He probably shouldn't come with us anyway."

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Tony walked out of the shopping mall with his arms full of bags and the sun shining on him. As he approached his car, he started awkwardly feeling around his pockets with his arm full of bags. He did not find what he was looking for so he transferred the bags on one arm to the other arm, which already had bags. Tony had a lot of bags on one arm. He still couldn't find what he was looking for. Now he dropped the bags and plunged both hands desperately into all of the pockets on his jeans. With a look of despair, Tony ran to his car. He tried to open the door, but it was locked. Then he saw something on the passenger seat of the car. He stopped looking and pulled his phone out of his pocket.

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Mr. Ericson was a manager at a small insurance company in Minnesota. One cold winter day, April McKenzie, one of his employees, approached him about some time off from work. "This job is very important to me, Mr. Ericson, but I've been called into jury duty. When my government asks for my help, I have to answer the call." Mr. Ericson rubbed his forehead. "We really need you here, April, but the government needs you more. Take the time. We'll be alright." Mr. Ericson had thought that they needed her there at the office, but they managed fine without her. When April returned a week later, Mr. Ericson noticed that most of her skin was bright shade of red except for around her eyes. Pale white circles ran from the top of her eyebrows to the bottom of her cheeks. These pale circles were surrounded by sunburned flesh. That's when Mr. Ericson knew. "April, step into my office. There are some things we need to discuss," Mr. Ericson said ominously.

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"I'm home!" Earl shouted as he walked in the door. His wife Gail came bounding down the stairs. She hadn't seen him since he had left to go on his silly fishing trip two weeks ago. "I missed you, Husband. Did you catch anything?" Gail reluctantly asked, knowing that Earl was not a very good fisherman. Earl scratched his head and responded, "You're not going to believe what I'm bringing home." Earl unzipped a cooler and pulled out several perfectly filleted salmon steaks. "Wow, Earl, I didn't know that you could fillet a fish like that." Earl looked around the room a little bit and scratched his head, "Uh, yeah, Jeff taught me how." Gail looked at him suspiciously. "Well, let me help you unpack." As Gail was helping Earl unpack his truck, she found a receipt from the grocery store. It was dated from that morning. What she saw was both disappointing and unsurprising.

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"Gus, I need to see you in my office," said Mr. Matthews. Gus nervously shut the door to Mr. Matthews' office behind him and took a seat. Mr. Matthews' office was so high up that Gus had to angle his chair awkwardly so that he couldn't see out of the window. Mr. Matthews pointed his finger at Gus and began talking, "You have been fitting in great over here, and that's one of the most important things you can do in this company." Gus let out a sigh of relief. Mr. Matthews continued speaking. "Gus, I want to invite you on a company trip. We will be taking a private jet to Colorado." Gus's eyes widened and his heart began thumping rapidly. "Wow, Mr. Matthews! I don't know what to say," Gus replied honestly. Mr. Matthews continued, "Then we will be climbing up a mountain to a private cabin." Gus loosened his tie a bit a gulped. He was hoping that it would be over but Mr. Matthews continued, "After completing some team building activities, we will take a hot air balloon ride over the mountains!" Gus's heart was now pounding so hard that he was worried that Mr. Matthews might see it thumping through his shirt. He was sweating excessively. Mr. Matthews slapped him on the shoulder, "So what do you say Gus?" Gus did not know what to say.

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Miya came out of the bathroom with tears in her eyes. She ran down to the cafeteria and asked the staff if they had any rice. Fortunately for Miya, Ms. Lucille did. Ms. Lucille filled a red plastic cup about halfway with white rice grains and handed it to Miya. Miya pulled a damp phone from out of her back pocket and pushed it into the dry rice grains inside of the plastic cup. She sincerely thanked Ms. Lucille and then went back to class. She felt relieved, but she was still a little worried.

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Shawn sat in his seat as the morning bell rang and released a big yawn. He rubbed his eyes and could feel how baggy they were. He stretched as the teacher went to the front of the class and began talking, "Good morning, students! I'll take attendance while you start working on that test that I promised you." The class let out a collective groan, but Shawn's eyes widened. He began rummaging through his backpack and pulled out a crumpled notebook with part of the cover torn off it. He frantically rifled through the pages, many of which were filled with just a few words or doodles. The teacher looked directly at Shawn as he said, "OK, class, put your notes away and clear off your desks. It's test time." Shawn began looking around the room frantically. He saw Cassie sitting next to him. Shawn whispered, "Psst . . . Cassie." She turned to him with a scowl. His eyes pleaded with hers. "Not gonna happen, Shawn," Cassie said loudly. This startled Shawn and he jumped in his seat. The teacher looked at Shawn again, "No more talking in class."

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Screech! Karen stomped on the gas pedal the moment the light turned green. She looked over her left shoulder and zigged past a semi-truck. She zoomed ahead and looked over her right shoulder and then zagged past a motorbike. She glanced at the clock on the console and darted into the parking lot. Whipping into a parking spot, she grabbed her suitcase and ran through the lot, up the escalator, and into the terminal. Her heavy suitcase was bumping and bouncing the whole way. Just as she entered the terminal, she heard an announcement over the loudspeaker, "Final boarding call for flight 205 to JFK . . ." Karen looked at her ticket and then at the line to get through the security checkpoint, which wrapped around several turnstiles and slithered like a lethargic snake. Karen sighed and then slowly walked to the customer service desk.

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