"The Crooks" A Story By: ThePianoThursdays®

There was nothing but silence. Everyone at the funeral was sitting there quietly, waiting for what seemed like ages. Josh was with his parents, as well as his grand parents. He had never wanted things to go this way. His friend Ray was looking straight at him from across the bleachers. Josh frowned at him, when Ray waved at him. Ray wanted to cheer him up about the funeral. Josh shook his head, he doesn't like people who act like they are funny in the middle of a funeral, especially when it was his. Josh is very serious. He get good grades in basically every subject in school. As for his friend Ray, He sometimes get A's, and sometimes flunk his tests and fails his courses. His parents were always grounding him whenever he does that, which means an automatic trip to summer school. Josh always tries to think of ways to improve his best friends' grades, but sometimes he's just wasting his time. Ray is very abnormal. He wishes he could be better like everyone else. Many people at school thinks Ray is a lunatic. A retarded person, they say. Ray often locks himself in the janitor's closet, cries until Josh comes to comfort him, and walk home together. In fact, they are brothers, maybe even twins sometimes. But right now, he's at a funeral that he has caused. A funeral that he had to explain once he gets home. The judge opened the book and looked around until he spotted Josh, sitting at the very right of the first row of bleachers. He glared right in to his eyes, hoping that it would melt away. Josh looked away and turned around to look at Ray, but he wasn't anywhere. He searched for him a second time, he wasn't in the funeral. He had left.

Short Story Questions Section 1:

1. Who's funeral do you think it is that bothered Josh so much?


2. Do you think Josh is really trying to improve Ray's grades in school?


3. Why do you think Ray locks himself in the Janitor's closet and cries, instead of standing up for himself?


4. Can you relate to either Josh or Ray in the story?


5. Do you think it's really fair for Ray to leave in the middle of Josh's funeral? Why or why not?