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Chapter 1: The Classroom

“Please sit down and focus on the upcoming 

lesson” screams Mrs. Smith, the 6th grade 

teacher at Thomas Jefferson Middle School. 

Towards the middle of the day, tensions begin 

to grow as math class quickly approaches. 

Mary, the straight A student, cannot help but 

to look away from the board and back at the 

commotion that the students in her class are 

causing. Immediately, Mary’s eyes widen 

through her wide framed classes as she looks 

through them observantly in order to find out 

who is causing trouble and why they might be 

doing so.After she observes, Mary reacts. 

On one side of the classroom, Zack tries to use 

his athletic gifts to get the popular girl 

Jessica’s attention by throwing crumbled up 

paper balls into the trash can. Although Zack 

shows her that he is talented, Jessica still 

seeks the attention of all the other students in 

the class. She feels like the attention that she 

receives from Zack is not enough.

As Zack continues to make shot after shot, 

Brian the bully of the class makes fun of 

Jimmy’s weight. Trying to hide his sadness, 

Jimmy makes a joke out of the situation by 

screaming about how Jessica will not “like” 

Zack no matter how many shots he makes. 

The dynamic of the class is thrown off simply 

due to the fact that the students do not 

recognize the good in themselves and each 

other. Each student does not look to establish 

friendships and express their true selves as 

much as they should.

Once she understands the situations that are 

the reason for the chaos, Mary calmly turns 

around as she tells her fellow classmates to 

“calm down and listen to Mrs. Smith, because I 

want to listen and learn, and I can’t 

understand over all the ruckus!” No one 

listens, but Mary does not give up. Through a 

few more pleas to be quiet, Mary convinces 

each of the students to sit down and listen. 

Mrs. Smith grows aggravated that they would 

only listen to Mary and not her when she told 

them to sit down, and she decides that she 

needs to give all of them detention.

The four students begin to sulk that they could 

not participate in recess, but Mary begins to 

smile as Mrs. Smith calls her up to her desk to 

give her a piece of chocolate. Mary adds these 

pieces to the 20 or so others that she keeps in 

her desk. All of the other pieces she 

accumulated throughout the week for 

something positive that she did for the class, 

and it is only Wednesday!

Chapter 2: Detention

“Ring, Ring!” As the bell sounds, most of the 

students rush outside for recess, but Zack, 

Jessica, Brian, and Jimmy have to stay inside 

the classroom so that they can sit and think 

about the problems that they made.

During detention, each one of the students 

begin to complain about how it is the other 

person’s fault. Fingers are pointed, and Jessica 

becomes furious at Zack because he denies 

that he did anything wrong. She goes to sit by 

herself in the corner, while Zack angrily 

screams at Brian and Jimmy, who continue to 

bicker. Zack exclaims “Brian, give him a 

break!”, and “Jimmy this is no time to joke!”

Both Brian and Jimmy quiet down as they go 

over to sit next to Zack. They listen to him and 

quiet down because they respect his athletic 

ability. The rest of detention goes by fast as 

Jessica sits in the corner and fixes her hair, 

while the boys sit together and talk about the 

good and the bad of Thomas Jefferson Middle 

School. The commotion and tension calms 

down until Mary and the other students return 

to the classroom. 

Chapter 3: Missing

Ahhhhh!!!!” screams Mary. The students cannot 

believe their eyes as Mary points out that their 

class pet, Raphael the Turtle, is missing. Most 

of her classmates begin to tear up as she 

attempts to console them by affirming that 

everything will be ok and that he will be found. 

The students all thank Mary for her positive 

attitude.

Mrs. Smith begins what she calls “search time” 

as she looks around the classroom with the 

help of all of her students. After around 45 

minutes of searching, Mrs. Smith and the 

students feel hopeless, and Mrs. Smith decides 

to call the students that were in her classroom 

during recess into the hallway to talk.  

“Wheres Raphael?” asks Mrs. Smith.

“We don’t know!”yell the children.

“If you don’t tell me now, and I find out who 

did it then I’m going to be more mad!”

“We didn’t do it!”

“Fine. We will see. Now go back into the 

classroom and send out Mary to talk to me.”

Mary enters the hallway and Mrs. Smith smiles 

at her as she shows her a bag of chocolates 

that she pulls out of her purse.

“Whats that for Mrs Smith?”

“Mary, Raphael the turtle means so much to 

our class, and I think that somebody in 

detention is the reason that he’s missing”

“I can help! Whatever you need me to do Mrs. 

Smith, I love to solve problems and make the 

best out of all situations.”

“Well, I think the students are afraid to tell me 

if anything happened because they know that 

they will get in trouble, and I know that 

everyone in the class likes you so can you 

please try to talk to them and find out what 

happened?”

“Of course, especially if more chocolates 

involved!”

Chapter 4: Solving the Problem

Mary sits down at the water table and begins 

to rush her hand through the clear water. Mary 

has every intention of easing each one of her 

classmates into the situation, and then asking 

them individually what happened during 

detention. Her first suspect is Brian because 

Mary knows that Brian has a reputation for 

being a bully, and she is curious about whether 

this is another one his mean acts. 

“Hey Brian”

“What Mary? I know you might think it’s me, 

but it’s not”

“How do you know that I called you over here 

to talk about Raphael?”

“Because everyone thinks its me-”

“So prove that it wasn’t.”

“Well, I certainly wouldn’t do anything to 

Raphael, I’m not that mean.”

“Prove it.”

“Mary, I know that you have every reason to 

think that it might be me, and I know that I’m 

a bully sometimes, but understand why I am 

mean to kids. I sometimes don’t know how to 

express my emotions and when I’m angry or 

mad or sad then I show it through my actions 

and sometimes I don’t show it correctly.”

“So you act without thinking?”

“Yeah.”

“Thanks Brian for sharing that, you can go.”

Mary analyzes the information she receives, 

and then she calls over the next suspect that 

she thinks could have most likely committed 

the crime. She believes that it could be Jimmy. 

Jimmy always wants to make people laugh, 

and she thinks that Jimmy might have thought 

it would have been a funny prank to play on all 

of his classmates.

“Jimmy, I want to make the class laugh- do 

you have any ideas for a good prank?” asks 

Mary.

“Well, I certainly wouldn’t do anything to 

Raphael!” Jimmy exclaims to try to get a laugh 

out of Mary.

“So you weren’t involved with wherever 

Raphael is?”

“No.”

“Honestly Jimmy? This isn’t a joke.”

“Honestly, I just want to fit in, and I know that 

if everyone found out that I am the reason 

that Raphael went missing then I wouldn’t 

have friends, and I would be made fun of for 

my weight.”

“You fit in fine. People like you for you; they 

don’t care about your weight.”

“Thanks Mary, you make me feel better about 

not having to go out of my way to fit in.”

“No problem Jim, see ya later!”

The next person that Mary wants to talk to is 

Zack. Zack is an unlikely suspect, and he 

usually is never in detention. Rather, he is 

always outside playing sports and having a 

good time with his classmates. 

“Zack, can you come here? I want to see if you 

could push all the water to one side of the 

table with your strength!”

“Sure Mary, of course I can!” 

As Zack attempts to push the water all to one 

side, she recognizes that he is struggling 

because it is an almost impossible tasks. Mary 

knows that there is no way that the water can 

all go to one side unless the table is tipped, 

but Zack believes he can do anything. He 

grows frustrated with his failures and stops to 

talk to Mary as she says:

“I believe you can do almost anything, but I 

hope that you wouldn’t do anything wrong.”

“I certainly wouldn’t do anything to Raphael.”

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