The Littlest Plant

My father and step mother used to take evening walks in the shopping mall to get exercise. I lived with them during my sophomore year in high school, and would occasionally join them on their walks. During these excursions, I would mostly window shop because most of the stores had already closed. One day, I noticed a stand selling balloons, plants, and party type trinkets. As I browsed the stand, I noticed a tiny twig of a plant. It was in a brown adobe pot and could not have been more than five inches tall. The plant didn't have any flowers on it, only a few big leaves. I thought about the tiny plant all night long and the next day. I made a point to go to the mall the following day with my father and step mother just to see the plant. This time I checked out the price; it was only five dollars. That night I devised a plan to earn the five dollars to buy the plant. The next day at school, I put the plan into action. Instead of using my lunch ticket to get lunch, I stood at the back of the lunch line and sold my lunch ticket for the day to a kid that did not already have a ticket. I even gave him a deal, selling my ticket to him for seventy-five cents instead of the one dollar it was worth. I did this for three weeks. It took me so long because it was not as easy as I had thought to skip lunch. Some days I was starving and was forced to spend fifty cents on a bag of chips or a soda. That would still leave me one quarter which made me feel that all my effort was well worth it. The day came when I could finally buy the plant....to be continued