Rich: A Dyamonde Daniel Book

1. Rich
Dyamonde and Free stood in front of a store window.
“I hate being poor,” said Free. “Ever since my dad lost his job, all my mom seems to say is ‘We can’t afford this, we can’t afford that.'”
Dyamonde Daniel would not trade Free for anything. He was her best friend, wasn’t he? But that boy had a lot to learn.
“First off,” said Dyamonde, “I’ve seen you buy lots of things. And second, you are not poor.”
“Then how come I can’t buy that new video game?”
“My mom says everybody wants something they can’t have,” said Dyamonde. “That don’t–doesn’t make you poor.”
“Well, what do you call it, then?”
“Not having money right now,” said Dyamonde.
“Same thing,” grumbled Free.
“No, it isn’t,” said Dyamonde. “Poor is .” Dyamonde thought for a moment. “Poor is having no clothes, and no food, and no place to live, and nobody who cares.”
“I guess,” said Free. “But I still wish I could get that new video game.”
“Well then,” said Dyamonde, “you’d better get to school so you can graduate, so you can get a job, so you can buy your own video game.”
“Forget it, then,” said Free.
Dyamonde play-punched him in the arm.
“You call that a punch? You punch like a girl,” said Free.
Dyamonde pulled her arm back and punched him for real this time.
“Ouch! I was just kidding!” “Come on, then,” said Dyamonde. “And hurry. Mrs. Cordell said she’d have a surprise for us today.”

2. Surprise
“Attention, class!” said Mrs. Cordell. “I have an announcement.”
Great! thought Dyamonde.
Here it comes!
“First, how many of you like contests?”
Everybody’s hand went up except for Dyamonde’s. She wanted to wait and see what this was all about first.
“Well, the local library is sponsoring a poetry contest!” said Mrs. Cordell.
Tameeka groaned. So did Charlie. But then, Charlie groaned about everything.
Mrs. Cordell ignored groaning.
the
“The top three poems will be published on the Kids’ Page of the Sunday newspaper.”
“Oooh!” said one kid.
“I could be famous!” said a second kid.