The+Final+Race,+by+Ellise

The wild crowd cheered! The boy suddenly fell to the hot ground. A circle formed around the boy. It was the hottest day of the year. What a terrible day to run a track meet. Jack watched a tired nurse carefully scoop up the boy into her arms, and carry him off the track, and set him in the cool shade. Jack decided to go to the locker room to cool down, before his next heat, which was in ten minutes. He was racing against some of the fastest boys in seventh grade. He was nervous, but didn’t know why. If only he could run faster than the rest of them. Jack sat there for about five minutes thinking about a strategy. Then, he heard his heat being called, loud and clear, on the intercom. He stood up tiredly. Suddenly, he heard a big bang behind him. He slowly turned around. There on the ground was a new pair of red shoes. He slowly picked them up and noticed that they felt as light as a feather. He quickly sat down and took off his old dirty running shoes, and replaced them with the new red shoes. He threw his old shoes under a small bench, and took off running toward the track. He felt energized. When he got to the track, he found his lane, and stood there in the boiling sun. As soon as, all the runners arrived, the Starter said, “Runners take your place.” Jack knelt down on the hot ground, which burned his hands. He put one leg forward and the other one back. He raised his head. For a few seconds, the sun’s glare blurred his vision. In the distance, he could see heat waves rising from the track. Bang! Jack stumbled and took off running. All the runners were in front of him. He looked down at his shoes and saw a yellow glow. Suddenly, he felt a boost of speed. As he rounded the corner of the track, he realized he was quickly catching up to the pack of runners. Before he knew it, he passed everyone. Jack couldn’t believe it! He won! After all the cheers from the crowd stopped, Jack returned to the locker room. Once inside, the cool air felt good on his body. He sat down on the bench and untied the shoes. Jack knew that he couldn’t wear the red shoes in the final race. If he was going to win the race, he would have to win it on his own, with no help with from the magical shoes. He pulled off them off and set them down. He picked up his old dirty shoes and headed to the track for the final race.