Vinnie had a rough month. He was very nervous that he would be caught. He kept reminding himself to keep cool and this would all blow over but still, when the coach or the detectives asked him questions, he could feel his heart pounding.
The one he most feared was his grandma but he felt relieved when all his grandma said was, "Be more careful next time. You left quite a mess there." Vinnie tried to ask his grandma more questions about the medallion but she didn't want to talk. "A girl has to have some secrets you know."
Then classes resumed and Vinnie had a new problem. The new athletic equipment attacked him. He wound up going to the emergency room a few times but the athletic equipment learned that they could punish him more if they didn't send him to the hospital. So when he dribbled that certain basketball it would bounce too high and hit him in the face. When he'd dive off the diving board, it would cause him to do a belly flop in the pool. When he was near the new towel it would somehow swat him. When he sat in the new whirlpool it would be nearly boiling hot. When he walked by the new locker, it would open quickly and hit him but only if it wasn't locked. Most people were too superstitious to use that locker so Vinnie learned to walk a different way from his locker to the door. But then there was that one lock that would not open for Vinnie but would open for anyone else even if they didn't have the key.
He asked his grandma what to do and all she said was, "I told you to be more careful. You'll just have to take your lumps for a while until we can figure out something that won't look suspicious."
So Vinnie became extra careful during PE. The worst problem though wasn't the pain. The worst problem was that now Vinnie had become a laughingstock. It seemed to everyone that Vinnie had become super clumsy lately. After all, basketball don't normally hit athletes in the face.