• Oh, Old News!
    The day started out as any other day. Waking up to a dreary Monday morning. Then it came to me. Today was the last Monday of 1st grade. I was to graduate in 5 days! Of course only from 1st grade. Going into 2nd grade would be awesome, hectic, and of course different than 1st. But I would really, truly be out of here in 5 days. Let me explain a little... I am the lead role in The Life of Raina. My three super best friends are Jenna, Aishee, and Sabrina. I have an 11 year old sister, Sanjaana and a pair of totally cool parents.

    Jenna and I go to the same school, Wayland Scott Parker Elementary school. Or as we call it WSP. Sabrina lives next door, Aishee lives down the street, and Jenna is across the street. We are all like sisters. Love each other and always sticking together. This coming year Aishee and Sabrina were transferring to our school. We were all laughing our heads last summer when we thought of the chance of it actually happening. And now it was! Ok, enough about my friends, now about my family. My family is smart. By smart I mean hard-working, focused, and determined. Let me put it this way, we are above awesome. We are from India (although my sister and I were born here in San Francisco) and I absolutely love my culture. Bollywood dances, Hindi music, and big celebrations.

    Anyway I got out of bed all giddy and brushed my teeth and washed my face. I rushed into my parents' room and screamed, "I'm graduating in 5 days." Sanjaana rolled her eyes and said," Yeah, out of 1st grade". My mom starting going, “Oh, my little baby is growing up now". I didn't let them ruin my ecstatic mood. I changed, and then headed on down the stairs to breakfast. I had my favorite breakfast, chocolate chip bagel with salmon cream cheese. I left at 7:00 a.m. and carpooled to school with Jenna. We got to school at 7:15 and said goodbye to Jenna's mom. We walked in through the gate and were greeted by Kate, one of our good friends. After putting our backpacks by the fence we grabbed a volleyball and started hitting it around.

    "Ouch!" Kate screamed. Jenna had hit it really hard. Jenna's older sister Lexi played on the girls' middle school volleyball team at Parker. So Jenna got some practice in whenever she could. I went to chase the ball because Kate hit it on the ground
    After these remaining 5 days I would be partying with all my Indian friends on Saturday night. Aishee as I said before is one of my BFF's. But she will (in this coming year) know everything both home and school. So I'll have someone to talk to about everything. My party at home would be so fantastic. We, my cousin Aman and my friends Aishee (BFF), Deepali, and Amit, would be hanging out
    Saturday Night!!!! After everyone arrived, we decided to play Dream. It's a game where you split into to two groups. One side "dreams" about a place and then acts it out. You have to start sleeping and end sleeping. Throughout your entire DREAM each player on each team must say four words, no more, no less. And you can't say the place during your words. After the skit is over the other team guesses where you are. And if the other team get it right you each get a point. If you get it wrong, you (the people in the skit) lose a point. So the teams were Aishee, Deepali, and me against Aman and Amit. GIRLS AGAINST BOYS!

    Aman and Amit offered to go first so they did. The girls sat down and watched. Aman and Amit huddled together to decide on which place. Then they both lay down and pretended like they were sleeping. "We are in Europe," said Amit stretching his legs and arms out like he was getting up into the sun. "Everyone here speaks Spanish!" said Aman. As they acted like they were having fun in Europe we were trying to figure out a country in Europe that spoke Spanish. "Spain!" I exclaimed. Aman and Amit nodded in agreement. The game went on when finally the guys had won by one point.

    The party was fun and then since I had finished the school year, Indian public is so nice that they actually altogether bought me a gift which was good because our family had bought gifts too. At the end, Aishee went home with a graduating bracelet from me, Aman with a video game, Amit with a football- as if he didn't have enough, Deepali with another graduating bracelet from me, and I received a hard cover diary. It was leather bound.

    Day One

    WOW! Today was exciting!
    Daddy told about a map that leads to the most important thing in the world, which he saw once and told me if I brought him a piece of paper he would draw it. Here it is! --------
    He asked me if I could see something. I said no. But why is it red I had asked. It must be an important thing then, he had said to me.
    "One day, you're going to want to know about this map," he said.

    10 YEARS LATER----

    I am now 16 still have the same friends, same family, and same life. I glance at the newspaper and it says as the headline- MAP LEADS MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE. Why does that sound familiar? Suddenly a voice shakes me from fantasy. My mom asks, "Do you still want this old diary of yours?" "Of course!" I say. I take it and thank my mom and run upstairs to read it. Suddenly I recognize a map. This is the map that leads to the MITIL (MOST IMPORTANT THING IN LIFE). I read what I have written. I search for if it could say anything. Then I see it. It says BANK. I look on the web for local banks. I jot down as many as I can and call up Jenna, Sabrina, and Aishee. "Come over ASAP!" I say. "On my way," they all reply. I heat up some pizza rolls and lay out all the clues and evidence. We huddle in my room. As I tell the entire story, all three of them simultaneously start singing," We're going to be rich, rich, rich!" I reply, "Yeah, only if we figure this thing out." Then Sabrina said, "Well maybe we should ask your dad about what he was trying to tell you. Let's go you guys!"
    "Dad, what were you trying to tell me when I was little about the most important thing to know in life!!!?” I say anxiously. "Oh, that. You're going to have to figure it out on your own. I'll give you one hint. It's in a local bank." he says with a sly grin on his face. Jenna screams, "You know my aunt that makes me clip her toenails, she owns the entire line of E-banks in San Francisco!" "Great! We could see if we could sneak in to find the most important thing in life!" said Sabrina "Sneaking doesn't sound very good to me." my dad said suspiciously. Aishee said, "What we mean is we'll get permission, Mr. Bose." You can always count on Aishee to save your butt when you're about to get in trouble.
    The next day we decided to meet again in my room. Overnight, we had all looked for all the local banks in San Francisco. Jenna had gotten all the local E-banks. The rest of us got all the rest of them. “How are we going to know which bank to go to?” I say. Sabrina being the artistic one in our group said, “On the map the three colors are brown, white, and, red. Which of these banks colors match brown, white, and red?” Jenna yells, “E-banks are decorated with brown, white, and red!” “That means your aunt can get us in!” Aishee says. “Wait, how do we know which E-bank to go to?” Jenna says rethinking her previous thoughts. “It’s most likely to be in the central main bank”, I say. “Can’t the central main bank be in like Oklahoma?” Sabrina says. Then Aishee says jokingly, “I don’t think Jenna has any relatives in Oklahoma.”
    “There goes that opportunity”, says Jenna. “Wait a second, Sabrina can you pass me my laptop”, I say. I go to Google and type and click links. “Yep, just as I thought, E-bank national headquarters are in San Francisco”, I say. We all exploded into laughter so loud that my sister walks in and calls us weirdoes. We locate exactly where the bank is located and find that it’s down the street from our friend’s Kate and Ciara’s house. They’re twins. We call them up and ask if we can come over to their house next week. They say yes. We all begin planning how we are going to do this. After planning for half an hour we come up with this schedule.
    First, we have to tell our parents that we’ll be spending the night at my house but that Jenna, Aishee, and Sabrina need to be at my house at noon. Jenna has to get permission for all of us to look inside the main bank from her weird yet loving aunt (Jenna’s aunt said that it’s fine).
    Noon: All of us have some lunch and then ask my dad to drive us to Kate and Ciara’s house and to pick us up at the bank at 6:30.
    1 o’clock: We reach Kate and Ciara’s house and stay there until 3.
    3 o’clock: We leave their house and go to E-bank.
    3:30: We have received permission to enter from the head clerk and enter the bank chamber.
    3:45-6:00: We search for the prize.
    6 o’clock: We pack up and head outside to wait.
    6:30: We return home and continue our sleep-over.
    After reviewing our schedule, we all end up sleeping at my house.
    A week has passed and we are eating lunch and getting ready to go. We pile into the car and arrive at Kate and Ciara’s house. We play dream and gossip. 3 o’clock comes and we leave and head down the street to E-bank. “I’m so excited!” says Sabrina trying hard to prevent herself from jumping up and down. “Me too!” says Jenna. “You guys, we have to be really focused in the bank otherwise we won’t have enough time to find it,” I say. “She’s right,” Aishee says. “I think this it,” as we walk up to the E-bank sign, says Jenna. We walk in and we see a sign for head clerk. We head over and a very dull woman is sitting their and says, “State what you’re here for and fill up a form.” Jenna steps in front and says boldly, “I’m Heather Huckhouser’s niece and she said that we could look inside the bank, where all the money is kept.” “Oh, so you’re the little brat that I’m supposed to give a tour to,” the dull lady says. “I’m not a brat and we don’t need a tour,” says Jenna forcefully. The dull lady stands up and directs us to go towards a statue of an E. She pulls down some curtains so the statue and all four of us are covered she pushes the back of the E and all four of us fall into chutes. We land on the hard floor of the money room and the dull lady shouts from the top, “To get out just clap 5 times and yell Cowabunga.” We look at where we are and I notice an iron ladder on the side of the bank. Jenna says,” The prize probably won’t be in any safes so where do we look?” I tell them about the ladder and we decide to climb it. “Time check,” Sabrina says. Both me and Aishee respond,”3:53 p.m.” I step on the first rung of the ladder and then Sabrina, Aishee, and Jenna follow. We go very carefully and decide not to talk so our minds are focused. After we pass 41 rungs of the ladder we reach the top. We step onto a plank of metal (like a metal runway) and see something shiny at the end of the runway. “Don’t look down!” Sabrina yells. Jenna slips and nearly falls but all three of us grasp hands and form a human rope ladder. As we walk, we try to avoid falling so we walk in the middle of the runway and link hands so if one of us should slip the three of us act as anchors. We walk slowly and gently down when we can see what the shiny thing is. It’s a box that is locked with a keypad. We reach the end and stand in a line trying to get the box open. “Look the keypad has numbers on it!” says Sabrina. “Yeah, but what could the code be,” says Jenna. “What’s the zip code here?” says Aishee. “98468,” I reply. “Try that,” she says to me. I punch in 9, a green check appears above nine, 8, check, 4, check, 6, check, and we all are waiting to see if this code is right, I punch in the last number, and an X appears. “You have two chances left,” the keypad says in a robotic voice. “We were so close!” says Jenna sadly. “We can’t give up hope yet” says Sabrina. “Don’t all banks have bank numbers?” Aishee says. “What?” Jenna says. “A bank number is the bank’s number for how many safes they have,” I say. “Wouldn’t they all be the same number?” says Sabrina. “No, they vary the safe number so they can identify which bank is which,” I say. “So we have to count how many safes are in here?” says Jenna. “Yeah, I guess,” Aishee says. “No, we don’t all the safes say which number safe they are,” Sabrina says. “We just have to find the highest number,” I say. We look around and the highest number we find is 98457, which isn’t possible because the keypad already said the 4th number has to be 6. “It must be on the lower level,” says Jenna. “One of us has to go down there,” says Aishee. “I’ll do it,” I say. I walk back across the runway scared to death that I will fall. I slowly descend down the 41 rungs and I don’t look down. When I reach the 5th rung I slip and fall. I felt like my stomach had come out of my mouth and I thought I had broken something in my body. I didn’t realize that I was only on the 5th rung to the bottom and that I had fallen about 5 feet. Aishee screamed, “Are you okay?” I screamed back,” Yeah, I’m fine.” I ran over to the side where the highest number is supposed to be and search for the number that’s highest. I find 98463, 98464, 98465, 98466, 98467, and the last one that could be used 98469. I yell, “The highest number is 98469, punch that in!” Aishee punches in 9, check, 8, check, 4, check, 6, check, 9, check. “It worked!!!!” they scream. “We did it!” I scream happily. A door opens directly under the runway and I run towards it while the three of them climb down together. Inside the room we find the prize. There’s a small letter written by a
    Mrs. Rhonilanda. Here’s the letter.
    Dear Reader,
    May this letter find you in happiness! You probably want the prize. I have left two prizes one of which you are about to read and the second can be accessed with the pin number 9865. The most important thing in life is the first prize. This is the most important thing in life is what you are doing or have right now. You have teamwork, friendship, family, and love from the people around you. This is the most important thing in life.
    Goodbye Reader,
    Mrs. Rhonilanda
    And she was right. We all agree that is the most important thing in life. Yes, we did access the money using the pin number 9865. We received a total of 1,000 dollars. What we are going to do with the money we still don’t know. But what we do know is what you know.