Spotlight: Joe Lieker's New Bed
By Curry H., Blue Team

“I have five sisters. Yes, you heard right, five. As in, five sisters… five girls…five girls who are my sisters actually live in my family…with me!”

This is the story of Joe Lieker. Joe is a kid who lives in California with his mom, dad, and five sisters. The sisters' names are Katey, June, Helen, Erica and Jane. Joe's dad, Mr. Lieker is moving his family to Darien , Connecticut because Mr. Lieker got a new job in New York City . Right before the actual moving day, Kyle, Joe's best friend, came over to Joe's house to say goodbye.

“Well Joe, I guess this is it,” said Kyle, scratching his head and shuffling his feet because good byes made Kyle nervous. “But, before you go, I wanted you to have this.” Kyle opened up his palm and in the middle of his palm was a shiny new Edward's Root beer bottle cap. The logo was black and silver with zig-zag slashes all around the gold Edward's Root Beer label.

“Wow, Kyle,” said Joe. “I've never seen this logo before. Is Edward's Root Beer finally kicking it up a notch to the future?”

“Well, yeah, these caps haven't even been on the market yet! You're like the first person to see it and to get one!”

“Thanks, Kyle,” said Joe. “This is really cool!”

It's always sad when someone has to move away, especially when it's your best friend who is doing the moving away. Kyle knew that Joe will be moving away and won't be coming back. Joe knew that it would be hard to keep in touch with Kyle from so far away. But, one thing they both remember is the root beer, the Edward's root beer and the birthday party; they both were turning four and they discovered they both loved root beer. It wasn't just a like, it was love. So, since both boys were four years old, they have been drinking root beer, riding trikes and drinking root beer, doing homework and drinking root beer, playing football and drinking root beer.

Joe said, “Hey Kyle, let's hit the park one more time, and stop off for a root beer, just like the good old days.” After two hours of playing ball and drinking root beer, Joe knew he had to get back home. All his stuff would be packed by now into the van. They walked home in silence. Joe had the new bottle cap. The boys shook hands and then Kyle went home.

Joe walked slowly back to the house. The van was packed. He walked through the old house. Six bedrooms and he could name each sister that had each room. Then he came to his old room that he shared with his younger sister. It was a big room and his bed had been way over in the corner. Her part was pink with ballerinas everywhere. His part was, well, hardly anything that made it his part. His mom said he had the messy part. Joe never really felt like it was his room. He never really felt like it was his bedroom at all. It was his sister's room. He just slept there.

When the van pulled up to the new house in Connecticut , Joe was the first one inside. He wanted to beat his sisters into the house so he could have first pick of bedrooms. In the old house, since space was tight, Joe shared his bedroom with his younger sister. It was a big room and his bed was far over in the corner from hers. But, it was still not his own room. His mom had promised in his new house, he'd have his own room. In this house there was plenty of room's. Two of his sisters were not moving with the family since they were in college in California . The two girls were going to live together in California . So, Joe was down to three sisters. “Wow,” Joe thought. “Three sisters; I wonder what that's going to be like?”

Joe ran up the stairs of the new house and opened the first door he saw. “Ok,” he thought. This is a nice room. Then he opened the second door a little further down the hall. “Nice.” Then, he moved to the third door. “Looks good.” Then, he opened the door and saw it. The room. It had a bed. Joe thought “What a great bed!” It wasn't like his bed at the old house. It was big and had a big mattress on it and it was right in the middle of the room. The mattress didn't even look like it had been slept on ever. It was puffy, like a big pillow.

Joe's mom said, “Ok, Joe, this is your room.” The room was already painted blue, so that was a good color. Joe organized his stuff, put all of his books on the book shelves on the walls and put his favorite shiny root beer cap on his dresser.

The first night sleeping in his new room, Joe was very comfortable. He slept really well and the dreaming was so good on the new mattress. Good dreams. Nice stories that all took place behind his eyes as he slept in his new room. Some of them, Joe remembered. Some he didn't. But Joe knew that the dreams were different and special. These dreams were filled with adventures.

He dreamed about the Mississippi River . “That's weird,” Joe thought. “I never dreamed about the Mississippi River before!” Joe just knew that this was his room and his bed, a special room with a special bed, and no ballerinas in sight! The days and weeks rolled on. He dreamed and dreamed. Some days, he wrote the dreams down. Some of the stories he dreamed, he typed up and handed in for English homework!

“Yep,” Joe thought. “This is a very special bed!” It's almost like some famous writer is helping me dream. At his new school, Joe made some new friends. None like Kyle, but it was ok. He looked at his bottle cap everyday.

One day, Joe was walking home from school and he bumped into a older man with a straw hat on and sunglasses. “Excuse me”, Joe said.

The man didn't answer at first. Then he asked Joe, “do you live in that old house over there?”

Joe paused, “Um, well, um…yeah”.

“Well,” said the man, and he walked away.

“That's funny” Joe said to himself. “I wonder what he was talking about?”

The next day, Joe was walking home from school and he was thinking about Kyle. He looked up and saw a big billboard way up high on a really tall building. The logo was gold, black and silver. He noticed the zig -zag lines all around the outside. The logo seemed familiar. “Wait a second” Joe said to himself. “That logo, it's my root beer logo!” “Well, Edward's Root Beer.”

That night, Kyle called.

Edward's Root Beer was moving its corporate headquarters to Connecticut . Kyle's dad was the President of Edward's Root Beer. Kyle was moving to Connecticut !

That night, Joe slept really great. He had dreams of playing ball with Kyle again, and drinking root beer.

One night when Joe was getting ready for bed, he saw a sheet of paper sticking out from under his mattress. He pulled it out. It had writing on it. He glanced over the writing, but his eyes focused on the bottom signature, Mark Twain it said.