I put on my shirt and jeans, getting pumped for the first day of the third grade. I walked down the stairs and sat down at the table. My mom made my favorite for the first day: peanut butter pancakes and fried eggs. After I finished eating, I walked onto the bus. I went to the first seat I could find. I saw something green on the floor. Curiously, I bent over and picked it up. It looked like a crumpled up piece of paper. After further investigation, I discovered that it was a dollar! I looked around to make sure nobody had seen me pick it up. I didn't really have my own money, just a piggy bank with some coins. I stuffed the money into my pocket. When I got to school, I didn't tell any of my friends about what I had found. When I got home, I decided not to tell my mom, dad or little brother about the dollar either.
***

The next morning, I was looking at the dollar, wondering where to put it. I decided it should go under my bed, I just hoped my mom wouldn't vacuum today. After I had my breakfast (Not as good as yesterday's), I hopped on the bus, for my second day of school. I sat down in the same seat as yesterday, just because I had pretty good luck with this seat yesterday. I looked around the seat, probably looking silly. I was a little disappointed when I discovered there wasn't a dollar by the seat this time. When the bus arrived at school, I stood up. Something caught my eye on the seat, it was another dollar! I was sitting on it! I couldn't believe it, I needed to tell someone, although, I was nervous if I told someone; they would do something to make this fortune stop coming in! I almost died from holding in the secret when my friend said "Don't you think we should get paid for going to school, like adults get paid for going to work?" I just nodded and ran away, before I let out anything I would regret. That day, when I got home from school, I decided I needed somewhere to keep my new-found stash. I looked through my closet and saw a shoe-box, empty. I stuffed the two dollar bills in there.
***

That night, I sat up on my bed, thinking. "My own money, what could I do with this? If I found one dollar every day, how many would that be this school year? What should I buy first?" I thought. I got so excited that I walked into my five-year-old brother's room and woke him up. "Charlie, I need to tell you something!" He looked at me like I was insane. "Every day at school, I have been finding dollars!" Charlie looked at me, eyes open wide. "What should I do?" Charlie shrugged, barely awake. I sighed and left him to sleep. I almost knocked my mom over when I was running back to my room. "What is the meaning of all this commotion, Steven?!" When my mom called me Steven, she was mad. "Sorry ma', I needed to tell Charlie something." She stared at me, it seemed like everyone was doing that today. She demanded I tell her what this important secret was. I stood there helplessly. She raised an eyebrow. "I've been finding dollars on the bus, every day since the first day." She smiled at me, as if she didn't believe me. "Let me see these dollars you claim to be finding." I walked her into my room, a little irritated that she didn't believe me. I showed her the shoe-box, with the two dollars in it. At first, she smiled, and then started laughing loudly. "Honey, these aren't dollars! One of these is a map of your school, printed on green paper! The other is a list of your teachers; everyone on the bus gets those." I stood there in disbelief. I was so embarrassed that I didn't even know what a dollar really looked like. Even more so, I was discouraged, I thought I really could get paid for going to school! That night I thought to myself, "If only I got paid for going to school, I certainly would work harder..."