Writer's Block Ms. Jackson wanted to challenge her language arts class with a story-writing contest being held in their city. The winner would get their photo in the newspaper, shake hands with the mayor, and receive $1000 in prize money. Ms. Jackson passed out the rules for the contest and let the students know that she expected all of them to enter at least one story as a requirement for a final grade. Amal's friend Kim looked at him with a mixture of amusement and pity and was surprised to see him smiling. She knew he had no interest in writing. Amal had never been an outstanding student in Ms. Jackson's class, but he always did his work and made sure he contributed during group work. He wasn't an outspoken member of the class, like so many of his classmates were. However, when the creative story-writing unit began, Amal was surprisingly the happiest student in class. He knew he wasn't much of a writer, but when he heard about the prize money, he was set afire. He had a special need for that money! His single working-mom needed money to finish her course work in nursing. At one time she'd saved enough, but instead of using it for her education, she used it to take care of medical bills that Amal had racked up when he had his skateboarding accident a few months earlier. He felt badly about using up his mom's education money, especially because she had often told Amal and Kim not to do those dangerous skateboarding stunts they were so fond of doing. He had been executing a totally awesome stunt when he accidentally flipped and hit a brick wall, which resulted in broken bones and a bad head wound that required surgery. He had healed quickly enough, but all of his mom's carefully saved education money was gone. So, here was his opportunity to make things right. He needed to write a story, just one story, but it had to be great. It had to win. The first writing assignment was as challenging to Amal as he had expected. Sitting at home wondering what to write, he drew a blank a
