Joy and Maurecia were best friends. They sat down on the grass to eat their lunches, but then Maurecia remembered she needed chocolate milk. She went to get some from Miss Mush.

When she returned, she couldn\'t find her lunch.

"What happened to my lunch?" she asked.

Joy looked up at her, then shrugged her shoulders.

"I set my lunch down right here!" said Maurecia. "You saw me, didn\'t you?"

Joy shook her head.

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"I put it here, then I went to Miss Mush\'s room to get some chocolate milk. I had a peanut butter and banana sandwich! And there\'s no way I can eat a peanut butter and banana sandwich without chocolate milk."

Joy shrugged her shoulders.

Maurecia didn\'t know what to do.

"Ca\' I haf a thip uff your milk?" asked Joy.

It was hard for Joy to talk, because her mouth was full of peanut butter and bananas.

Maurecia handed Joy the carton of chocolate milk.

Joy took a big drink, then swallowed.

Maurecia looked all around for her lunch. She crawled in the dirt as she searched through the bushes.

"Any luck?" asked Joy as she finished Maurecia\'s chocolate milk.

"I found it!" Maurecia exclaimed.

Joy coughed on the chocolate milk. "You did?" she asked, then coughed again.

Maurecia crawled out of the bushes holding a paper sack. She sat back down next to Joy and opened it.

"Is it your lunch?" asked Joy.

"No," said Maurecia.

"Too bad," said Joy.

"It\'s money!" exclaimed Maurecia.

Joy\'s eyes nearly popped out of her head as she looked at the paper bag. It was stuffed with dollar

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bills. And they weren\'t just one-dollar bills. There were a few five-dollar bills, some ten-dollar bills, but mostly twenty-dollar bills.

"We found a million dollars!" Joy whispered.

"We?" asked Maurecia.

They counted the money. It wasn\'t a million dollars. It was twenty thousand six hundred and fifty-five dollars.

"Let\'s split it," said Joy. "You take half and 111 take half."

"Maybe I should show it to Louis," said Maurecia.

"Louis!" exclaimed Joy. "Are you crazy? Let\'s spend it. We can buy a skateboard, or a bicycle, or a horse, or a fancy car, or an airplane!"

"I like taking the bus," said Maurecia.

"You could buy ice cream!" said Joy. "All the ice cream you ever want for the rest of your life." She knew Maurecia loved ice cream more than anything else in the world.

Maurecia smiled as she thought about it. "No, I better show it to Louis. Hell know what to do."

"You\'ll just get in trouble," warned Joy. "Louis will think you robbed a bank. You\'ll go to jail for the rest of your life."

"Louis knows I\'m not a bank robber," said Maurecia.

"But what if the real bank robbers find out you have their money?" asked Joy. "They\'ll come after you and murder you."

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"Oh, I didn\'t think of that," said Maurecia.

"You better give it to me," said Joy.

"Louis will protect me," said Maurecia. She walked across the playground.

Louis was talking to Terrence. He said, "If you ever tie Leslie\'s pigtails to the tetherball pole again, 111-"

"Louis, look!" said Maurecia. She held the paper sack up to hi............