The Only Way I Know
The world around me is stupid, Aaron Wilson thought to himself, while the new kid talked about the new motorcycle his parents just bought him. Bryan Carlson’s parents always got him whatever he wanted. For his 16th birthday the whole town got invited to his party… all 250 of them. Bryan’s dad surprised him with a brand new 2013 Lamborghini. He is just a stuck up rich kid, like the ones I hear about from one of those big cities. Why is he even here?

Bryan’s father is a billionaire who got all his money from starting his own brewing company. Bryan is their only son which means he gets everything he could ever want. The only thing he really wants though is a better relationship with his dad. His dad was always flying around to the different store locations for his business so they never gained a strong bond. Just recently, Bryan’s father decided to sell the business for 2.3 billion dollars so he could have more time with his family.

Aaron’s jealousy boiled when he met Bryan at school in September. His looks helped him achieve everything in life. Before the Carlson’s moved to Oregon, they lived in California. He was the most popular kid at his school and a model for Hollister. Everyone loved him, the girls melted when they looked at him. He was tall dark and handsome, the man in every girls dreams. All of the guys wanted to be him. “I have more to worry about than trying to be friends with the rich kid.” Aaron told his friend Cody.

“But he lives right next to you; it would be really convenient to get rides to school from him.” Cody replied.

“He would probably just talk about all the cool things he has. That would get annoying.”

Aaron had to work for everything he had, including his house. His mom Kristi and dad Jeremy were high school sweet hearts. They were both born and raised in Spray and inspired to move out of the town to create a better life for themselves. They had Aaron young and decided in order to save money they would stay in Spray. Kristi is a waitress at one of the two diners in the whole town. She gets minimum wage plus whatever she earned from tips. She makes barely enough to get them through a week with food for every meal. Jeremy used to work as a mail carrier until they decided to lay him off. Sense they live in such a small secluded town it is impossible for him to find another job anywhere close. There was a job as a gas pump boy in the next town over but Jeremy was over qualified. Jeremy is still looking for a job a year later now. He has been doing odd jobs working on cars for friends and painting houses to get a few spare dollars but it was never enough to make a difference. Aaron applied for that same job at the gas station to try and help out his family some, and got the job. Aaron makes minimum wage which helps out a little but still is not enough. He can only work so many hours and still go to school. Aaron had gotten used to the flow of going to school, going to work, then going home and doing homework. One day when he came home from work his mom’s car was home which was very unusual. She usually worked late into the night to try and make as much money as possible. When Aaron walked into the house he could feel the tension in the air.

“No this can’t be happening! What are we going to do?” Kristi exclaimed to Jeremy with tears running down her face in distress. “Is there any family that would loan us some money so we can just keep our house?”

“I already asked my parents, they have a couple hundred they can give us but that isn’t enough to keep the house.” Aaron’s dad replied. Aaron sat quietly in the living room.
I need to find a way to help, what if I worked more? “Hey Mom, Dad.” Aaron said walking into the kitchen. “What if I stopped doing to school for right now and went to work all day until we could get our house back?”

“Well… I guess that might work. You will be behind in school though and it’s your senior year.” Kristi said.

“Mom, it will be okay. If I can’t catch up with the work later I can just go back to school next year.”

“It is only for two weeks, I am sure you will be able to catch up.” Jeremy said.

“I will work very hard to graduate on time. I may just stop by school after work and try to get my homework to I’m better prepared when I come back.”

“That will work, thanks Aaron,” Jeremy said.

The next Monday Aaron started working all day. They needed to earn $5,000 before Monday October 21st, two weeks away.

“$550.00 between the two of us this week. There is no way we are gonna make enough money in time.” Kristi said pacing back and forth.

“What are we gonna do? It’s not like anyone is gonna fork over $4,000.” Aaron said.

“Well our new neighbors have some money; it wouldn’t be a bad idea if we asked them.”

“They don’t seem like a generous family from how Bryan acts at school.”

“Go ask anyways.” Kristi said. Aaron hopped on his bike, this is a bad plan I am gonna get shot. When Aaron got to their driveway a quarter mile away he stopped. He couldn’t see the house because of all the trees surrounding it. His nerves fluttered like butterflies in his stomach. He took a big breath and pedaled slowly down the long driveway. As he got closer to the house he could finally see it. The house looked like something from a movie or a magazine. The door was as tall as his whole house and twice as wide as a normal door. The height matched that of a two story house but it only had one story.

Aaron got off his bike and walked up to the huge door. He rang the doorbell and two dogs immediately started barking. Oh god! I really am going to die! “Shh. Sit!” Aaron heard from a gentle woman’s voice. It became silent until the door creaked open. A petite woman with blond hair stood in the door way. “Can I help you?” She asked.
“Hello, my name is Aaron and I live next door. I really don’t know how to ask this without just asking. So, we just got an eviction notice last week and my mom and I won’t make enough to have $5,000 by next week and I was wondering if we could borrow $4,000 just until we could pay you back?” Aaron said shaking.

“Well if it was up to me I would say yes, but let me go and ask my husband.” The lady said in the sweetest voice. “Come inside, you can sit on the couch and wait for me to come back.” She pointed in the direction of the couch which looked more like a 15 foot long pillow in couch form. Aaron’s jaw was on the floor, he couldn’t even speak to express how in awe he was from the pure beauty of the house. I couldn’t even imagine a house like this in my dreams! The floors, hand laid tile. The counter, spotless granite. A 5 foot sturgeon hanging on the wall! Two sets of footsteps came through the kitchen and Aaron immediately stood up from the couch he had sunk 4 inches into.

“So son I heard you need some money.” Jeff said.

“Yes, sir.” Aaron replied. His palms were sweating from how nervous the extremely muscly man made him.

“I don’t want to just give you money. That’s quite a bit of money you are asking for. I don’t even know you, how am I supposed to just give you money?” Jeff replied skeptical.

“My name is Aaron, and I fully intend on paying you back. If something happens where I’m not getting the money to you, I just live in the house to the north. You can come see what the deal is.” Aaron said frantically.

“How about this, if you can help me and Bryan in the fishing tournament this weekend and we win, we will make sure you get the money you need.”

“That sounds great! I love fishing. I am the best fisher in the county. However, I have only won two tournaments because I don’t own a boat.” Aaron said.

“Sounds like you are just the man for the job, meet us here at 4:00am on Saturday ready to go.”

“Okay, I will be here. Thank you so much.” Aaron said, walking out the front door after saying goodbye. He hopped on his bike and rode home faster than he had ever ridden his bike before. Before he could even get to the porch he jumped off his bike and ran in the front door. When he told his parents the news they were almost more excited than Aaron was.

Friday night Aaron packed up his tackle box and got his fishing pole and bait ready. He was so anxious to go fishing he didn’t sleep the whole night. He rode his bike over to their house with his fishing pole and tackle box in one hand, and steered with the other. He got to their house at 3:50 and they were loading up the boat. They must have just bought the boat. I don’t remember seeing it last week. It was a professional bass fishing boat. They hooked it up to their Ford F250 and hauled it down to the Columbia River. The tournament started at 5:00am and all the boats were out on the water casting their first poles right on the dot. All day Bryan and his dad only caught 2 bass. Aaron caught a trophy size bass and 4, 7 inch bass because of his special bait and technique. When they got back to the dock at 5:00pm there were two older men who had caught a trophy sized bass also. The two men got a fish that weighed 19 lbs 2 oz.. Aaron’s nerves made butterflies in his stomach. He handed the official his fish. The crowd got quiet waiting for the results. One of the old men whispered, “Some kid can’t catch a bigger fish than us. We got this in the bag.”

They hung Aaron’s fish on the scale. “The weight of this fish is 19lbs.” the announcer paused, “and 7 oz.! Aaron is the winner.” Aaron jumped up in the air he was so excited. Winning this meant that him and his family didn’t have to lose their house.

“$20,000 this is perfect, this day couldn’t get any better.” Aaron proclaimed with the biggest smile on his face. Aaron walked up to Bryan and Jeff.

“Congratulations!” Jeff said truly proud of the work he had done.

“You guys should take atleast half of the money; I wouldn’t even be here if you didn’t take me.”

“Actually I was thinking you should keep it all on two conditions.”

“What would that be?” I would do anything for the money, but what could someone who has everything possibly want from me?

“One, you have to go back to school and quit your job.”

“Okay, I can go back to school but if I quit my job I…” Aaron was quickly interrupted by Jeff.

“And two, you have to teach Bryan and me how to fish every Saturday. I will pay you twice as much as you made at that gas station job.” Jeff said with a smile.

“Are you kidding? I would love to do that! Teaching people to fish is my dream job.” Aaron couldn’t wipe the grin off his face the whole way home. Bryan’s dad dropped Aaron off at his house after having dinner at the Carlson’s.

“Do you mind if I come in and meet your parents?” Jeff asked.

“Oh no, not at all, come on in.” Aaron couldn’t wait long enough for Jeff to get out of the car. He ran into his house, “Mom, Dad! We got the money, we are keeping the house!”

“Ahh!” Kristi screamed with joy. Tears started streaming down her face as her and her husband grabbed their son and hugged him till he couldn’t breathe. They were so excited they didn’t notice Jeff had come in the room.

“Hello.” Jeff said. Aaron’s parents were scared half to death.

“Oh sorry, Mom, Dad, this is Jeff Carlson. Bryan’s dad, he is the one who took me fishing.” Aaron said. Jeff shook Jeremy’s hand and when he went to shake Kristi’s hand she gave him a big hug.

“You don’t know how grateful we are. Thank you so much!” Kristi said.

“It was all your son’s work, I just provided the boat. He is a great kid, and I don’t think you guys should have to struggle anymore.” Jeff turned to Jeremy. “Rumor has it that you don’t have a job. I was wondering how you would feel about working with me to open a new branch of the brewing company I used to own. It would be here in town. I have ties with my old company and I know they have wanted to expand. “

“That would be amazing, I would love to!” Jeremy said without hesitation.

“Great, let’s start planning it Monday. I will see you guys later, have a great day.” Mr. Carlson left and the rest of the night Aaron and his parents celebrated.

Two months later Jeff and Jeremy had the grand opening of their brewery. Once they had a steady income and had saved up enough money Aaron and his parents built a house on their property that was just as beautiful as the Carlson’s was. They realized that moving into a big city wasn’t what they really wanted. They loved their town, it is their home. After the fishing tournament Bryan and Aaron became very close from hanging out almost every day. Every Saturday the Carlson’s and Wilson’s got together for dinner when the boys got home from fishing. The two families became very close, like one big family.