Chocolate Chip Choices

Ding-dong!

“Justin see who’s at the door, please!” Justin’s mom shouted. She was in the kitchen taking fresh, hot cookies out of the oven.

“It’s Matt,” he called back to his mom as he opened the door.

“Hi, Justin,” said Matt. “I guess I’m supposed to be over here today. My mom said so.”

“Oh, okay,” said Justin as he led the way to the kitchen.

“Well, hello there Matt,” Mom greeted him.

“Hi,” Matt replied as he gazed at the cookies on the counter. “Can I have one of those? Please?”

“Not right now. Maybe later, okay? I have to make sure I’ve got enough,” Mom explained.

“Let’s go play trucks in the sandbox, Matt,” suggested Justin.

“All right, but I’m sure hungry for a cookie,” Matt hinted, hoping Justin’s mom would give him one. But she didn’t even hear him. She was too busy counting all the cookies.

“. . . 32, 34, 34. I’ll call you in for lunch in a little bit,” she said as the boys went out the back door.

Justin opened up the sandbox and stepped in. The two boys played with dump trucks until Mom called from the kitchen window, “Come in for lunch, boys!”

“Hey, maybe we can have cookies for lunch,” said Matt as they went inside.

While the boys ate their sandwiches, Justin’s mom bustled around the kitchen, putting cookie dough on the pans and sliding them into the oven. The whole countertop was piled with cookies.

“How come you’re making so many cookies, Mom?” asked Justin. He had never seen so many cookies before.

“Oh, these are for the bake sale at church.”

Just then, they heard Ellie’s tiny voice calling from her room, “Mommy, up now!”

Mom set the timer on the oven then went to get Ellie up from her nap.

“Hey!” Matt whispered. “Now’s our chance.”

“Huh?” said Justin. “What do you mean?”

“Now we can grab some cookies while your mom is gone,” Matt explained.

“But she said they were for the bake sale,” Justin argued. “Besides, we need to ask before we take a cookie.”

“She said we could have some later,” Matt said as he got up and tiptoed over to the counter. He reached toward a pile of chocolate chip cookies.

Buuuuzzzz! The oven timer made Matt jump. “Whoa! That scared me,” he laughed. Justin didn’t laugh. He stared hard at Matt as he finished eating his banana.

Justin’s mom hurried into the kitchen to turn off the buzzer and grab the cookies out of the oven. “Phew! That’s the last of them—finally,” she said.

Justin put his dishes in the sink and headed out the back door. “Come on, Matt, let’s go back outside,” he said. He grabbed a ball and bounced it on the back sidewalk waiting for Matt to come out.

After a while Matt came bounding out the back door shouting, “Hey, Justin! You can come and get some cookies now.”

“Really? Great!” Justin went inside expecting to see his mom with a plate of cookies for them. But his mom wasn’t even in the kitchen. “Did my mom say we could have some cookies?” he asked Matt.

“Uh, yeah. Sure she did,” said Matt as he grabbed a cookie and stuffed the whole thing into his mouth.

Justin thought for a minute. Something didn’t seem right. Maybe he should go find his mom and ask. On the other hand, Matt said she told him it was okay. Mom was really busy today, and he didn’t want to bother her. Besides, the cookies looked so good. And there were so many of them, she probably didn’t need them all.

“Here.” Matt held out a warm, gooey chocolate chip cookie to Justin. Justin took it and bit into it. Mmmm . . . the cookie practically melted in his mouth! The boys stood by the cookies, munching one after another.

“Justin!!” They turned to see Mom standing in the doorway with a big frown on her face. “What do you think you’re doing?” she asked in an angry voice.

Suddenly, the cookie Justin was eating didn’t taste so good anymore. “Matt said you told him we could have some cookies,” he said.

“I said no such thing. I told you these are for the bake sale. I have to have exactly 12 dozen cookies,” she said. “Now I don’t have enough. Justin, I want you to go to your room, and Matt, go into the living room and stay there until I tell you. I have to count these again.”

Justin waited in his room for a long time. Finally, his dad walked in with a serious face. Justin felt awful. He told his dad what had happened. He didn’t mean to disobey. Justin knew that he should have asked Mom to make sure it was okay to have a cookie. But they looked so good, and if he had asked Mom, she might have said no. Instead, he chose to just take some.

“And that was the wrong choice to make, wasn’t it?” asked Dad.

“Yes, Sir,” said Justin, “but they looked so good.”

“Well, first of all, I think you need to apologize to your mom,” Dad said. “And since she has to take extra time to make another batch of cookies, you will need to help her by taking care of some extra chores around the house. Oh, and no more cookies either.”

“Okay,” Justin replied. He didn’t even want any more cookies. He felt sick to his stomach.

Justin trudged downstairs. He walked past Matt, who was holding his stomach—he wasn’t feeling too well either. Matt sat in the kitchen watching Ellie—that was his job so Justin’s mom could make more cookie dough.

Justin went over to his mom and told her he was really sorry. She forgave him and gave him a hug. Then Justin grabbed the feather duster and started dusting the shelves in the living room. Mom didn’t have time to dust and sweep today; she had to get more cookies baked in a hurry so she could get them to the bake sale on time.

It took Justin a long time to finish dusting everything and sweeping the floor. Matt’s mom came and picked him up before they got a chance to play trucks again.

Later that evening, Justin’s mom came home from the bake sale. She gave Justin a hug and said, “Thank you for your help with the chores. The house looks very nice.” Then she took out a brown paper bag with something big and round in it. “I even brought you something from the bake sale,” she said and handed the bag to Justin.

Justin opened the bag carefully. He reached into the bag and pulled out a giant chocolate chip cookie!

Mom and Dad laughed as Justin made a face and said, “No, thank you! I think I had enough cookies for one day.”