Every day after school, Lily complained about helping in her grandmother's garden. "It's too hot! It's too hard! I don't want to pull weeds!" she whined.
But her grandmother just smiled and handed her gloves. Week after week, they planted seeds, watered rows, and waited. Lily still grumbled.
Then one morning, Lily saw tiny green sprouts poking through the soil. "Grandma, look!" she shouted excitedly. By summer, the garden was full of tomatoes, peppers, and sunflowers taller than Lily herself.
"We did this together," Grandma said. "All that hard work paid off."
Lily picked a bright red tomato and took a bite. It was the most delicious thing she'd ever tasted. "I understand now, Grandma. Good things take time and effort."
"That's right," Grandma said, hugging her. "And the wait makes them even sweeter."
Dante was terrified of the school spelling bee. "What if I mess up in front of everyone?" he worried. His hands shook just thinking about standing on that stage.
His older sister Maria noticed. "I was scared too, my first time," she said. "But I learned something important: everyone makes mistakes. What matters is that you tried."
On the day of the spelling bee, Dante's heart pounded as he walked to the microphone. His first word was "beautiful." He spelled it carefully: "B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L." Correct!
He made it to the third round before misspelling "rhythm." As he walked off stage, he expected to feel terrible. But instead, he felt proud. He had faced his fear.
"I did it, Maria!" he said afterward. "I didn't win, but I'm not scared anymore."
Maria smiled. "That's the real prize, Dante. Being brave is more important than being perfect."
Zoe found a lost dog shivering in the rain near her bus stop. It had no collar and looked hungry. She wanted to keep it, but her mom said, "Someone might be looking for this dog. We need to find its owner."
Zoe didn't want to give the dog away. She had already named it Biscuit and loved playing with it. But she made posters anyway and posted them around the neighborhood.
A few days later, a little boy and his father knocked on their door. The boy's eyes lit up when he saw the dog. "Biscuit!" he cried—except he called it "Max."
The father explained that Max had been missing for a week. The little boy had cried every night.
Zoe felt sad giving Biscuit back, but seeing the little boy so happy made her smile. "I'm glad Max is going home," she told her mom.
"You did the right thing," her mom said. "Doing what's right isn't always easy, but it always feels good in the end."