Medical Mission by George Ivanoff Read Free Book Online

of next week – a week prior to the market. She even suggested advertising the market at the screening. Josh announced this to the class. The next day Marceline changed the date of the market to the Friday of the screening.
    â€˜No one wants to watch some old television show at the drive-in,’ she told Josh when he confronted her about the change of date. ‘We’re going to make more money with the market.’
    â€˜It’s not a competition,’ said Josh.
    â€˜Says you,’ huffed Marceline, turning her back on him and stalking off.
    â€˜What is her problem?’ asked Pete.
    Josh shrugged.
    â€˜You know, if this was a movie, we’d come up with some sort of plan to sabotage her market so that no one will go to it.’
    â€˜That’s horrible.’ Sally stared accusingly at Pete. ‘We don’t want the market to fail. That would mean less money for the RFDS. We want both events to be successful.’
    â€˜Well, it’s going to be hard.’ Josh sighed. ‘Changing the dates was dumb. Now both things are going to get less people.’
    â€˜Not necessarily,’ said Sally. ‘I think Marceline’s date change is a good thing.’
    â€˜Huh?’ Josh and Pete stared at Sally.
    Sally grinned. ‘I’ve got an idea.’

    â€˜I have a written proposal,’ said Josh, holding above his head a couple of pages stapled together in the corner.
    â€˜Oh?’ said Ms Wright. ‘What about?’
    Josh got to his feet and came out to the front of the class. ‘Our two fundraisers have turned into some sort of competition.’ He looked at Marceline. She glared back. ‘And I think that’s … counter-productive.’ He smiled to himself for remembering the word Sally had suggested. ‘I reckon it makes more sense to work together.’ He glanced at Ms Wright. ‘Cooperation.’ He pointed to the ‘Class Principles’ sign stuck up on the wall of the classroom, which included the word cooperation.
    â€˜Instead of running two separate fundraisers,’ he continued. ‘We should be working together.’
    â€˜I’m not giving up my market,’ Marceline blurted out.
    â€˜ Your market?’ Her best friend Wendy wasfrowning. ‘Who drew the pictures for the poster?’
    â€˜Yeah,’ added Mai-Ling. ‘And what about all the opal chips I got my parents to donate to sell?’
    â€˜That’s not what I meant,’ flustered Marceline.
    â€˜What did you mean?’ demanded Wendy.
    Suddenly everyone was talking and arguing. Voices rose and tempers flared.
    â€˜Class!’ called out Ms Wright. ‘Settle down, please. This is not a zoo. Settle down, right now.’
    The voices subsided.
    â€˜We shouldn’t be arguing!’ cried Josh. ‘We shouldn’t be competing. We should be working together.’ He looked out at the sea of student faces, which ranged from angry to bemused. ‘Cooperating.’
    Ms Wright nodded.
    â€˜We were talking about it yesterday,’ he indicated Pete and Sally. ‘We were thinking that rather than running two separate things, we should combine them.’
    â€˜How?’ demanded Marceline.
    â€˜Hold them on the same day in the same place,’ revealed Josh. ‘If we set up the market at the drive-in, people can shop while they wait for The Flying Doctors to start.’ He smiled at the class. ‘And if we run the market all afternoon, we can tell everyone who comes to return for the screening later. We could combine our advertising. We could all work together. And I’ll bet that we’ll make more money if we do things that way.’
    â€˜That is a great idea, Josh,’ said Ms Wright.
    â€˜Sally came up with it,’ said Josh.
    â€˜Well, Sally,’ said Ms Wright, ‘it was a very mature and sensible suggestion.’
    Sally blushed then smiled, relieved that the heat she felt