Lupe Medrano, a shy girl was a straight-A student. Though Lupe had a sharp mind, she could not, no matter how much she tried, run as fast as the other girls. The truth was that Lupe was no good in sports.
"I'll never be good at sports." She felt angry one rainy day as she lay on her bed, looking at the shelf her father had made to hold her awards. "I wish I could win something, anything, even marble (弹珠)."
At the word "marbles", she sat up. "That's it. Maybe I could be good at playing marbles, and marbles is a sport." She rushed out of her room and found the marbles in her brother's room.
She practiced shooting softly at first. The marble rolled from her thumb(拇指) and clicked against the targeted (作为目标的) marble. But the target wouldn't budge. She tried again and again, but the power from her thumb made the targeted marble roll only an inch or two.
She realized her thumb was weak and then decided to squeeze(捏) a rubber eraser one hundred times, hoping it would strengthen her thumb.
The weeks passed quickly. Lupe worked so hard that one day, while she was drying dishes, her mother asked why her thumb was swollen(肿胀的).
"It's muscle," Lupe explained, "I've been practicing for the marbles championship."
"You, honey?" Her mother, Mrs. Medrano, knew Lupe was no good in sports.
"Yeah, I beat Alfonso, and he's pretty good."
When her father, Mr. Medrano, heard this, he was very happy and encouraged Lupe.
Practice, practice, practice. Lupe got better and better. Then the day of the championship came. She beat her first competitor easily, and won one marble, and then one after another. At last, Lupe was in the final to play against a girl in a baseball cap. The girl never even looked at Lupe.
"I don't know, Dad. She looks tough."
"You can do it," her father encouraged. "Just think of the marbles, not the girl, and let your thumb do the work."
It was a tough fight. But finally Lupe won the most marbles and became the winner!
"I did it!" Lupe said under her breath. She rose from her knees, which hurt from bending all day, and hugged her father.
Back home, in her own bedroom, she was happy. She had always won praise because of her brains, but winning in sports was a new experience. She thanked her tired thumb. "You did it, thumb. You made me champion." As its reward, Lupe went to the bathroom, filled the bathroom sink with warm water, and let her thumb swim as it pleased. Then she climbed into bed and fell into her sweet dreams.
