story by Emma

Carla was very excited as she opened the letter, she had expected it for months. She didn’t know whether to be happy or sad, but she was surely nervous. “ If  they write to me it means that they are interested in me but if everything is right they wouldn’t need to write a letter.”

Everything had begun when she had applied for a scholarship with Columbia University to play basketball there. She had been playing basketball since she was 5 years old, it had always been her passion, her reason for living. She had always been the best basketball player in the school and, of course, after a month, she had received the letter where the University granted her the scholarship. She was excited, her last year of high school was almost ended, and she was looking forward to her fantastic future.

Unfortunately her mother, Sue, had got ill; doctors hadn’t recognized the disease, they didn’t know what to do. So Carla had decided to shelter her mother in a special hospital, that was very expensive, but it was the only solution. Carla’s dad was dead and her mother was unemployed so Carla had had to find somewhere the money by herself. [She had begun by working as a shop assistant but she earned too little money and the doctors had finally discovered what was her mother illness but to recover it they needed a lot of money. She couldn’t give up now that her mother was about to heal.]

The solution had come at the final match of the basketball championship: the manager of the opposing team offered her 3000 dollars to fail the basket.

“3000, my mother healthy again”, these words were still echoing in her mind when she accepted the proposal. She didn’t do the basket and she had 3000 dollars in her pocket.

Her mother was healthy again but after a month she had received a phone call from Columbia University and a strict voice had said that they had discovered everything and that they were not interested in a cheater.

 And now here was another letter with the emblem of Columbia University.