by Alex

It’s not my fault, were the four words that constantly repeated in the Nate family. In fact they were so repeated that someone had to do something about it before it got out of control! For example, this morning Eliza Nate was happily drawing in her room, when suddenly she heard her mother coming down stairs. Quick as a bunny she pretended to clean her room.

“Eliza, what have you been doing?” questioned Eliza’s mother

“Well…ahhh…uhhmm” mumbled Eliza

“Nothing, that’s what you’ve been doing, I bet that you only started cleaning when you heard me come down the stairs” said her mother

“Well, it’s not my fault that my room is not clean!”Exclaimed Eliza

“Then whose fault is it?” asked her mother impatiently

“It’s Lisa’s fault, she made the mess”

“Lisa? You mean your friend who came for a sleep over just a couple of days ago?”Inquired her mother

“Yeah, she helped me make the mess, so, she should help me clean it up” Eliza told her mother

“Well don’t you worry, I’ll make sure that Lisa never comes to our house again, then she can’t make a mess. But in the mean time you clean up for Lisa. I’m sure you won’t have any trouble keeping your room clean if Lisa’s not here” said her mother while she was walking out the door

“What have I done?” mumbled Eliza as she started to cry

Eliza spent the rest of the day in her room, mostly crying while she cleaned her room. After she had finished cleaning she started to think of a plan that would make mother change her mind about Lisa.

“Ok, I go upstairs and tell Mom that I’m done cleaning my room and it wasn’t Lisa’s fault that my room was unclean.” Eliza said to herself

And that was that, Eliza didn’t wait any longer she went straight upstairs and said:

“Mom I’m done cleaning my room, and it wasn’t Lisa’s fault that my room was unclean”

“That’s very good but will you clean your room by yourself every time it gets “unclean”?” asked her mother

“Yes, I promise” said Eliza

“Well in that case, Lisa can come and visit us again” announced her mother

From that day forth Eliza always cleaned her room when it was disorganized, and never again did she blame anything that was her fault on someone else.