"The Broken Chain" by Gary Soto

Have you ever wanted to go on a date with a girl and accidentally did something to mess it up. Well in the story "The Broken Chain" by Gary Soto a boy named Alfonso, doesn't like the way he looks so he tries to push them back in place where he thinks they belong. Then he met a girl named Sandra and he talks to her for a while and pretty soon asks her to go on a bike ride. She says ok so he tries to clean his bike chain and breaks it so here's the story of Alfonso's mistake.

Alfonso was a boy who wished he looked normal he was offended with the way he looked so he would do fifty sit ups every day to make his stomach fill the fat with muscle. He also didn't like the way his teeth were crooked so every day he would press on his teeth because his parents couldn't afford to get him braces. He was embarrassed to smile and show his teeth.

One day his brother Ernie rode up on his Montgomery ward bike and looked a bit depressed so Alfonso asked him what was wrong and his brother said three girls showed us up they didn't show up to the date. So one day he spots this girl and goes up to her to talk and he gets to know her a little bit then he asked for name she said Sandra and he asked if she wanted to go on a bike ride one day. She said yes.

Alfonso walked home and started to polish up his bike and started to clean up his chain he accidentally broke the chain. So he got a little upset so he went p to his brother Ernie and asked him if he could use his bike the next day he said no so Alfonso started to get stressed because he didn't have a bike to ride.

So the next day when he was supposed to be outside waiting for Sandra he was hiding around the corner because he didn't have a bike to ride so she came out and started to wait for him to show up. He knew he had to go but he didn't know how she would react would she laugh, go away he didn't want to take a chance. So they took off later on Ernie rod by and said to Alfonso do you still need a bike he said yes. But he didn't