MAY

May Madeline Brillione thought she was a good person. She donated money to charity, had good fashion sense, and mostly kept her opinions to herself. Sure, sometimes she judged people's tastes, and sometimes she told white lies. But other than that, she was like a saint. 

So May felt uneasy as she sat in front of her father. He was looking at her with one of those looks. It meant they were going to have a talk that neither of them would enjoy. 

"You broke your promise," her father said. 

"But Daddy," she started. 

Her father held up a hand. "You promised to stop picking on those two kids. And now I hear from your teacher that you couldn't go a week without starting trouble again. You know I don't like getting bad news from your teacher, May. If you can even call it news at this point." 

May huffed and crossed her arms. "Well, it's not my fault that those two are weird," she muttered. "They just got on my nerves, that's all." 

Her father sighed. "I don't expect you to like them. I don't expect you to even get along with them, although I wish you would. I know you don't make friends easily. But that's not the point. The point is that you made a promise." 

"Yeah, to them," May argued. "I didn't promise you or my teachers anything." 

Her father raised an eyebrow. "And that makes a difference to you?" 

"Well, duh," May said. "I don't even like them, so who cares?" 

Her father frowned. "May," he said slowly. "Do you even know what a promise is?" 

May scoffed. "Of course! I'm not a baby!" 

"But do you understand why we should keep them?" 

Now May frowned. This usually wasn't how these talks would go. "...Because you'll ground me or take away my allowance if I don't?" 

"And that's it? You keep your promises because you don't want to be punished?" 

"Well, and because everyone says it's the right thing to do and stuff. But I don't really get what the point of this is." 

Her father stared at her. Slowly, he covered his face with his hands. "Dear lord. Your teachers are right. I'm a failure as a father." 

"Who cares what my teachers think? Look, are you gonna ground me or whatever?" 

He didn't look up. "What's the point? You don't understand why you're being punished." 

May didn't get it. Hadn't they gone over that? She was getting punished for breaking a dumb promise she made to two weird people, which she thought was unfair. "Can I go now?" 

"Fine." Her father waved a hand at her, as if shooing her away. "I...I'm going to need some time to think about this."  

MAY

May smiled. That had gone better than she had expected. She didn't really get what was up with her father. However, if she was getting out of trouble, she wasn't going to question it. She'd just made it to the door when her father called out, "May." 

Drat! She knew it was too good to be true. She turned around. "Yes, Daddy?" 

"I haven't given you your allowance yet, have I? Since you're here now, why don't we get that out of the way?" 

May blinked. "Really?" He was letting her walk away with no punishment, and he was giving her money? "Of course, Daddy!" she said, putting on her biggest smile. Whatever was going on right now, she intended to make the most of it. 

He checked his pockets. "Hmm, I don't seem to have any money on me right now....aha!" He opened a drawer of his desk and pulled out four strange pieces of paper money. "Here." 

May looked at them, confused. "Uh, Father...what are these?" 

"These are marks," her father explained. "They're money that people use in Germany. I got some on my business trip there last year." 

May had her doubts, but they vanished when she saw the number written in the corner of the bills. That was a lot of zeroes. Though she tried, she had trouble reading the magazines her father read, but she knew that Germany's economy was doing well. She didn't know exactly how much money she was holding, but she thought that it had to be a lot. 

"Wow," she whispered. "So, uh, you've gotta take foreign money to the bank to get it exchanged for American money, right?" 

"Yes," her father said. 

May sighed. She wasn't walking away from this completely free. Still, it was better than what she had expected.  

She put on a big smile and said, "Well, Daddy, I'm sure you're really busy right now, so I'll leave! I have a lot of things I wanna buy with this stuff, so...bye!" 

 And with that, she ran out of the room, clutching her money.

MAY

May smiled all the way to the bank. If this is what happens when I break promises, I should break them more often, she thought. She wondered why her father had been so generous with her allowance. Maybe he didn't realize how much he'd given her. 

She was disappointed that the bank was empty. She had been hoping to show off. The two kids that she picked on would've cried if they saw how much money she had. 

Before she could hand her bills to the person at the desk, a voice stopped her. 

"Hi, May!" 

She turned to see who'd spoken to her. It was Seth. Seth was a happy kid who was best friends with the people she bullied. He waved at her and skipped over. "Whatcha doin' here?" 

Maybe he didn't know what she'd done, or maybe he was just nice to everyone. Whatever. If he wasn't harmless, May would have picked on him, too. 

"I'm exchanging some German money for American money. You want to see it?" 

"Oh, sure! I've never seen a euro before!" Seth said cheerfully. 

"A euro?" May scoffed. "Silly boy, Germans use marks and my dad just gave me a lot!" 

"Uh...." Seth blinked. Then he opened his mouth in an "o" shape. "Ooooh! I get it! You're playing a joke!" He laughed. "Man, Robin was wrong! You are funny!" "Hey!" May's face turned red with embarrassment. "What are you talking about? I'm gonna exchange this for American money, and I'm gonna use the money to buy myself a bunch of stuff!" 

Seth's grin drooped. "Uhh, wait. You were being serious," he said, scratching the back of his head. "Oh boy. May, this bank isn't gonna take that money." 

"What?! How do you know?" May glared at him. 

"Uh, just trust me. I don't want you to embarrass yourself or something." 

May bit her lip and looked around. She wasn't sure, but Seth didn't seem like the type of person to lie to her. 

"Fine!" May clenched her marks closer to her chest. "Then I'll just take these to a bank that will accept them!" 

"Oh, no, no, no...you don't get it. Ah geez. May, no store in this country's gonna take that money. It's not real money."