Once there lived two men, John and Neil. They didn’t really like each other. John lived in a very big, expensive house at one side of Glasgow, Scotland. Neil was quite poor and lived in a little shack in a village in the south of Glasgow. They didn’t see each other much which was good in a way.

John had short, muddy brown hair and pale eyes and he owned lots of expensive clothes. But on the other hand he had no friends and he was mean to everyone. He got lonely a lot and wished he had friends.

Neil had ginger hair and he had dark eyes. He was poor but he was a very friendly guy and he had lots of friends. Even though he only lived in a little shack, he loved to invite them over a lot.

One day John went out for a drive in his new limousine, and he decided to go to a pub called The Game and play a game of snooker with someone. Neil wasn’t that poor and he went to the same pub as John.

They saw each other at the snooker table and wanted to have a game but John wouldn’t just have a game with him, he wanted something out of the game. He wanted friends. He said if he won then Neil would give him the secret to getting friends, and if Neil won then John would give him a big house. They both agreed and the game began.

First move went to Neil and white ball went in the hole, “aha two turns to me” exclaimed John.  John put his hand in position and then scored “ Yippy! I scored” he was getting excited now but Neil still had plenty goes left, on the second shot then he hit the black ball and it went down the hole so now John had 7 penalty points and lost his turn so Neil was very happy.

He got to have his turn and then he got the ball in the right order and now is ahead of John and is really happy. He had a giant smile on his face. John was shocked to see Neil winning but he really wanted friends and needed to win. Next it was Johns turn and he got the blue ball in the hole and he was catching up.

Neil’s turn and things were getting complicated. Now everyone in the pub was watching them. They had picked sides. Neil got the green ball in and now it was this last ball that will decide who wins. John was sweating, all he needed to do was hit this last ball and he would win. He aimed very carefully and then pushed the cue and then he hit the ball and everything seemed to go slow at that moment when the ball was so close to the hole then by a millimeter missed.

There was a loud gasp but then a tall hairy man shoved the doors wide open then the ball fell in the hole and he won. He couldn’t believe what happened and then sat down.

After that then Neil told John that to get friends he would have to be kind and caring. John and Neil became friends and saw each other most weeks and to help out they both started to work at The Game pub in the middle of Glasgow. John bought Neil a big house even though he didn’t win because he is now very generous and fond of Neil. He also thought that Neil’s old clothes were getting very scruffy for playing in professional snooker competitions, so he bought him new ones because they signed up for one.

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