1 Alex and his friends scuffed through pine needles in his backyard. The boys made a path through the layers of dried pine needles under the trees. No one wanted to play ball. No one wanted to ride bikes. No one wanted to play with their battling tops.
2 "There's nothing to do!" Tony griped, kicking a large pine cone.
3 Dirk scooped up a small pine cone and flung it at a fence post. "Nothing to do," he agreed.
4 The pine cones gave Alex an idea. "I know! Let's have a pine cone war!" he said.
5 That sounded like fun. The boys looked around. Before long, they had a mound of pine cones.
6 "Now what?" Tony asked. "Do we throw them at each other?"
7 Dirk shook his head. "Let's throw them at the dog!"
8 Alex rolled his eyes. "That would be mean," he said. "Let's throw them at girls!"
9 Tony and Dirk liked that idea a lot. Each boy dropped pine cones into his jacket. Soon they bulged like Santa's bag of toys. They were ready to do battle. All they needed were some targets.
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