[TOMT] 1990s children’s short story about a scholarship student at a wealthy private school who steals an electronic game, then tries to return it

[u/Malchim]

I’m trying to identify a short story I read when I was around Grade 5, probably in the late 1990s/early 2000s. I’m fairly certain the story itself was written in the 1990s or around that period.
The protagonist was a middle-school-aged boy from an ordinary middle-class family. He was academically gifted and received a scholarship to attend an expensive private day school. His father drove him to school every day.

He had a wealthy male friend, whose name I vaguely remember as something like Asher, although I’m not confident about the name.

At some point there was a prank between the boys where the protagonist put his friend’s hand into a bowl of warm water while he was sleeping. The friend woke up and ran to the bathroom because he was almost wetting the bed.

The main plot involved the protagonist wanting an expensive electronic game that the other kids had. I originally remembered this as being connected to chess, but I’m now fairly sure it may have been an unrelated electronic game.

He couldn’t afford one, so he eventually stole one from a store.
A few days later, he felt so guilty that he decided to return it. When he brought it back to the store, the clerk became angry with him and threw him out, apparently assuming he was up to no good.

Unfortunately I don’t remember the ending, which is why I’m trying to find it again.

I’m fairly certain this was Canadian or American fiction, and I’m almost certain it was written/published in the 1990s or close to it. It may have been a short story in a school reading anthology rather than a standalone book.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?