COMPETITIONS

My Short Story

Great, just great, out of all the things that could have gone wrong in my ordinary primary school day getting a creative writing task is the worst. Mrs Froogle is discussing the criteria that needs to be followed and everyone seems excited. Sophie Brown is at the front of the classroom shooting her hand up every second asking dumb questions like whether we need to include a simile or metaphor. Who came up with those? Someone would have had to have been off their head to say something is something else when it clearly is not. For instance, the couch is like a fluffy muffin. They are two different things! The confusion must be all over my face as Mrs Froogle stops speaking and turns to look at me. “Don’t worry Jack you should be fine with this task; you are very good at making up stories. Remember last week how you told me you couldn’t do your homework because a curious creature ate it?” “Miss that was true”, I exclaim. She rolls her eyes, “well perhaps you could write about that.” The bell goes and everyone races out of the classroom to go home but I have to stay behind because I got in trouble for pegging a handball at the back of some kids’ head. I understand what I did wrong, but it was an accident so surely, I won’t have to stay too late. Miss comes up to me and hands me a reflection sheet where I must outline what I did wrong. In my opinion Frank Guzzler has a big head and there was no way the ball could have missed it. Instead of writing that I explain how I am sorry, and I will not do it again. I hand my sheet to Mrs Froogle and she scans over it. “Thankyou Jack. Now your mother has just emailed me that she is running a bit late so I guess you can get started on creative writing task”. She hands me some lined paper and I sit back down. I start by staring off into space but after ten minutes I realise that this is not such a great idea. I know, I will make a list of all the things that pop into my head and try to make a story out of that. Ok let’s see, cheese, ham, cheese and ham, cheese and ham sandwich, cheese and ham sandwich on a plate, cheese and ham sandwich in my mouth. “This is no use”, I sigh. “Jack why don’t you come over here and show me what you have so far”, says Mrs Froogle. I can tell by the look on her face that she is very unimpressed. “Clearly you just need a bit of a head start. The creature that ate your homework, what did it look like?” “Oh, Miss it was huge, standing on two twig like grey legs. The torso of this creature was covered in ringlets of hair. The face was quite small considering the size of its body and it had three burgundy eyes. Underneath those eyes was the creature’s beak.” Miss looks surprised. “Wow Jack, weren’t you scared?” “To be honest no, it had friendly nature.” Why exactly did it eat your homework?” “Well, I was sitting at my desk and I had my homework finished in my hand. I was just going through it checking for spelling mistakes when its head poked through my window. The creature began to screeching like it was looking for food. I put down my homework and decided to run into the kitchen and grab it an apple out of the fridge. I also grabbed a frying pan for self defense. When I got back the creature had gone along with my homework.” Mrs Froogle is smiling, “that is one creative story Jack, you have a very wild mind. Look, I reckon you are more creative than you think. In fact, I’m going to mark your creative task as completed. That means you have no homework for this weekend.” I thank and say goodbye to Mrs Froogle as my mum is standing in the doorway waiting to take me home. I don’t know why Mrs Froogle doesn’t believe me but who cares, I don’t have to do my homework this weekend.