Gemma

• Eliza Sims, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2021

Gemma was a 10 year old girl who lived on a farm next to the forest. She loved to walk in the forest with her sister Alexa. They would walk quietly so that they didn't scare any kangaroos and so they were able to listen to all the birds. The kookaburras would laugh, the cockatoos would screech, the magpies would sing, and the little blue wrens would tweet. The sisters loved to count all of the different birds that they could find. Sometimes the girls would spend hours traveling and exploring the forest.

One morning Gemma woke up early and woke up Alexa, asking her if she wanted to explore the forest that day. Alexa was too tied, and she told her sister that she wanted to stay in bed instead.

‘’You’re boring’’ complained Gemma, ‘’I’m going to go for a walk in the bash by myself.’’

Alexa rolled over, shut her eyes, pulled the blanket over her head, and went back to sleep.

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Gemma went to the wardrobe and put on her heavy, warmest coat. She put on her beanie and her gumboots. She was excited to be exploring the forest and listening to the birds on her own.
The sun was only beginning to rise, so Gemma knew that it was very early. She walked deeper into the forest, and was listening to the magpies singing. She stopped suddenly. In front of her was a mother kangaroo and her joey. Gemma crouched down and kept quiet. Her nose started to tickle, and she sneezed loudly.

The kangaroos were frightened. The mother jumped one way, but the joey ran off in the opposite direction. Gemma felt sorry for the joey and decided to follow it and return it to its mother. She ran as fast as she could but was unable to catch the joey. Gemma was a really good runner, and by the time she stopped chasing she sat on an old log and looked around her. She didn't recognise any of the trees. The birds were still making their noises, but Gemma soon realised that she was lost. She was calling out for help but know one came. A few hours later she saw the mother kangaroo calling her joey, Gemma tried to get the mother's attention but it didn't work. Gemma started walking looking for the joey, nothing showed up, but then she saw a tale come out of a bush, and it was a snake so she quickly ran behind a tree and started climbing the tree.

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Alexa woke up and put on her clothes and went to look for Gemma. She called out Gemma 5 times and didn't hear a thing. Alexa was getting a bad feeling about this. Alexa ran back home crying and told her Dad to come and find Gemma and her Dad went into the bush and found her in the tree so he told her to ‘’come down to me’’ Gemma came down and hugged her.
The End