James And Abby

• Cassidy Rumbel, Grade 3
• Short Story
• 2014

James and Abby are brother and sister that live in Longreach, Queensland, Australia. Longreach is a country town and can get very hot through the summer. They both go to the same school, St Patrick’s. James is the oldest. He is in grade 7 and 12 years old. Abby is James’ younger sister. She is in Prep, and only 5 years old. James gets a lot of homework because he is in high school. Abby always annoys James when he does his homework. This is because Abby does not have to do homework. As Abby always annoys James when he is doing his homework, this causes a lot of fights between them.
One day James had to write a persuasive text as part of his homework for the night. The persuasive text was practice for the upcoming Naplan test later in the year. Abby was annoying James as always and making it difficult for James to concentrate on completing his persuasive text.
Abby was saying “Can you play with me?” and “Can you get me a drink?”
“No!” replied James.
“Please” asked Abby nicely.
“NO, NO, NO!!” shouted James.
Then Abby started to cry. In came Mum, “Why are you crying Abby?”
“Because James is being mean to me”, said Abby.
“How is he being mean to you?” asked Mum.
“He his shouted very loudly at me” sobbed Abby.
“Why?” asked Mum.
“I was just asking him if he could play with me and get me a drink”, said Abby.
Then Mum went into the lounge room to find James and the reason why Abby was crying. “Why was Abby crying, James?” asked Mum.
“I don’t know why Abby is crying Mum” answered James.
“Did you yell at your sister?” asked Mum.
“Yes I did. She was annoying me and asking a lot of questions while I was trying to finish my homework” answered James.
“She is your little sister James, you should not be yelling at her. Go to your bedroom for a time out” said Mum crossly.
“But I need to finish my homework Mum” said James.
“You should have thought of that before you shouted at your sister” replied Mum. “Now go to bed.”
The following day James still hadn't finished his persuasive text, which he needed to hand in to his teacher. Mrs White asked James why he hadn't finished his persuasive text. James answered “I got in trouble by my mum for fighting with my sister and ran out of time to finish it.”
“Well James you are big enough now to manage your time better, you will now get a detention for not completing your homework” said Mrs White.
That afternoon, when James got home from school he told his mum that he had received a detention for not finishing his homework. James released that in the future it will be easier to just stop answer his little annoying sister questions then get in trouble at school.