Paddy Young

• Nash Ramage, Grade 3, Echuca Primary School
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

Even though I only live two minutes from school I am always late, mainly because my best friend Elijah and I get carried away with our conversation, as we ride our bikes. Anyway my name is Paddy, I am 10 years old and I have blond hair and usually always wear black tracksuit pants and a silver shirt that says Nike. I also have a twin brother called Solomon, he's sometimes a good brother but other times he is the most irritating person that I have ever met. I also have a fifteen year old sister called Samantha, the only thing that you need to know about her is that every time I get home from school, I open the door and she picks me up and hugs and kisses me, like she hasn't seen me in years. My mums name is Penny, basically all she does is house cleaning. I have a feeling that she nearly loves cleaning more than she loves me. My dad's name is Brock, I hardly ever get to see him not because of his job, but because he is usually always in the gym.
At snack time I try to find my best friend Elijah again, but I can't see him anywhere, so I ask the tallest person in the school Drake Baxter if he can see Elijah anywhere. Drake points to a boy with a Mohawk. I am not sure if it is Elijah or not because Elijah usually has an Afro.
After school I go to the bike-shed to pick up my bike but it's not there, so I look around and see a kid that is riding what I think is my bike, and I yell out "hey, that's my bike" then he says "it's not yours so get lost". Now he's done it. I walk up and try to look scary by making an angry face and pulling up my sleeves, making a fist with my hands. Then he starts riding off nooo! I can't let him get away so I go over to a little girl and say "how much for that little bike of yours" and then she very harshly says "$50" I have no choice so I chuck a fifty dollar note at her then hop on her bike and start riding. I am going, but the bike is so small and I am going so slow, I am kind of getting the hang of it; I can finally just see my bike in the distance. He is going nuts riding through car parks and parks but I finally catch him at a dead end and yell "that’s my bike so give it back" then I snatch it off him and ride back to school.
I am finally at the oval where I get picked up, wait.. my pop has my bike at the back of his ute.. oh no then who's bike do I have.