Never Give A Seagull A Chip

• Sophie Hallett, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2015

Once there was a little smiley girl called Sally. She had long brown hair which she usually kept in a ponytail.
One day Sally’s grandparents wanted to take her to the beach. “It will be so much fun,” said Sally. “I can’t wait!”
When they got there Sally leapt out of the car. “Go get changed into your swimmers in the beach house, then you can go for a swim,” said Grandma. So Sally did just that and soon enough she was ready for the beach.
Sally had lots of fun at the beach jumping over waves and building sandcastles with her Grandpa.
“Let’s go get some fish and chips to eat on the beach for lunch,” suggested Grandpa. “Delicious,” said Sally and soon they were sitting on the sand eating chips.
Just then a seagull flew down and tried to get a chip. “Look Grandma, a seagull! Here you go,” said Sally, throwing the seagull a chip. The seagull ate the chip and flew away. “Aww it’s gone,” said Sally. “Don’t worry….it will be back” said Grandma.
Sally waited for the seagull to come back and then suddenly shouted “Look! There are hundreds of them!” And sure enough there were noisy seagulls everywhere. “We can’t feed all of them” shouted Sally. “That’s why you never give a seagull a chip” sighed Grandpa.
“What will we do? There’s so many,” asked Sally, a little scared. “I know! We could chase them,” said Grandma. So that’s what they did, but every time they chased the seagulls away, they would just land again.
Finally Sally gave up. “It’s not working! We’ll never do it,” said Sally.
“Don’t lose hope,” said Grandma. “How about we just move?”
”Ok,” sighed Sally.
As soon as they moved to another spot on the beach, all the seagulls followed them. “This is a disaster! I never should have fed that seagull,” cried Sally.
“It’s not your fault dear” said Grandma.
“It kind of is…..”
They were all thinking the same thing: The seagulls would never go away!!
All of a sudden, a man with a floppy hat a couple of metres away threw a chip. Oh-oh, he’s in trouble Sally thought. But she didn’t really care, Sally was just happy the seagulls had moved on. The man raised his hat and smiled.
“G-day mate” he said. “Blimey, you got yourself into a bit of trouble there, eh?”
“Well, I gave one seagull a chip and then they wouldn’t go away”
“A simple mistake everyone makes!!”
“Darling say thank you to…” said Grandma.
“Oh I’m Jacko”.
“Sally, say thank you to Jacko for getting rid of all the seagulls” Grandma told Sally.
“Thank you Jacko,” Sally said.
“Ah no worries, I seem to have gotten into a bit of trouble me-self.”
“We’d better go now,” Grandpa said.
So they said their goodbyes and walked to the car. All the way home everyone was thinking the same thing…..
“Never give a seagull a chip!”