A Second Chance

• Abbie Wrightson, Grade 2, St Mary's School
• Short Story
• 2017

Excellence Award in the 'Write Here Write Now 2017' competition

Once upon a time in a small town in a tiny cottage lived a young girl called Petunia. Petunia was totally unique and she was naughty, curious and cheeky. One day, Petunia left town on her horse Samantha without taking any supplies. Mum insisted that I go with her which she wasn't very happy about but eventually she got over it.
Petunia and I rode Samantha the horse to the first of 3 villages. When we arrived at the first village we saw a huge, tall tower in the centre of the town. We assumed it was an Inn so we carefully made our way there to find a room for the night. When we went inside the Inn, Petunia demanded a room immediately. The manager said "first of all you could use some manners and ask for a room nicely and secondly, you need to speak with the receptionist for a room." I decided that Petunia and I might be better off leaving and finding somewhere else to stay.
When we arrived at the second village, I asked Petunia to let me do the talking but she just ran away. It took me the rest of the day to find her and by then none of the Inns had a room for us.
We then made our way to the third village. Petunia and I soon got into a fight over finding somewhere to stay when suddenly we were thrown into a bag and taken onto a boat. The sailors told us that we were on the boat of 'second chances'. This immediately made me think of a gymnastics competition I had taken part in last year - I had badly wanted to come first but sadly I ended up coming second. The sailors confirmed that we had the opportunity to compete in a 'second chance' gymnastics competition. When we arrived at the competition, Petunia badly wanted to compete too and so I said she could have a turn knowing she wouldn't be very good seeing she had never done gymnastics before. Petunia went first and when I saw her walking upside down I knew she had a chance at winning. Luckily my routine was better and I won the gold medal while Petunia came fourth.
After the competition we took a flight back to the third town, collected Samantha and raced home.