The Mysterious Thief

• Rachel Chen, Grade 6, Robertson State School
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition

Yesterday, the students and teachers of Rookwood State School had arrived at Shady Pines hotel. Mrs Phylis (their school science teacher) had talked on the phone to a mysterious person. Now, they were all going mining. The students were talking to each other excitedly.
"I wonder what we'll find," one student exclaimed.
As the teachers silenced them! Mrs Phylis told everyone what they were going to do. After 10 minutes of non-stop talking, she finally said,
"And remember, you must stay with the group."
"Yes miss," all the children chorused even though they weren't listening.
Mrs Phylis gave each student and teacher (including herself) a bag. They were to put whatever they found in the bag. After about an hour of fossicking, some students started squealing in delight. They had found lots of diamonds and emeralds! As more students discovered gems, Mrs Phylis became more and more jealous. She was going to get them for her mysterious friend and herself. After a day of mining, the students and teachers had collected many gems so it was a very slow walk back to the hotel as their backpacks were as heavy as elephants. When everyone had finally returned to the hotel, Mrs Phylis kindly suggested everyone to leave their bags in the lobby and have an early night.
As dawn broke, people started to rise and retrieve their bags, the quietness of the night was broken by the cries of dismay.
"What happened to my gems?! Where's my precious emerald?! Who's the thief?!" Interesting enough, Mrs Phylis didn't appear to be worried about this uproar.
Mrs Phylis sent everyone to find the gems while she sneaked out the lobby door to a run-off car.
Just at this moment, there was a yell, "Stop right there!"
She turned around to see a gang of policemen standing there. They had found out, but how? Nobody had told them unless...
"So you thought you could get away with it? It was the familiar voice of her friend.
"How could you?!" yelled Mrs Phylis in shock. How could Jenny tell the police? She answered with sadness now,"I just couldn't go on stealing money, I'm sorry."
Phylis thought about Jenny's words carefully as she was driven to the police station. Now that she thought about it, Jenny had never agreed to steal, she had forced her.
"Yay, I got my gems back!" was exclaimed hundreds of times on the bus back to school. The teachers could remember these words forever. Jenny had promised to explain everything when they got back to school. Everyone was happy for the rest of the day except one person and you know who that is don't you?