A Little Penguin In A Big World

• Caitlin Reynolds, Grade 5, Banyule Primary School
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Horizon of Dreams 2018' competition

Lisa was a small and young penguin but had an imagination of an explorer. Lisa lived with her family in Antarctica. Antarctica was as cold as snow in a freezer. It was hard to live in a cold world, but Lisa and her family seemed to manage.
"The world is a place waiting for you to explore" Lisa's mum would explain to her every night.
"Can I explore tomorrow?" She asked her mother hopefully. "Not tomorrow" replied her mother.
"Why not?”
"You are going to school tomorrow." Lisa sighed, she didn't want to go to school at all.
Soon the sun rose up and Lisa was ready for school. Lisa barely got any sleep last night, she could not stop thinking about her first day at school. Her mum walked her to the drop off zone. Lisa's mum could tell Lisa was worried. "You will be fine" she told Lisa before leaving her. Lisa was faced with a huge building as big as a whale. It was grey with a black roof, at the main entrance it had a sign saying 'Lanice Primary School'. Lisa was even more worried, it didn't sound like fun school at all.
Later that day, the lunch bell rang, and every penguin went outside including Lisa and her new best friend, Lily. Lisa was actually enjoying her day so far until another penguin came along.
"What are you doing?" She demanded. "It doesn't matter" Lily responded.
"It does actually" replied the penguin and started pushing Lily around. "Stop that!" cried Lisa. The penguin stopped and started pushing Lisa around until the end of lunch. Lisa went home with scratches and bruises, she cried all night and until the sun came up again.
The next day at lunch, the penguin came back and this time bullied Lily. It was time for Lisa to stand up for herself and her friend.
"I said stop it, how would you like it if you were treated badly?" Lisa screamed. Soon the whole school was watching. The conversation went on and on until finally the school realised the penguin was a bully and started chanting “LISA, LISA, LISA” and kept chanting until the penguin finally ran away. Lily hugged Lisa.
"Thank you for standing up for me" Lily whispered. Lisa smiled "Do you want to come over to my house?"
"I would love to" and the two walked home together giggling all the way!