The School Fun-Day Disaster

• Sienna Elder, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2018

Finally, it was the day everyone loves… school fun-day I thought eagerly as my Mum was driving me and my sister, Arishna, to school. “I’M SO EXCITED!” Arishna shrieked with happiness.

We jostled to the line-up ready to get called on to the bus. Waiting… Waiting… I really wanted to leave, then finally the voice I’ve been waiting for yelled out. “Amelia Watson, onto the bus please!” Mrs Foster declared into her amplifier shooting the words out of the speakers. I jumped onto the bus and pulled out my book called ‘How to Impress People in the Water.’ By the time we arrive at Misty Lake I’ve figured out the basics.

“Ok, we’re here, everyone into the lake. Be safe and have fun!” Screeched Mrs Crabapple. Nobody dared to look at her because she was wearing a bikini. She looked like a burnt apple pie in floral bikinis. She was round, extremely brown with fake tan and a little bit crusty! “Well, that’s what Arishna told me when she dared to look at her,” I exclaimed to my best friend Katie.

We leap into the dark lake from the jetty and I decide to swim to the extra deep part. It’s awfully dark. Suddenly I hear the horrible gurgling sounds. I start to splash away in absolute terror, and it can only mean one thing, the legend of the horrible Lago Monster is true! I scream but only bubbles come out and I swim as fast I can, desperate for oxygen. Horror at the thought of it eating me gives me the adrenaline I need to escape its grips! I leap out of the lake and scream that the Lago Monster is in there. They don’t believe me at first but then they see bubbles forming. They get closer and closer until the monster somersaults out of the lake and plunges back in spraying water everywhere. The teachers are running to and fro from the bus, herding the children to safety. All the kids were screaming in absolute panic and alarm.

Suddenly with a single gurgle a kid is swallowed whole! “OH. MY. GOSH! Katie! Noooooo!” I can’t believe what I just saw. I’m in so much despair that I can’t even hear the teachers trying to comfort me. I can’t believe it. Surely it can’t be true. Finally, I recover from my shock to hear the crowd of students cheering “Go Katie, Go Katie.” I run over there and Arishna says that Katie is beating the monster up from the inside with her Tae-Kwon-Do moves! With a shrill and chilling screech it falls silent forever and Katie escapes through its jaws. She stumbles to me and gives me a massive hug. I don’t even care that I’m being covered with slime from her. “You didn’t even read my book but we’re all impressed with what you did in the water!” I joke to Katie.