I can't belive it happened to me!

• Ellen Shawberry, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2005

The ball whizzed across the court, strait to its target-Ebony Ivory, whom was terrible at sport. She was caught unawares tying her shoe. The ball hit her chest, knocking the wind out of her and making her splutter. As Ebony walked off the netball court to countless jeering, she wished she was like everybody else-a kid who was good at sport and had loads of friends.

Ebony was trying to open her locket. It was a plain, wooden, pendant and on the front was a verse carved into it;
This was that of white and green
It will be that of black and white
A hundred generations down from me
Shall open this locket and see this sight.

White and green was legendary Ivory Jade, who had been superhuman in her day. The generations between the two were exactly one hundred. Black and white was her, Ebony Ivory. It had pointed that out twice-one hundred generations. It meant that she was the only person who could open it. Ebony tried to pull off the top off again but it wouldn’t budge. She slipped it around her neck.

Ebony wore the locket to school the next day as a lucky charm. As she was walking to school she heard a yell.
“Hey Bony, see if you can dodge this! “
A rock whizzed towards her and without thinking, Ebony ducked. As she stood up she realized the class bully had thrown the rock. It wasn’t good to defy him. Ebony ran. She didn’t expect to go far but she was at the school in minutes. As she bent double panting, her locket began to glow.

A nearby kid was watching. He decided that he wanted that thing that made Bony so fast. So he stole it from her bag while she wasn’t looking. He decided that this thing must give the wearer superhuman powers. Why not try something he had been bad at? Maybe swimming? He had been terrible at swimming. He headed for the big, deep, dam.

Ebony was panicking. Where was the locket? Suddenly she heard a yelp.
“I’m drowning!”
Ebony dashed to the dam where the voice was coming from. A boy was struggling in the deepest water and there was a group of kids standing on the bank, looking sheepish.
“Ebony, thank goodness you’re here! That boy is drowning and if we tried to help him, our clothes would weigh us down too much.
Ebony didn’t have the locket. She couldn’t swim!!! She hesitated.
“GO, Ebony!”
Ebony plunged into the cold water. She swam like a fish until she reached the middle of the dam. She didn’t even stop when she found the locket around the boy’s neck, just ripped it off and kept going. When she reached the bank, everyone cheered. As they were tending to the boy, she walked away to look at her locket. She brushed it dry with her fingers. And it opened! On the inside was……
Dust.
Ebony felt like crying. There was nothing there. But there was something carved on the inside. It said-
These are the ashes of Ivory Jade.

Ebony smiled and slipped the locket into her pocket.