Grounded For Weeks

• Emma Stanley, Grade 6
• Short Story
• 2020

Sobbing, Charlie raced to his room whilst punching the air. He flung himself on his untidy bed. “Life is not fair,” he muttered. From downstairs Charlie’s mum yelled “…and you’re grounded for a week.” He looked up on his calendar to see what he would be missing this week. Charlie, bewildered, checked that he hadn’t been hallucinating. No, it was there. Tomorrow he was invited to go to his best friend’s house. Charlie dropped to the floor, devastated. He could tell why he was invited, the new game James got on the weekend. Suddenly, Charlie had a light bulb moment...

Later on, standing in the en-suite his mother faced the mirror after her shower, her face dropped as she howled “Charlie”. “Yes” he responded, racing into his parent’s room. “What did you do to your hair?” Blankly she stood there, white hair draping over her shoulder. “I have a meeting tomorrow and do you think I want to turn up with bleached hair,” she snapped. “Look Charlie, I know you were upset that you can’t go to your friend’s house but this is going too far.”Charlie looked around thinking of what to say. “It…. wasn’t my fault, I was trying to help by doing jobs around the house, I must have got the bottles of shampoo and bleach mixed up. I’m sorry, I wouldn’t do that to you.” he stammered, spitting out his words. His mother wasn’t convinced. “That’s it,”she shouted. “Now you are grounded for 2 weeks!”

Speechless, Charlie dragged his feet along the carpet back to his room, tears creating a waterfall as he went. He curled up into a ball, he could feel a storm brewing inside. Rage fizzed throughout his body. His sobbing was uncontrollable as his mother came in holding the phone in her hand. “I can see that you didn’t do this on purpose, did you? So that’s why I have decided that you can still go to your friend’s house.” Charlie’s heart swelled with happiness. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” he exclaimed as he squeezed his mum, almost suffocating her.

“Come on mum , we are going to be late.” Charlie’s mum rolled her eyes as she and Charlie hopped in the car and set out to his friend’s place. Once they where there Charlie hugged his mum goodbye as she gave a secretive smile to James’s mother. “Hello Charlie, come on in, James is waiting for you.” Quickly he ran up the smooth stone steps and into the large house. A huge smile stretched across his face.“I can’t wait to tell him all about the...” Charlie stopped short. His smile faded. A sea of smiling faces looked up at him. “Hey Charlie, thanks for coming,” James smiled. “We are holding play group today, and my mother said I could invite a friend to help.” Charlie took in his last breath of happiness, and prayed that this didn’t have to take too long. He knew that the pain hadn’t started…