Imagine

• Olivia Moresi, Grade 8
• Short Story
• 2021

I do not like school. I don’t talk to anyone. Although I look normal, I’m not. My brain isn’t. That’s why I don’t have any friends. Sometimes it makes me feel sad and alone. But I don’t need friends, I have my stories.

Dad left when I was born. Now it’s just mum, Cate and me. Cate wants to live with dad, but mum won’t let her. She says we have to stick together.

One day at school I decided to bring my storybook with me. When I got it out at lunch the other kids laughed at me, but I just went to the special garden.

The reason Dad left was because of me. Mum doesn’t want me to know, but Cate told me so. I believe her. Cate knew our dad, and she’s smart. I am too, but Cate is five years older than me. Usually I can trust her.

A few years ago, precisely two years, the principal asked me and mum to come into his office. Then he said that they were making a special garden for me to relax in. I like the garden because it’s pretty and has lots of animals. I tried to bring a snail into class once, but a girl called Amanda saw it, and Miss Prince made me put it back.

I sit in the garden and write in my storybook. My stories make me feel happy. I can make them whatever I want. My two best friends are Scubaman and Naturegirl. Their real names are James and Sienna, but only I know that. When we fight crime, I am Fireboy.

Cate had a meltdown yesterday. She misses Dad. I do not understand. Cate has mum and me, what more can she want? I do not miss Dad. However I cannot miss a person I have never met. I hope Cate does not run away, or Scubaman, Naturegirl and me will have to find her.

On my first day of school I was bullied. Lots of the boys pushed me around and spat mean words at me. I did not have my friends Scubaman and Naturegirl yet, so I ran away. I do not want to remember that though. Now I have my friends, and I can be really brave.

Cate did run away. Mum spent the whole day sobbing desperately, and I think she called dad for the first time since I was born (11 years 5 months and 3 days). But that afternoon the police found her. Thankfully Cate had spent the day with her best friend in the city.

Mum says I’m creative. That’s why my stories are so good. But they’re not just stories, they’re my happy place. I can escape the harsh world through my writing. Stories can be whatever you want them to be. Just like friends are the family you can choose, writing is the life you can choose. Physical boundaries might stop me, but my imagination is as free as can be.