The Friendship Hunt

• Gisela Prouting, Grade 4
• Short Story
• 2022

The cold droplets of rain fell heavily onto the pale concrete ground as five figures walked along the pebbles of the Botanical Gardens. The swirling and howling wind picked up loose items from the deserted streets of Melbourne. The rain started to pour continuously until it had nothing left, so the hot baking sun took the show.

“I want to be it!” exclaimed Ava.
“No,” said Mawi, “it’s my turn.”
“Stop!” Growled Peter, “you’re giving me a headache.”
“I don’t know if I want to be friends with you guys anymore.” said Tilly.
“You guys are annoying me!” yelled Pepper. The group was just about to break out into another round of yelling when a crash and bang erupted. Colours surrounded them. The world became glitchy and overwhelming. Peter screamed anxiously, grabbing and kicking the air only to realise it had stopped.

The five friends nervously took in their surroundings. Even though it was still glitchy they could see a narrow hall with different coloured doors ahead of them.
Carefully Tilly opened a red door and said, “Look! Can you see us? We’re there! We’re making the newspaper dress in Miss D’s class.” They all ran up to see.
“Oh, and behind this door is us playing the spinning game!” said Pepper excitedly. “Every door shows us moments that have made us friends. But they look like they are disappearing,” Pepper said sadly.

There was a minute of silence until Ava exclaimed, “We need to save these moments. Let’s collect all the items that have made us friends. That might work”. So they split up, venturing behind each coloured door.

Holding the red door open, Ava could see herself, Tilly and Mawi bustling around Pepper, who was trying to stand as still as a statue.
“Come on guys, we only have a minute left to make the dress!” Tilly shouted as she stuck a roughly ripped piece of newspaper to the outfit.
“Times up!”declared Miss D. The present Ava quickly jumped in and ripped off the newspaper outfit, and without explaining to the astonished past-selves, she ran back out, closing the red door behind her.
After much effort and no explanation to the past selves, they assembled all the items of what held their friendship together into a circle. Then they held hands and closed their eyes in silence. They thought of all those precious moments and feelings of belonging. Then all of the items hovered elegantly before them spinning faster and faster like a terrifying tornado. Suddenly, the items combined with a blinding flash of light so powerful that the friends were momentarily blinded. Blinking, they saw their ‘hall of friendship moments’ wasn’t disappearing or gloomy, it was bright and full of joy. “Finally!” burst Peter. Everyone stared at him as if he was crazy. Then they slowly got pixelated back to the familiar Botanical Gardens. The five friends had just saved their friendship from disappearing for eternity.
For now…