Friday, 27 March 2020

Short Story Competition Winners!

We were thrilled to receive so many of your fantastic short story entries! The quality of all of your entries was so impressive and it was a really difficult task for all the teachers to pick two winners...

The two stories chosen were 'From a dog's point of view!' by Harry Quinn & 'Vanilla' by Hannah Foy.

You can read their stories below. Your book vouchers will be in the post early next week. 

We will be uploading all of your stories to the blog in the coming weeks. Once again, a huge thank you from all of the teachers for so many brilliant entries!



From a dog’s point of view!

By Harry Quinn

John looked bored. “father, can we get a dog,” he moaned. He begged and begged but he couldn’t change his father’s mind. “John, we do not have enough space in this house for a mangy dog” said his father. Then John continued begging for three days, two hours and 41 minutes and finally his father reached breaking point and said “fine…!”

                                     
As they entered the pet store, the old lady at the till said “you’re so cute” as she gazed at John. This did not impress John. “ I’m 13 going on 21” said John bluntly. The lady was unimpressed and continued with her work.
There were lots of animals there. They walked by cats, budgies, canaries, turtles, fish, snakes and finally they came to the dog pen. “What breed would you like” asked John’s father, trying to get it over with. John immediately fixed on a cockapoo who was standing with his paws on the fence. “€459.99, no way!” cried John’s father. “Wait a minute father, the 4 is crossed out!; it’s actually €59.99”.

In the car the cockapoo was sitting in the boot, looking out over the back seat. Soon the car stank of smelly dog. “He needs a bath” cried John’s father. “I agree” John happily replied, but John didn’t mind the smell because he had his own dog!

As the cockapoo walked through the house, he did a few things! He slipped on a blanket, jumped onto the table, knocked over the T.V., licked the freezer and got his tongue stuck and finally did a bit of business on the kitchen floor.
“He’s not trained, he needs a wash, what do we do?” sighed John. It was now 2 o’clock and the cockapoo still didn’t have a name.”What do you think father?” asked John.”I don’t care about the stupid dog's name, all I care about is making sure he stops eating my tissues!” You could tell John’s father was not enjoying the whole thing.” How about Ted?” John suggested. John’s father didn’t answer since he didn’t care. ”Let’s give him a bath” said John “ Now where is the dog flea shampoo?”.


Getting Ted into the sink was a real pain. Ted scuttled across the floor. When John finally grabbed Ted he started to squeal. Ted shook a little then stopped, then shook again, then stopped. Then Ted did a pee all over John.

John was disgusted but got on with getting Ted into the sink. Then Ted did a number 2 all over John!
Even worse, after that John slipped on one of the toys that he bought for Ted. Luckily, John fell on his back. Ted walked away thinking to himself, this person deserves this for trying to drown me in this pond. Ted picked up his toy and walked to the fire place, while John shouted “TED!!!”

John’s father thought to himself – John has learnt one thing today: NEVER WASH TED!


Vanilla by Hannah Foy

I walk through the empty streets with wonder. I’ve never seen Andwick like this before.

I sit down on the bench, the rain water soaking my denim jeans. Cooper gazes at me, I scratch his ear and he wags his tail in response. His copper fur wet from the rain. Tia walks out of the news agency, she spots me and comes over. She tightens her pony tail as she sits down, only to stand back up when she felt the water seep through her black leggings.

I giggle slightly, her face when she stood back up was priceless. She gives me a stern look and crouches down to pat Cooper. All of a sudden Cooper starts to pull at the lead, causing Tia to jump up. “What’s wrong buddy?” I say. Cooper starts to bark rapidly and tug even harder. “What’s wrong with him Jamie?” Tia said still a little startled.

Then a purple light goes zooming past us. “Hey Jamie you saw that right?”  Tia said hesitantly. “y-yeah, I saw that,” I replied. I can’t explain the feeling that rushed through me. Tia and I tried to calm ourselves, we brought Cooper home and went out to get a milkshake. The cafe across the street from my house had them. It was a red brick building with a huge window in the front, outside chairs scattered the area.

The inside of the cafe had a rustic feeling to it, there were booths in the back and the rest of the space was filled with chairs. Although today was empty. Mr. Marchand was sitting behind the register. He was muttering something in French that we couldn’t understand. I looked at him awkwardly.
Some rustling came from the kitchen and Mr. Marchand looked up at us. “Girls, what are you doing here?” he said concerned. Tia and I looked at each other in confusion, “well, we were wondering if we could have a milkshake?” I said. A moment later, Tia replied with. “Yeah, we saw something strange and we needed to calm our nerves.” Mr. Marchand looked at us, “you girls shouldn't be here!” he barked. We stood back. “What? Why?” Tia said worried. “We are being attacked!’

There was a deafening noise. It sounded like an atomic bomb. Mr. Marchand looked at us and said soundlessly,“ Run!”
I looked at Tia as the ceiling started to collapse. We ran out, feeling so many emotions. We were half way down the street when I said, “Tia wait! What about Cooper?” She looked at me with tears and then said, “well, what are we waiting for?” She started running to my house, me following close behind. She swung open the door and Cooper ran out. I called for him and we all ran to the bridge. It was a big brick bridge at the edge of town, me and Tia would always sit there and chat.

We had reached the bridge, sitting down huddled up together. Another bomb had erupted. It was getting late and it must have been past midnight by the time I fell asleep…

I woke up that morning, scared to open my eyes. It was over, the town was in ruins and it was chaos all around, but at least it was over. I found out later on that day that it had been an attack by unknown people. I knew people knew more about it, but decided against asking since quite frankly I didn't want to know. Tia was brought away to see her family. I had to live with my aunt & uncle. Although they were very sympathetic and were understanding when I went into one of my moods…

All of this was a long time ago now. It’s been 10 years and I'm still stuck telling this story. I'm an author now & I’m married to Mr. Marchand’s son, he had been living with his mother at the time of the bomb. Tia didn't get married but she did become a gold medal olympic champion in the long jump!