500 Words

3rd Place: Mia and the Unicorns

Once there was a 7-year-old girl and she had a beautiful name, Mia. She loved reading books.

One day, when she was alone in the park, she saw a different dimension, so she decided she was going to go through. When she slowly walked in, she looked behind her and saw that the portal had disappeared. All of a sudden, she realised that she was going to be stuck in here for quite a while, so she decided that she’s have a look around and get used to being in this strange new world.

Suddenly, she heard a weird noise in the bushes and walked over to see what it was. When she checked, she saw it was a unicorn. It spoke to her in a worried voice, “who are you?”

Mia answered, “I’m Mia. I won’t hurt you.”

The unicorn nodded her head and said, “My name is Emily.”

Emily told Mia that she was going to show her a secret place where her BFF chills out with her. Emily took Mia to the secret hideout and her BFF came. Emily told her Mia was her friend.

“Hi, my name is Brooke.”

“I’m Mia,” Mia answered, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Then, Brooke and Emily told Mia to follow them. Mia did.

While she was following the two unicorns, Mia saw things she didn’t see in her world, like unicats and unidogs. She thought they were so cute.

Mia had a sudden thought about where the two unicorns were taking her, and wondered if there was something wrong because the pair had worried expressions on their faces.

When they finally got to where they needed to go, Mia looked up and saw it was some sort of castle. They walked in and the two unicorns turned to Mia.

“This is where the Queen of our land lives.” They explained, “So treat her with respect.”

Mia nodded her head in agreement.

All of a sudden, a kind voice said, “What brings you here?”

Emily and Brooke answered, “We have found a human girl, and wondered if we could take care of her until a portal takes her back home?”

The Queen answered, “Yes, the girl can stay with you for as long as you want. As long as she doesn’t break our rules.”

The two unicorns nodded, lead Mia back to where they live, and explained the rules.

Mia asked the pair if they could play together, and after a few hours of playing with her new friends, Brooke and Emily told Mia that this was the best day ever.

Mia told them that she was tired, and was going to go to sleep, but the two BFFs gave her a bracelet and slept.

By: Brooke T

Class: Mexico City

House: Red

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2^nd Place: (Untitled)

Chapter 1: A day in the life of Scarlett.

“Scarlett, wake up!” Mam shouted.

“I’m up. I’m up!” I replied.

“Get ready,” she pleaded, “you’re walking with Oliver today.”

“Okay, I’m going now. Love you!” I shouted, “Bye!”

I left the house, and finally found Oliver.
“Hey! Guess what?” I said, excitedly, “I’m going to an escape room tonight, so I’ll be in a room by myself with complete strangers!”

“That sounds amazing!” said Oliver. “Hey, race you to class… The last one there is a rotten egg! Ready? Three, two, one… banana! Ha ha, got you!” he joked, then said again “three two, one…”

Obviously, I was not going to fall for that a second time, but I did!

“GO!” shouted Oliver.

He ran off and I followed behind him. When we got into class, I was relieved because my feet were hurting so badly.

After what felt like a century, the bell finally rang to end the lesson. Oliver and I looked at each other.

“Run for your lives,” we said together.

Everyone knows that is when a stampede of children come rushing out.

I said goodbye to Oliver and went to play with Libby. We haven’t seen each other for such a long time, she is shocked when I get to her and screams.
“I’m sorry I haven’t seen you Libby, I’ve had girl drama...” I told her.

Libby understood, “You don’t have to apologise, it’s alright.”

Just then, the whistle blew. We agreed to spend time together at lunch, so we were both happy about that.

Chapter 2: The Night of the Escape Room

When I got home from school, I changed so fast I felt like supersonic, and then I set off in a jiffy. I sang a song on the way that went something like:

“I’m going on a trip

On my favourite rocket ship

To the space escape room”

When I got there, there was a person dressed up as an alien.

“Beep bop.” He said which I assumed meant come in, because he held the door open for me.

When I skipped inside, I suddenly froze. It was pitch black.

Suddenly, there were white shimmers everywhere. The door slammed shut and the planet lights came on. It was as if I was in space, I could see the whole Earth for myself – and not just a photo this time.

That fun did NOT last long at all, because, just then, a spotlight shone brightly onto an alien. A real one this time! This alien spoke English this time.

“I am Thomas, the head alien. This is my troop; Roman, Max, Archie, Oliver and Alexander. We are mythical creatures…”

I was confused, and thought that my friend Oliver was an alien. I was sure he would have told me if he was. Thankfully, they just had the same name!

Alien Thomas said that I could ‘zap up’ four friends, so I chose Oliver, Libby, Emily and Joe.

When they got there, it was time to fight…

Chapter 3: The Fight

When I told the team the plan, we got ready to fight the aliens.

We got into our battle gear. All of us had bullet proof vests and weapons, but to be extra safe, Libby, Emily and myself all wore rugby helmets too.

“Okay team. Emily, you go for Archie. Libby, you go for Alexander. Joe, you go for Roman, Oliver, You go for Oliver (the alien), and I will go for Max.

When we are all done, we all go for Thomas TOGETHER!”

The fight begins.

Alien Archie knocks Emily on her helmet with a punch, dazing her for a second. Emily doesn’t give in though, and shoots the alien in the chest.

Libby gets into a sword fight with Alien Alexander. I can hear the metal clanking. Libby stumbles and falls to the floor. The alien comes over, but Libby kicks him. He is defeated.

Joe launches a grenade at Alien Roman. It blew off his head, and injured Alien Thomas in the blast.

Alien Oliver spits venom at Oliver. It melts through his bullet proof vest and he starts to panic. Libby sees Oliver is in trouble, and runs over to help. Alien Oliver turns to face her. Oliver quickly grabs his Taser, and stuns him.

Alien Max goes to hurt me, but I use my martial arts training to get him with a back leg, front kick. The alien falls to the ground, so I pick up a rock from nearby and drop it on him.

“He’ll be stuck there for a while,” I laugh to the rest of my team.

Alien Thomas is already injured. My team and I circle around him. He begins to weep.

“All of my troops. You have defeated them… Now I shall defeat you! Trust me, I will get my revenge!” he said, smugly.

“If you beam us down now, we will leave you alone.” I said.

So he did!

And we all lived happily ever after… Or did we..?!

By: Scarlett T

Class Thailand

House: Yellow

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1^st Place: Lost in Space

Chapter 1 - Hopes and Dreams

Once upon a time, there was a little boy called Jake. When he was older, he was hoping to be an astronaut. He was nine years old at the time, so it was still quite a lot of years until that might happen.

A few years later, I went into space to learn about astronauts. I learnt that astronauts are people who go in rockets up to space. It is fun because it does not have gravity, so you can jump really high.

There was a group of friends that were interested in it too, called Jaid, Thomas and Luca. They started a group called ‘Research for Space’.

On my 10^th birthday, my family got me two things: an astronaut suit and a game. Not any ordinary game, a board game. And not just a board game, an astronaut board game. So, we had a board game night and played it, because it was my birthday. The ‘Research for Space’ group, Jaid, Thomas and Luca, came to my house.

But... 10 years later….

Chapter 2 - Is This Becoming True?

I am 20 now and I am living on my own. I found a contract saying I get to go to space. In a rocket! I am going tomorrow, so I still have a night.

I am really excited for tomorrow, but it is really late. It is 3am. I have to be there at 7 in the morning, so I need to get to sleep because I am tired.

It is now 6 in the morning and I have an hour until I have to be at NASA. I am on the way to NASA because it takes half an hour. I am getting on the rocket and wearing the suit that my Mam got me for my 10^th birthday. I can’t wait to set off!

I am sitting down in the seat and we are doing the countdown “ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five four, three, two, one… blast off!” and we are on the way. It takes 10 weeks to get there.

Chapter 3 – Lost in Space

We just set off and we were a week in when one of the engines had stalled so we got a warning sound. . Then the whole rocket ship stopped, the doors opened and the seatbelts unclipped. I fell out with Thomas, Luca and Jaid and they floated away. I floated a different way, into the pitch black.

Stranded in the endless void, just him and his soulless thoughts circling his empty mind. He was floating there, not taking in what just happened. He started to go dizzy.

Then, all of a sudden, his thoughts came flooding back and he started to panic. Thinking if he will ever make it back to Earth. He stopped, took a breath and just let everything sink in so he could process what had happened, and what he could do. I was thinking for hours and then I came up with a solution – my phone! Call for help! But all of his happiness skipped as he realised that he had no Wi-Fi. He started thinking, “what can I do?” until BOOM, BOOM, BOOM…

By: Thomas W

Class: Thailand

House: Yellow

Design your own Pumpkin - 2022