Narrative

I was late, very very late. Mum’s gonna kill me, she always worries when I’m not home on time.  Maybe if I take a short cut I will be able to get home before her.

“Tevita hurry up, we have to go”, he finished tying his shoe and jumped up, “Ready”, he said.  I started walking ahead of him, “What do you reckon, we take the short cut through the forest.  It’s only like a rugby field long, we could do it” I said. Tevita stopped walking in shock, “The forest, are you crazy?  There’s a monster in the forest, no one walks through there and comes out the other side”.

I stopped to think about it, there was a story that all the kids had heard about.  If anyone walked through the forest the monster that no one has ever seen would get you and eat you, leaving your bones on the ground where you stood in shock and gasped your last breath.

I shook my head, “Nah that’s all rubbish, we’ll be sweet. We are both fast, no one could catch us”.  Tevita said “Trudat, we pretty fast, yeah let’s do it.  Then when kids ask us about it we would say it was easy as’.

We made it to the opening and looked down the dark scary road.  There was a light at the other end, this is going to save us like half an hour, we got to do it.  We looked at each other, I nodded at him and he raised his eyebrows.  It was go time, we tightened our bags on our backs so they would flop all over the place.

“Ready” I said, “Ready” he said, “Okay, ready set go” I screamed.  We started running, looking from side to side to make sure there was nothing there. It was all good, I was getting tired but we couldn’t stop.  If we stop then who knows what would happen.  

We are halfway now, we are going well.  Tevita started to slow down, “Don’t stop, don’t stop”, I puffed out.  “I don’t think I can make it” he shouted. “Keep going, keep going”, I said.

Then we heard a noise, we both stopped in our tracks.  “What was that?” he said.  “I don’t know”, I said.  We both looked back, there was something coming towards us, I couldn’t tell what it was, but it was coming fast and making a big rattling noise. We looked at each other and at the same time and screamed “Arhhhhhhh”, we turned back around and ran as fast as we could.  I didn’t think my legs could be this fast, but this was my life, I’m too young to die.

We were close to the end, the light was right there.  Just a little bit more, we are going to make it.  Then right before we made it we both tripped up and landed straight on our faces.  It was sore, a pain like no other. We slowly got up, the noise was right behind us. Oh no we are stuffed, we both looked behind us.

“Errrrrrrttt”, then dirt flew in our faces. It finally cleared. “What you fulla’s doing, why were you running so fast” Zane said.  I was racing my bike down here cause I saw you run into the forest”.  Tevita and I looked at each other and started laughing.  We were so scared we fell over, that was so crazy.

We brushed the dirt off ourselves, and we starting walking again, out of the forest.  We all turned back at the forest, “Monster, what a joke” I said.  “Well better get home before I get into any more trouble”, we all laughed.

Show Not Tell

Feeling sad and unwanted, he jumped out the window after being told he was adopted. He got into an argument with his mother and out loud she yelled “You’re adopted” his heart dropped, he ran up the stairs into his bed and laid there for a while. Well lying there with tears dripping down his face he was thinking to himself, is my whole life a lie.

He needed some fresh air, so he jumped out the window from two stories up and landed on a dusty old mattress that had been on their front lawn for the past week. He started walking to his school, it was the closest place with a park. While walking he saw some of his friends, they called, “Ben, Ben wanna come play with us?” Ben ignored them and continued on walking.

When he got to the park he tried to open the gate. “Cling cling!” As the lock tightens on the gate, there was no other way but to jump over the huge gate, but he did it with ease and landed hard on his feet. He hopped on the swing, swinging to and fro as the chain creeks, having another think about what’s happening. 

His mother, well kinda his mother walked into his room and saw the window wide open, she rushed down the stairs horrified. She grabbed her keys locked the door and jumped into the car and sped down the road, looking around “Ben where are you?“ she screamed her heart was racing, in her head she was wondering if she’d ever see him again.

Ben’s friends noticed he looked sad while he was walking, they followed him hoping he wouldn’t do anything silly. They watched him from afar while he swung on the swing. It got to about 6:00pm and Ben showed no sign of going back home and his mum was still searching the streets, but was nowhere near finding him. She didn't want to give up, she needed to find him. His friends got bored so they came out of the bushes and walked up to Ben and asked “What’s wrong?” Ben answered “Nothing”, Ben’s friends knew something was wrong so they offered to take him back home and Ben accepted the offer. They started walking back home, Ben head was down and he was looking angry. His friends didn't know whether to ask again or just leave him, so they all walked in silence.

They arrived at Ben’s house, they all noticed his mum's car was gone but no one knew where. Ben friend said “She's probably out looking for you”. Ben finally told them that they got into an argument and his mum told him he was adopted, his friends were shocked to hear the news and waited on the wooden door step with him. It 8:00 pm at night and Ben’s mum decided to return home hoping he would be there. She drove up the driveway and there he was they both ran to each other, arms open for a big hug, tears dripping down their faces. Ben then said the words she wanted to hear, “I love you mum”. Ruining the moment Ben’s friends said “Uhmm can we have a ride home?”

Return Of The Moa

Nga Pakanga O Aotearoa