Editor's Note: Chantal lives in Adelaide, South Australia.
Note how she spells words like "enormous;" the Australian's spell it this
way: "enourmous." And do you know what a "texta" is?
It is a type of pen they use in Australia. See if you can notice
any other differences in her writing.
Elsa Downs - Kid Of The FUTURE!!!
I took a deep breath, reassured myself that
everything would be okay, and stepped inside the huge building that was
my new school. Pennsylvania High.
It was ENOURMOUS. I hadn’t imagined it would
be this large. It had a warm,
friendly feel to it and I felt welcome already. The walls were covered
with bright, cheerful drawings and the air was warm and inviting, just
the opposite of what I had expected!
I - Oh, wait!
I’m sorry, I had better introduce myself, I
was just mumbling and…. There I go again.
* Sigh * Ahem.
I am Elsa Downs, Year 8, and this is my first
year in High School. I was really disappointed, going away from my friends
and all. They’re all in the same school right now, probably chatting and
gossiping away, talking about things like fashion and boys and make up
and things. But noooo, Mum said,
“We’re going to Pennsylvania Road, in Perth.
You’ll be happy there, your father got a job as a consultant,” and my father
said “You’ll love it. I got a job there and the school has an excellent
academic standard. Just think, my daughter, Elsa Downs, a scholar!”
Yeah right, Dad. All my friends were near tears
when I left, my best friend Sally Winfield did cry, and so did I. She’s
taking care of my dog, Kitty. Yes, I know, I’ve heard it before. A dog
named kitten? That’s my parents for you.
Well, back to the story….
The warning bell rang, and I jumped. I practically
ran to my locker, and just as I got there, I realized that I didn’t have
my locker combination or classes sheet!
I started for the principal's office, but then
realized I didn’t know where her office was. A student bumped into me,
a girl with brown hair and greenish gray eyes. She was tall and slim, and
had her hair pulled back into a loose ponytail.
I asked her “Hi, I’m new. Do you know where
Mrs. Siloso’s office is?”
The girl looked at me, wide-eyed. “You’re new?
Oh, hi then, I’m Carrie, Carrie Messton. Who are you?” she asked.
“Elsa-Elsa Downs” I stumbled. “Oh, hi! Oh,
I’m sorry, Mrs. Siloso? The principal? Yeah, she’s down the hall, to the
left twice, one right, and….Oh, it’s too hard to explain. Here, I’ll take
you. It’s on the way to my class, Mrs. Frenchman? She’s the Geometry teacher.
Come on, we have to hurry, the bell is going to go really, really soon.”
She said the words quickly, as if trying to
do a tongue twister. The bell went.
“Hurry!” she said, quite loudly. Some students
looked over at us, and their eyes opened in surprise. She grabbed my purple
velvet jacket, and practically ran down the hall.
About a minute later we were in Mrs. Siloso’s
office. We talked to her quickly, and soon we were out of her office, putting
things in and pulling things out of my locker.
Turned out we were in almost all of the same
classes. The day passed quickly, at lunch I sat with Carrie and her friends.
Turns out she was the most popular girl in the school! No wonder those
students back in the hall were surprised!
The first month passed by with no particularly
fun, exciting or anti-normal events, and I got regular calls from Sally.
In about the third week of April, something weird happened.
I was bored, and just waiting for a headache.
I was staring at a texta lid with no texta, and suddenly something happened.
It lifted into the air! I was so startled and
amazed, I fell out of my seat!
I stared at it again. Nothing. I tried
to do it the rest of the day, but came out with nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero.
About a month after that, I did try. And it
lifted! I threw it across the room, using my eyes. It was amazing! I could
hardly believe it! Me? Elsa Downs, ordinary year 8 new girl? Not possible.
Was it?
In the months after I discovered I had the
“talent," as I’d called it, I practiced and practiced. 99% perspiration,
1%….1% what? Talent? I don’t know.
Well, I’d practiced, and one day, in September
I got this very crazy idea. What if I tried to lift myself? Would I be
able to fly? Positive. I tried, and it worked!
I sailed through the air, looking down at my
feet, willing myself up. It was unbelievable! I felt a wonderful feeling,
the air whooshing past my body, my hair in my face.
I heard a gun shot. I heard a scream. I was
over the bank, and I swooped down to see what was happening. There was
a man in gray, holding a gun at the ceiling, and another man in black,
putting his arm around what I supposed was the bank manager. But these
things don’t happen in real life! But neither does flying, does it?
But no time to think about reality and stuff, there was a robbery taking
place!
The bank manager slid into the bank vault,
got about 4 bags filled with what I guessed was money, and put them fearfully
into the black robbers hand. I had learned some karate for a year, when
I was year 5. I flew down, into the bank, and did a
flying kick on the black robber, which knocked him down. Then I grabbed
a bag from off the floor and swung it at the gray robbers head. He went
down, too.
The bank manager ran to the desk behind him,
and pushed the call for police button. Within minutes, they arrived. The
two men were arrested, and taken away.
The police stared at me in amazement.
“How did you do that?” asked a reporter, who
had gotten there a few minutes after the police. All I could do was blush.
“Who are you?” asked a policewoman, writing
things down and staring at me, in awe.
“This young lady saved my bank!” smiled the
bank manager, and handed me a whole bag of notes!
Reporters swarmed over me, asking me questions
like “How did you do that?”
and “How did you know?” and they filmed me all the time. I was half
in shock.
The police called my parents to take me home,
and some reporters followed
me, but my dad scared them away. My parents were speechless. All they
could say was “I’m very proud of you, but what you did was extremely dangerous.”
But I was content.
The next day at school [I had been in the paper
and on the news] students swarmed me with questions and everybody wanted
to sit next to me and things. It was embarrassing!
And ever since, I’ve been doing things like
helping the everyday and occassional crimes in my small town. It’s really
quite a normal life, if you think about it. Oh, duty calls. So long!
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