Young Writers Society

I laughed in joy as the chute disappeared beneath me and I was flying on the torrent of air. I could hear all my friends screaming around me, but I just laughed and tried to brush my whipping hair from my face. Suddenly, I was dropping, faster than I ever dropped before. I couldn’t even pull my hand out to whip up a light breeze.

Next to me I saw Claire sprout wings and soar off and Kelly lash out with a rope and swing out of the way of the wind current, even Teya froze the flow of the current and managed to escape it, but here I was. With the power of wind and stuck in a wind torrent. I finally dredged up the strength for a strong breeze but instead of being whisked away, I was spun off in a type of cylinder. I looked down and realized I had whipped up my own mini-tornado!

I didn’t dare move until my feet hit the ground.

‘Wow, impressive,’’ Dawn said with a smile.. We all looked up and there, in front of us was the Utopian girl’s house.

Windsor lane, Paphoshire, 89, 2:00 am

It was my fault. I shouldn’t have tried to be like them. It was supposed to be the best day of my life. I was always following the most popular girls at school, never being myself, when one day it went too far.

‘It was a dark and stormy night. They were all alone,’’ said Brittany, in an over-dramatic voice.

We were all alone at my house on my birthday. All the girls I had invited insisted that my party should be spooky themed. Earlier on that day, mum had been serving the girls and I as if we were superstars. My mum is a chef and works in a gigantic bakery making cakes for the Boarding School of High Standards, occasionally shoving the odd cake slice into her own mouth. She had made a feast of jam and blueberry doughnuts, owl cupcakes and gigantic triple layered cream cakes with my name iced on top. All the food was blue, red and purple themed, the colour of the northern lights.

Not much had been eaten with all the girls fretting about their diets, even though we were all only twelve. I had felt guilty at the look on mum’s face when all the girls turned down seconds, but never would I mess up in front of the girls. Lily and Brittany were my best friends. At school they called us the three P’s for the three pains. It’s always Brittany, Lily and me. I’m afraid that I won’t be a part of the group because of my wild complexion. I have long blonde hair that I have never cut and light-green eyes that make me look like an alien. My glare freaks people out so I was extremely lucky to be popular. I wasn’t about to let this chance pass me by. Being an outcast was my worst fear.

At that moment, Brittney and Lily had persuaded me to turn all the lights out in the house so we were in complete darkness except for the light of our torches, like eyes in a haunted forest. We were telling spooky stories. Mum had left when the other visitors had, leaving the girls and I in private.

‘Right then, Aura, turn off your torch!’’ chanted Lily and Brittany.

‘But my torch is the only one left on!’’

‘What? You chicken?’’ Lily asked with a grin on her face.

‘No,’’ I lied.

‘Close your eyes and count to ten, then try to find us!’’

‘In the dark?’’ I asked.

‘Yep!’’ cried Brittany, grabbing my torch and switching it off for me.

‘Do I really have to do this?’’ my voice was but a scared whisper.

‘Yes!’’ called Lily, her voice already a room away from me.

I closed my eyes tight and started counting. I was scared of the dark secretly, but when I closed my eyes, the darkness of my mind was more reassuring than the darkness all around me. With every number I would open my eyes a little to check the girls weren’t just going to leap out at me, but all I saw was darkness.

‘Ten. Ready or not, here I come!’’ I opened my eyes and stepped into the next room, my room. I breathed in my fairy perfume and continued to walk, my arms outstretched before me like a blind man with a walking-stick. My hands touched a smooth surface that must have been my blue-starlight walls. My mind made up a picture of where I must be. I was probably next to my purple bed. On the other side of me would be my display case, with all my dolls from every year of my life. There was my baby doll, from my first year, a Winx doll from the year when I was crazy about them, and of course my fashion doll representing this year. One of the reasons we did makeovers in the guest bedroom, was because I would die if the girls saw my collection.

‘Lily? Brittany!’’ I called. I figured they would let me have a clue as to where they were, but there was no reply. Suddenly, I heard the door close with a bang. That was their clue, they were down stairs! I got on my hands and knees and went down stairs on my bottom, feeling my way down every step.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of a light still on. It was coming from the window! I scrabbled back up a couple of stairs to look out of the window. The light was coming from a torch! In the faint glow of the light, I caught a glimpse of red-dyed hair! Nobody in the entire neighbourhood out this late had red hair, except Lily.

She really had gone outside! I bet in a couple of minutes she’ll come running back, trying to scare me. I could hear little chuckles now. They really must have thought I was some kind of three-year old to fall for their silly hide and seek surprise! Tell you what; I’d give them a surprise by locking the door on them!

Once I had finished my deed, I ran into the living room to switch on the lights when a blast of air knocked me off my feet. ‘Brittany! Close that window!’’ Inside I knew that an open window couldn’t produce a blast of wind that powerful, but I was trying to convince myself that nothing was wrong. When there was no reply, I started shaking with fear. ‘Brittany!’’, I tried to hide the hint of fear in my voice, but it was obviously showing. Suddenly, a flash of light momentarily blinded me.

Windsor lane, Paphoshire, 89, front of the house

‘Alright girls! Gather round, here’s the situation,’’ Claire was trying to shake leaves from her hair while keeping all of our excitement under control. All of us were staring at the front of the Utopian girl’s house, hidden amongst the bushes in her front garden. We had waited while Page and Claire observed the situation, in other words, fumbled with the torch and fought other who got to look through the binoculars.

Page looked up from her binoculars, ‘Alright, so, there were three girls in there, one with red hair, blue and blonde.’’ I sniggered, what were they punks? ‘The blon-’’

‘Of course we could instantly tell who was the Utopian, her unusual bright green eyes were like a signal,’’ declared Claire, interrupting Page. I glanced round at Teya’s own red, glowing eyes and nodded before turning back to Claire and Page.

‘Yes,’’ said Page rather annoyed, ‘anyway, all the lights are off and we are suspecting they are playing some kind of hide and seek.’’

‘Well it wasn’t that hard, I mean, the blonde was closing her eyes and counting down while the other two ran off sniggering like a pair of hyenas,’’ Claire stated, rolling her eyes. ‘Right, so here’s the mission girls, before Kelly and Wendy can get to Miss. Blondie, we need to distract the other two. So we’ll all go to the window and make some sort of distraction, with Teya following close behind and facing the other way so her eyes are on the activity outside. Utopians, GO!’’

We all crawled single file towards the window of the grand house. Once we reached it, with another thorough look across the skyline, Kelly reached up with her hand and slowly, a rope appeared out of an invisible hole in her hand and slithered along the wall and up towards the window. She tried to make it as quite as she could, but you could hear a slight hiss as the rope extended out of her hand in a snake like motion.

A pair of giggles and two shadows were now standing in front of the window. Kelly seized her chance and waggled the rope in front of it. The giggling stopped and the girls started to panic.

‘What’s that?’’

‘I don’t know.’’

‘Let’s go and see!’’

‘But what if it’s a robber?’’

‘You know I bet it’s the boys next door.’’

Claire turned to me and Kelly. ‘Go, go, go. Go in through the back and don’t forget the knock out jar. Teya, climb a tree, quick! Dawn, lay low near Teya, Page and I will tackle the two girls. Move, move, move, move, move!’’

Kelly and I ran round the back of the house. There was a tall, white gate going into her backyard. It was rusting in places and looked painful to climb. Kelly and I just didn’t bother, and instead of taking the long climb, I flicked my hand and flew over it with my mini-tornado and Kelly reached upwards with her rope then dropped down onto the other side of the gate, doing a summersault in the air.

There clearly wasn’t a gardener in the family. The girl’s huge garden wasn’t covered in greens, in fact there wasn’t a single flower. The only natural things in the garden were the grass, the grassy wall and a single apple tree. Instead, a trampoline, chairs and tables and a giant chocolate fountain occupied most of her garden. It looked more like an out-door restaurant than a garden. Kelly and I weaved through the tables, my heart pounding with excitement. This was it, my time to show what I was made of and get the job done.

When we had finally reached the back door, Kelly and I exchanged a quick look before I pressed my hand on the door and pushed it open.