Chase the Words - Work from the Swansea Young People's Writing Squad Read online

  “Is that ok?” The woman’s question seemed aimed for me. It didn’t seem like my opinion mattered, because the girl was trying to squeeze past me and into my house.

  “Mother stay outside as Miss.Lee33 and I chat inside.”

  The way the child said mother sounded forced and ordered, and no way to treat her mother.

  I slowly shut the door and stared at the mother outside. She looked un-real, like a strange robot…

  “Come, Miss Lee.”

  The child seemed like a maniac. It was as if she was an Army General demanding her orders to be completed.

  She stared at the cream walls as she waited for me to sit down.

  “I’ve come to warn you Amy!” Out of all the introductions I’ve ever heard I think this was a first…

  “I’m pretty safe kid, don’t worry.” Since I’d sat down I began to notice things, like the girl’s brown hair with pigtails and two little bows to hold the pigtails in place, her strange lilac eyes that seemed to sparkle.

  “The Keepers are angry with you and your friends! You must prepare for the worst!”

  “You’re starting to scare me kid…” I got up slowly watching the girl, her eyes were turning dark purple and her body rising from her chair and turning black and swirly around the edges.

  “THE KEEPERS ARE ANGRY! ANGRY WITH YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS’ IGNORANCE!”

  After the visit, I followed the child’s advice. I sat at home, I didn’t go to Insomnia, I was cautious about who I let come over to my house.

  A month after the girl visited me, Stampylongnose came over uninvited.

  “Amy what’s wrong with you? You’ve been acting strange for a month now!”

  Stampy had a worried tone.

  “The girl, she came, the Keepers…” I was clearly not myself and was a bit spooked.

  “Amy, please! Everything’s going to be alright! Just look at this…” Stampy pointed to a comment on a picture I had posted on Instagram, the comments were mainly ‘NO HATE FOR AMY! Can’t you see she’s not herself!? I hope she gets better’ and ‘Amy, why are you so pale and not yourself lately?’

  “Your fans, friends and family are worried for your welfare. I have to go now. Just try to cheer up.”

  A few days later I had snapped back into action: daily videos, a happy attitude and my skin back from a ghastly white to a normal warm skin colour.

  In the Heavens, the Keepers were watching Amy and her friends. They were unhappy as Amy and her friends were disrespecting the festivals which celebrated their power. A woman dressed in white said “I thought you said you would warn them, not try to frighten their leader to the point of insanity!” She had a small red hairband nestled in her blonde wavy hair.

  “They deserve to be punished, Cupid!”, a tall man said, his brown hair slick and smooth. He wore a black cloak and was holding a small shining silver ball.

  Suddenly there was a loud crack of thunder and an almighty cry of “CALM DOWN CUPID AND GRIM!”

  A light appeared that silenced them both.

  “What have you done, Grim?” The voice was so loud it was almost deafening.

  “Well, um…” A faint nervous smile spread across Grim’s face…

  “WHAT DID YOU DO?” The angry voice repeated.

  Grim was visibly shaken and began to laugh nervously. The voice continued.

  “You two will never know true POWER! Because you do not know how to use it wisely. Cupid, you sit around all day waiting for Valentine’s Day to come, and when it does the humans portray you as a BABY!”

  Cupid was angered by this, but before she could answer Grim yelled “Father, you just sit there watching the puny humans living their lives, and when you do meddle they turn against each other. Need I mention World War One AND Two! So is that what wisdom looks like?” The look on Grim’s face was enough to stop anyone from smiling, especially Father.

  Father listened to Grim and shouted “SILENCE YOUR NONSENSE! Tell us what you did Grim. The humans made YOU into Keepers and gave you your powers. Without those ‘puny humans’ you would be down there.”

  He pointed down and a flash of thunder landed on the ground thousands of metres underneath them; they saw red dirt and lava lakes everywhere as well as thousands of demons.

 

  I heard the phone ring BRRR-BRRR and ran down the stairs, trying to answer in time BRRR-BRRR.

  “Hello, AmyLee33 here?” I stopped and looked at the number. SQUID?

  “Amy...” Gasp… “It’s me…” Gasp… “Squid! Help!”

  “IBallisticsquid? Are you ok? It’s like you’re gasping for air or something…”

  I looked at the phone number, it was definitely Squid. Stampy was on the phone now… “Amy? You still there? Sorry about Squid! He seems to be having a panic attack or something…”

  “What? Squid having a panic attack! He’s the fittest person I know, and he most certainly does not get scared easily… Ok, maybe he screams a lot… But that’s not the point!”

  “Amy please trust us! Lee and Sqaishey are here as well, please come over now!”

 

  “I came as fast as I…” I stopped and noticed that no one was in the bedroom. I started to search the house for my missing friends. Suddenly there was a crash in the bathroom. I opened the door slowly and opened my eyes to see Stampy, Sqaishey and Lee huddled around the bath tub.

  “Hey guys! I’ve been looking for you everywhere! Where’s Squid?”

  I saw Lee calling me to come look in the bath tub. When I looked inside I saw Squid in the water, he was trying to stay underwater but pulling himself back up to breathe.

  “Amy!”… Gasp. “You’re here! I’m changing…” Gasp… “I can” …Gasp… “I can breathe underwater!” Gasp…

  Squid was not talking any more, he was also starting to become blue. It was not the water dying his skin blue, and he was not cold for as Stampy had said, the water temperature was normal.

  I reached out trying to grab his hand and pull us both out of this living nightmare, black smoke filled the room. It seemed to evaporate into the air. I suddenly let go of Squid’s hand. As it dropped into the water it became a square arm, ten of them appeared, Squid’s eyes drifted to the side of his head. I noticed immediately he looked exactly like a Minecraft squid…

  “So Grim, I ask you again: what did you do this time?” asked Father.

  “Well, you see, they are gaming YouTubers…”

  “Sorry to interrupt, but what are YouTubers?”

  The expression on Grim’s face actually turned into a grimace. “I’ll just tell you later, but they mainly play this game called ‘Minecraft’ and I had a thought. What if they became the things they are in ‘Minecraft’? So I chose AmyLee33, IBallisticsquid, Stampylongnose, L for Lee, and Sqaishey Quack as my test dummies.”

  For a moment Father looked proud of Grim and saw the irony of it until he asked, “What will happen to them?”

  A silence filled the air waiting for Grim to answer or Father to get angry. “Well, They… They will turn into animals. IBallisticsquid will turn into a squid, Stampylongnose will turn into a cat, L for Lee will turn into a bear, Sqaishey Quack will turn into a duck and Amylee33 will turn into a mermaid!”

  “I’m sorry Grim but when is a mermaid an animal?”

  “Sssshhhh! I was too lost in the moment. I forgot! But what’s super cool is that they turn into MINECRAFT animals! So Minecraft cats, squids, and mods with ducks, bears and mermaids!”

  Father seemed enraged by Grim’s cruelty and said, “Turning humans into animals is not ‘cool’. How would you like it? And while you’re explaining that, can you explain the YouTubers thing?”

  “SQUID!!!!! WHY ARE YOU A SQUID?!” Lee was screaming now, Stampy was sitting on the toilet seat staring at the bath, Sqaishey was playing with soap. Squid was still wriggling about in the water. Stampy walked towards me.

  “Um,
Amy… Why is your hair pink and mermaid like?”

  I looked down and saw Stampy was right. Stampy looked mildly strange himself, his skin had turned a yellowish colour and he had grown whiskers.

  “Stampy, Lee, come here a second.”

  Stampy and Lee walked over to me with a blubbering Squid in the background.

  “Lee, why have you gone brown and why are your ears on the top of your head? Stampy, why have you got whiskers and why are you yellow? And WHY is Squid a SQUID?!”

  The next thing, I woke up by noticing everything was back to normal. I thought back to when I went to bed, but I couldn’t remember actually going. I then thought about the strange dream I had that had seemed so real.

  I decided to phone my friends and tell them about my dream. I soon found out that they had all had the same dream! Did it all happen? Who was the girl at the door? Was she real? Or part of the dream? I guess we’ll never know…

  “Do you think they will learn their lesson Father?” Grim looked up at him.

  “No Grim. After all, they did start World War Two!”

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  JOE’S JOKE SHOP

  Aoife-Mae Maddock, age 10

  Joe’s Joke Shop has been open since I was born. It opened on the day I was born to be precise. Joe was a friend of my family, and to celebrate my birth, he opened a joke shop! Some kids at my school spent their pocket money on sweets or toys, but I always spent mine at Joe’s. To know there was an actual joke shop that was opened for me, that was just cool.

  Joe’s Joke Shop was almost seven years old, and so was I, but Joe wasn’t. He was almost sixty-seven! He didn’t open his shop every day any­more, only on occasional weekends. I also didn’t see him walking in the park every Thursday anymore. Joe’s Joke Shop wasn’t itself without Joe.

  One day, when I came home from school, Mum and Dad said they had something important to tell me. Joe wasn’t going to be working at his joke shop, we wouldn’t see him again, ever. Recently he had been un­well, and he didn’t get better. I didn’t know what it meant at the time, but I was still upset, very upset. I kept asking myself, ‘If Joe wasn’t coming back, who would run Joe’s Joke Shop?’

  It didn’t open for a long time, but it wasn’t replaced by something boring, like a newsagents or a DIY shop, which I didn’t understand. The Government were always cutting down trees to make more space for stuff like that, surely they would jump at the chance to turn an empty building into something more ‘useful’.

  One day, I saw a huge sign on the dirty wall of Joe’s Joke Shop, saying ‘GRAND RE-OPENING TODAY!’ Burst­ing with excitement, I ran home in what seemed like just seconds. “Mum... Dad! Joe’s... Opening!” I panted before running straight out the door again.

  When I got back to the shop, a tall man with grey hair stood out­side it. He bent down and smiled. “You must be William,” he said, “I’m Wilf. I’m going to be working here from now on. If that’s alright, is it?”

  I nodded, and shook his hand. “Ow!” I shrieked. He waved his hand, and I saw Joe’s favourite practical joke. The electric hand shake. I laughed. Joe would’ve been proud.

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  More information on Young People’s Writing Squads

  For more information on the Swansea Young Writing Squad, please contact Jo Furber at the Dylan Thomas Centre - [email protected]

  The Young People’s Writing Squads have been developed over the past decade by Literature Wales in association with the local authorities in Wales. The Squads aim to locate gifted young writers – in both English and Welsh – in each authority region and introduce them to some of Wales’ leading writers, and teachers of writing. Young People’s Writing Squads welcome selected children whose creative writing shows particular ability and promise. Usually this selection has been made by the age of 9 or 10, with head teachers in each authority identifying keen and gifted young writers. Advisors conduct the final selections and each Squad of children meets on average three or four times a year (usually on Saturdays) for special training sessions with outstanding writers who have the necessary communication skills to work with the young writers. The aim is to keep each Squad together until the end of their schooldays.

  Literature Wales offers funding to local authorities to set up new Young People’s Writing Squads. Teachers, librarians or education advisers wishing to establish new squads in their authority are particularly encouraged to get in touch with Literature Wales for advice and assistance.

   

  For more information on how the squads operate and what they do, please contact Leusa Llewelyn - [email protected] (Children and Young People's Officer)

  https://www.writingsquads.org/what-is-a-squad/

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