BANG!! The modal car smashed into the wall
and cracked in two.
“It’s not fair!” screamed
Tom.
Tom hated moving house. Moving house
did NOT go with Tom. Especially moving to a new school. Everybody treated him
as a toy when he was new to Saint Bernard’s. Now he had to go to old Q.E. which
was probably going to be even worse. Tom had so many friends and it was hard to
make such loyal ones, but he had to
move to Burnham, where he was going to live in a house about ten times smaller
than his current one.
Tom’s mind floated back:
Tom walks through the large doors of Saint Bernard’s. There is a large
noise of laughter in the background. Tom walks forward cautiously. He gets
shoved around, as if unnoticed. A big group of boys appear and everyone - but
me - scatter away quickly. I do not notice them and, still in awe, walk
forward. I hear the distant sound of whispering. Suddenly I see a big hand
approach my face. Thanks to my quick reflexes I dodged it. The boys laugh. My
eyes widen and I am baffled. What are they laughing at? I should be laughing.
One of the boys picks my bag and throws all the contents on the floor. There is
an ‘oooo’ coming from my future fellow mates. Luckily for me the bell rings,
but there is still more to come…
Tom
shook the thought out of his mind. He had to somehow convince his parents that
leaving was a really bad idea, but how?
“Tom?” called mum, “It’s time for dinner.”
Tom stormed downstairs. He sat at the table, not talking to
anyone. His annoying brother (James) loved moving and even worse, love to make
Tom angry. And he knew just what to say at this moment to stir the environment
up.
“Tom. You’re
quiet today.”
Tom
didn’t answer.James continued. “Aren’t you excited about
moving? Even more friends! It’s going
to be so much fun.”
That was it. Tom said something resembling to zip your mouth, but that
weren’t his exact words since if I wrote them, your parents would probably
throw away this book and not let you read it till your 13-15 years old. Anyhow,
after that no one said a word. Tom ate his dinner quietly and then, without
saying goodnight, went to bed.
Tom couldn’t sleep that night. He had to think up a way of
convincing his parents to not move to Burnham. Tom suddenly jumped out of bed
and turned his lamp on. He put a new piece of paper on his desk and started
writing speeches to convince his parents. It took him until about 1:00, but he
was pretty impressed with his results. He still had to think when to deliver
the speech and which one. He only had five days left. Tom went back to sleep,
only waking up at 13:00. Tom didn’t sleep well and it was obvious by the colour
of the skin under his eyes. He got dressed and walked downstairs to find
everybody was waiting for him.
“Where were you? We
were all so worried,” mum said. Luckily, James
wasn’t there. On Saturday’s he had tuition from 12:00 to 17:00. That was a
relief. Tom had breakfast hungrily as it was so late.
That day all Tom did was wonder about how on earth he was
going to convince his parents not to move. He tried looking through the speeches
he wrote but they looked like scribbles, probably because he wrote during the
middle of the night. Tom tried really
hard to make new ones but his mind kept on going blank. All he could do now
was: 1. Pray, 2. Pray, 3. Pray and 4. Hope. What could Tom do? It was useless
to try anything now. Tom tried forgetting it for the next few days, but it
troubled him too much, so he didn’t.
Four troubling days later:
It was moving day and Tom was really
lethargic. What could he do now? All his efforts had gone in vain. Tom and his
family hauled the luggage into the car as they got ready for the long journey
to London. Tom nearly started crying but he was determined not to or James
would never stop taunting him. The car spluttered into life. They were nearly
half way there when their state agent left a voice message.
It was,
“Hello. I’m calling to inform you that there is a minor problem in your house.
This problem will prevent you from moving in for at least another five months.
The problem is that there is a roof leakage. If this leakage becomes major then
the surveyors will have no choice but to wreck the house. Sorry for the short
notice and the inconvenience it may have caused. Jill.”
Tom
let out a silent ‘yessss’. But inside he knew that this would only keep his
family from moving for less than one year, but at least he could relax till
then. But would that prevent his family from looking for another house…???
Aadi
Gupta
