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Wordly Vol 1 Iss 1

Welcome to Wordly

June, 2013 Volume 1, Issue 1

Inside this issue:

Editorial 1

Poetry 2

It happened in

the library 4

Quiz 4

The death of

English 8

Shocktober

story 9

Literary magazine Wordly

is published by the Learn-

ing Resource Centre,

St.Vincent’s College, Potts

Point.

Frequency: Quarterly

Guest Student Editor-in-

chief: Sophie Burton-Clark

Banner: Emilia Hornas

Address:

Locked Bag 2700

Potts Point NSW 1335

Australia

Web:

stvincents.nsw.edu.au

Welcome to the first issue of the school

literary magazine Wordly! It is a special

moment to see something that was desired

and planned for a long time become a

reality. Ever since I came to St.Vincent’s

College I felt that creative writers at this

school need an outlet to present their work,

hone their publishing skills but, most

importantly, extend their love of words and

stories. At last, I am delighted to have a

copy of Wordly in front of us.

Preparation of a publication like this is

always an opportunity to have fun and mix

with like-minded people. The group around

Wordly intends to meet once a month to

talk about writing and provide feedback

and support to each other. At this stage,

we intend to publish Wordly quarterly.

I believe in many useful outcomes that will

come from our Wordly gatherings and

publication. The group will contribute to the

development of students’ literacy and skills

while extending school’s rich literary

culture. Wordly will provide

support for creative writers

a forum for writing-related discussion and

collaboration across year groups

publishing opportunities

opportunities for the development of

editing skills

support for students’ participation in

writing competitions and publishing

opportunities outside school

opportunities to extend students’

self-motivation and organisation.

For the first issue we had more

offerings than we could fit in one

manageable publication.

Nevertheless, the issue is a testament

of girls’ many talents. Sophie Burton-

Clark (Year 10) was the Student Editor

-in-chief, Emilia Hornas (Year 10) drew

the Wordly font for the first page and

a number of girls submitted their

writing in a number of forms and

genres. Most pieces were written in

students’ free time, some poems

were written in the workshop

organised by the Learning Resource

Centre to celebrate the World Poetry

Day while others were written in class.

French poems were written in Ms

Hegarty’s class and Conor’s

reflection on the way our language

changes was written for her English

class.

I hope you will enjoy reading.

Dr Suzana Sukovic

Head of Learning Resource Centre

Literary magazine Wordly Publication of the Learning Resource Centre, SVC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-

NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en_US

2 Wordly Vol 1 Iss 1

We celebrated the World Poetry

Day on 21 March by organising a

Tutor poetry slam and some poetry

making during lunchtime in the li-

brary. The girls made poems out of

book spines, a selection of words

stuck on walls, and cut-outs from

unlikely places such as science and

economics magazines.

We had a poetry workshop on 25

March with a poet and scholar, Dr

Richard James Allen, as the present-

er. Students considered elements of

poetry and then wrote their poems

on the topic of numbers and math-

ematics. Later we continued poetry

jamming in our Wordly meeting.

Poetry

Is there a poem?

Is there a poem worthy?

Worthy for Wordly?

Is there a poem worthy for reading

at all?

Is the description right?

Is the tone dark or light?

Is it even worthy to be read by all?

Maisie Watkins (Y9)

Wednesday

It’s still -

Wednesday won’t sneak up on you like

Monday

and won’t run away from you like Sunday

not so close to the start of the week

and so far away from the end it hurts.

Wednesday is perfect

quiet, comfortable at school

the teachers are getting sick of us.

And we’ll never get sick of each other

Wednesday

India Wyvill (Y9)

Numbers

Numbers are forever

they can get bigger

and they can get smaller

Numbers are perfect

infinite and precise

even in the wrong, they are beyond

compare

Numbers are hidden

deliberately playing a game

of hide and seek. Where is x and y?

Numbers are rigid

never changing and always

the same systems to solve them

Numbers are separation

a comma or a sign

to keep them apart

Jinx Moore (Y9)

Emilia Hornas (Y10)


Poetry workshop wth

Richard James Allen

Maths

My knees were shaking,

and my heart was racing ,

my breathing was rapid,

Why was I so nervous??

I knew this question,

Sure I did,

I remembered doing this in class.

Wait,

Is this a decimal or is it a fraction?

A shape or an angle?

Yay! Only 20 more minutes to go.

Rrrrrrr!

Still don't get it ,

How could this be possible?

I know this equator and

I have practiced it plenty of times!

Please maths

just magically appear in my brain,

just for once .

Please .....

Gabriella Turco (Y7)

Wednesday

Wednesday

Middle of the week

Well, not quite.

Sitting in the classroom.

Walking on the street.

Waiting for the bell to ring.

Or tripping over my feet.

Wednesday

worst day of the week.

Well, not quite.

Monday’s worse.

Conor Leslie-Keefe (Y8)

Grace Taranto Jones (Y9)


Poésie An Easter Poem

A rabbit with a ribbon

A lily of the valley in a basket

A bell that’s not ugly

An Easter nest with a chick…

What a pretty drawing

And the chocolate eggs, all nine

of them.

Lee Davis (Y10)

Happy Easter

I woke at seven

and found an egg

I left very happy

But my brother wasn’t patient

He ate all the chocolate

And I was cross!

Chloe Malmoux-Setz (Y10)


It happened in the library

In Term 1 the LRC invited students to participate in a writing challenge. The topic was It happened in the

library. We now have a pleasure of publishing winning entries by Saskia Riedel and Isabel Holborow, both

in Year 9. Congratulations, girls!

Story by Saskia Riedel

Five o’clock. The door

slammed shut, the lights

were turned off, but not

everyone was out of the

library. I had managed to

avoid suspicion by staying

huddled in a little corner

between two bookshelves.

I was a small child with fine,

mousy hair and grey eyes –

I had always been invisible

within my school so it was

no wonder that the

librarian did not see me. I

was deep into my novel when I heard a thump. I

looked up, startled. Lying directly in front of me was a

thick brown book that I had never seen before.

On the front cover were the words, History of the

Library. I tentatively opened the frayed, yellow pages

and started to flick through the book. On one page I

stopped. A picture of a smiling girl caught my eye. She

looked a lot like me. She had the same thin hair and

un-noticeable face. The caption at the bottom read,

‘Students enjoying the library’. I smiled and suddenly I

was falling through the book.

I landed in the same room, but there were a lot more

people. Instead of saying 5 o’clock, the clock said

one-thirty. Two girls sat at a table talking intently. A

few other students sat reading on benches and

couches.

‘Excuse me?’ I said to the two girls but they did not

seem to hear me.

I listened to the conversation of the two girls next to

me.

‘How good is the new library?’ one said.

‘Yeah, it’s really great,’ the other replied.

Then another girl entered the library, her hair was light

brown and wispy and she had large, intelligent eyes.

She had a small, delicate features and a pointed pale

face and she was tiny.

‘Smile Annabelle!’ The Librarian said, toting a large

camera. The light flashed and a black and white print

of the girl slid out.

Annabelle? I thought, that’s my name. Suddenly I

realised that this was not the first time I’d been here. I

remembered back to when the library used to be like

this – old with only a few tables.

I found myself sitting back in the present-day library with

the book still in my lap. I looked at the picture of the

smiling girl. The words, ‘Students enjoying the library’

was still there but underneath were more words that I

had not noticed before:

Annabelle McPherson died a few weeks after this

picture was taken. Rest in Peace Annabelle (1990-

2004).

I shut the book and stood up. The smiling girl was me. I

floated serenely through the library forgetting what I just

read and saw.

The caption at the bottom

read, ‘Students enjoying the

library’. I smiled and suddenly

I was falling through the book.


Story by Isabel Holborow

'Kat that is not fair!' Beth

screamed.

I frowned. 'How is that

unfair?'

She slouched in her chair.

'I'm older. I should have

been first.'

'Beth? You're only older by

two and a half months.'

'Yeah. And therefore I

should have had my first

kiss two and a half months

before you.'

I rolled my eyes. Beth was

always this strange with her reasoning.

Before I could say anything else, Mr Carther walked in

and announced the beginning of class. Mr Carther was

a funny man. He wore big glasses and Disney themed

ties. Beth and I always found it strange that in the two

years we'd been in high school, we'd never seen Mr

Carther in a formal tie. We liked him though, because

he always handed out treats to the top students.

Unfortunately, today he handed out a test. Damn.

When class managed to crawl to an end, our friend,

Christopher Luck, or 'Lucky' as we call him, was waiting

for us at the door. When I first met them, I thought Beth

and Lucky were siblings. They both had dark blonde hair

and coincidentally both had light brown eyes. Their only

real physical difference was Beth's numerous amounts of

freckles and Lucky's single distinctive beauty mark on his

left cheek.

'Did you girls hear about the library?'

I felt a series of butterflies flutter around in my tummy. 'Li-

library?'

'What library?' Beth asked.

'The one down the road. Come on Beth. Haven't you

ever been?'

Beth laughed and I chuckled as well.

Lucky waved our giggles away. 'There was a massive

vandalism there.'

We both looked at him shocked. 'How bad?'

We sat down to have lunch and Lucky kept going. 'I was

there this morning before they closed it off.'

Beth managed to look interested. 'When did it happen

do you think?'

He shrugged. 'Probably last night-'

'Impossible' I interrupted.

Lucky looked at me sceptically. 'How are you so sure?'

I froze, wide eyed before I went a dark shade of pink.

'Well, you know, my — well my aunt works there. Yeah.

And I was with her last night before she closed up.'

It was Beth's turn to look at me puzzled. 'But didn't...last

night you had your-'

'Never mind that! Lucky, what have you got for lunch

today?' I said shrilly.

Lucky shook his head and sat up. 'Oh, um, I've got a

juice pop and a sandwich.'

'I want the juice pop!' Beth yelled raising her hand.

Lucky started laughing and I sighed with relief. Subject

avoided.

***

That afternoon after school, I went to see my Aunt Claire

at the library. It was a huge building, with more of a

wooden touch to it instead of the modern glassy design

it had been planned for. The place was in fact

barricaded off by those oh-so-restraining yellow plastic

caution ropes.

I walked in anyway. Aunt Claire was over in the

parenting and health section scrubbing one of the

shelves clean with detergent which made the whole

place smell like chemicals and tropical sunshine.

'Hey Aunty Claire.'

She turned around and frowned at me. 'Kat? You

shouldn't be in here.'

'I wanted to see what happened. I totally missed it last

night.'

Aunt Claire stood up and placed her hands on her hips.

'Look, I shouldn't have left you to lock up. You must've

done it wrong.'

It's not that I did it wrong. I locked up right after, well,

right after he came by. 'As if! I did it perfectly right.'

'Back doors?'

'Yep.'

'Windows?'

'Them too.'

'Windows in the office?'

'Yes.'

'The..’

'Office and then the front door. Yes I did them all.'

She pulled a chair from one of the tables and sat down.

'I can't see how they could have gotten in; after all,

there isn't any damage other than the graffiti.'

I was starting to get paranoid. I'd have to ask him about

it tomorrow.


***

The next morning I walked into school feeling a bit quea-

sy. I had no idea how I was going to talk to him but if I

wanted to work this mystery out, he was a valuable re-

source.

Oh my god, there he is!

Jet black ocean swept hair, dazzling blue eyes and, oh

my gosh, that shark tooth around his neck just turns me

into a bundle of nerves.

He is basically the dream boat of our year group.

I didn't realise Lucky was standing next to me until he

spoke. 'What're you staring at Max for?'

I almost jumped out of my school shoes. 'I need, um, just,

to talk to him that's all.' I said nervously.

Lucky raised an eyebrow at me before rolling his eyes.

'You girls...well I'm going to go find Beth. See ya.' He took

a sceptical glance at Max before turning on his heel

down the hallway.

Okay. Let's do this. 'Ma-Max!' I squeaked.

I don't know how he managed to hear me but he turned

around to see me anyway. He blinked twice at me and

smirked. Oh, how embarrassing. I needed to gather my-

self.

'Hey, Kate?' He said walking over to me. Stop heart.

Stop beating so fast.

'Oh it's Kat.' I said with less of a squeak.

'How can I help you?'

'Well,' I started, avoiding eye contact at all costs. 'You

know the other night in the library...'

I saw his cheeks go slightly pink but he managed to keep

his smile on his face. 'Yeah, I remember.'

'Well, there was a vandalism that night and I wanted to

know if you, well,' I looked up and saw he was sweating

slightly. Is he just as nervous about talking to me? I felt a

boost of courage. 'Well,did you know anything about it?'

He shook his head and gulped. 'I'll ask around for you.'

'For me?' I asked.

'Uh, yeah.'

My arm was jerked to the left as I found Beth squealing

excitedly. 'Don't you two start kissing again!'

'Beth! Lucky! Lucky was looking for you!' I almost yelled at

her.

Max chuckled and before I knew it he was walking

down the hallway.

'Beth, I didn't even get to say bye to him.'

Beth was laughing hysterically. 'Lucky said he'd meet us

after Maths again.'

Maths today was the scariest lesson ever. Mr Carther

managed to look like a demon even with his Mickey

Mouse tea party tie on. Why did he look like a demon?

'Class! Who wrote this on their test yesterday?!'

He held up a piece of paper that had a very inappropri-

ate comment written across it. There were giggles

amongst the class. Especially Beth's.

'Class, I'll keep you all in if nobody owns up.'

No one admitted to the guilt. Mr Carther sighed. 'Okay,

ten minutes into lunch today.' There was a groan

amongst the students but we relaxed when Mr Carther

seemed to.

'People always trash their exam papers, why is Carther so

angry?' A girl called Jess said next to me.

That lead into a lot of hushed discussions that followed

into Recess as well as the ten minutes we had to stay in.

As Beth had said, Lucky was waiting for us after maths. He

looked agitated for some reason. 'Hey girls.'

'What's up?'

He hesitated before looking at me with questioning. 'You

were at your Aunt's library the night of the attack, right?'

'They're calling it 'the attack' now?' Beth asked.

Lucky ignored her. 'Kat?'

'Yeah? Why?'

'People are suspecting you now.'

To be continued…

Book Quiz Try to complete it without using Google or looking it up in the book.

Q1. How many tributes died in the first day of the 74th Hunger Games?

Q2. What is Alec Lightwood’s middle name from The Mortal Instru-

ment’s Series?

Q3. What is the sister book to the Book of Moons from the Beautiful

Creatures Series?

Q4. What was Marius’ last name from Les Misérables?

Q5. What state is the Gone Series set in?

Q6. Who stole the Lightning Bolt in Percy Jackson and the Lightning

Thief?

Q7. In the Ashes Trilogy, when the electromagnetic pulse hits the

Earth, some people develop a super human ability whilst others de-

velop a taste for what?

Q8. In the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, why is Tom Bombadil considered to

deliver the ‘One Ring’ to the fires of Mount Doom?

Q9. What was the name of Ron Weasley’s first owl?

Q10. What was the name of the ship that sank in The Life of Pi?

Q11. What is the colour of Elphaba’s skin in Wicked?

Q12. In A Series of Unfortunate Events, what does Sunny, the youngest

child, like to do?

See answers on back page

Image: wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7e/

Strix_aluco_3young.jpg/1280px-Strix_aluco_3young.jpg


The death of English language

Conor Leslie-Keefe

In this modern day, there are shortcuts for everything.

Theres always an easier way. But should we be

compromising our own language to make things easier

for the next generation, or should we preserve it?

Lately I have been noticing the growing trend of using

abbreviations not only in text but in speech. For example,

the classic 'btw' or 'by the way' has been pronounced as

'b-t-dubs'. This raises the question; wouldn't it be better to

just say 'by the way'?

Well, to you and to me, yes, it would. But to the growing

population of Internet savvy teenagers, not necessarily.

Another Internet abbreviation I have noticed in speech is

'lol'. Lol literally means fun. In Dutch. But the meaning you

are probably more familiar with is 'laugh out loud' or 'lots

of love'. Nowadays, rather than laughing, people are

simply saying lol. A good friend of mine considers the

meaning of lol to be 'lack of laughter' which is probably a

more accurate description.

Now, I'm all for the use of abbreviations via text message

or for chatting over the Internet, when you really begin to

bring elements of the Internet into your everyday life,

absolutely TERRIFYING things can happen. The Internet is

our most treasured resource, yet it is also a blood-sucking

monster and a deep pit of despair. So what happens

when the Internet and the real world cross over?

I can see the headlines now. ‘Lock all your doors!’

‘Protect the children!’ ‘The Internet is coming!!’. So

before you use lol in an English sentence think what will

happen. Do something our current generation isn't totally

familiar with and think of the consequences. For if we

don't do something now the Internet will embed itself

even further in our lives, it will escape its position in

cyberspace and kill our language. The Internet will eat

your soul.

Abbreviations are to abbreviate, not to speak.

cn u spk sms

htt

p:/

/xkc

d.c

om

/108

3/


In October 2012 the LRC ran a spooky Choose Your

Own Adventure story as part of the Shocktober cel-

ebrations. While the story was initially begun by Miss

Bailey in the Learning Resource Centre, it wasn’t

long before enthusiastic students wanted to join in

the fun. The following story is the result of efforts of

not only the LRC staff, but also some talented stu-

dents.

‘Jess! It’s time to get up!’ You hear your mum calling for

you from downstairs. She obviously doesn’t know you’ve

been awake for hours, dressed and ready, playing

games on your phone because you can’t sleep. Today’s

a pretty big day for you and you’re really nervous.

‘Coming mum!’ You slip on your jacket and head down

the stairs to have some breakfast.

‘You’re ready early,’ mum says, ‘couldn’t you sleep?’

‘I slept fine. Don’t worry mum,’ you lie, ‘I just didn’t want

to be late on my first day, so I set my alarm early.’

Mum gives you a suspicious look, ‘Fair enough. I’ve

packed you some lunch. I guess you can watch TV until

it’s time to catch the bus. And don’t forget that Mrs Finch

is coming to dinner tonight.’

You grab a bowl of cereal for breakfast and hunker

down at the table, switching on a morning cartoon to

wait for the bus. At least the cartoons out here are the

same. Moving to a country town and away from the city

has been a steep learning curve for you and now you’re

finding out just how different things are. The silence at

night is deafening. You’re used to hearing the thin strains

of your neighbour upstairs watching TV late at night while

you drift off to sleep and now the silence is deafening.

Back in the city, you didn’t really know your neighbours

beyond a polite nod in the hallway, but in the week since

you moved to town your family has received two

welcome baskets and at least three pies. You never knew

making polite conversation with neighbours could be so

exhausting.

You’re having fun, though. You like the sense of

community in your new town and you’re starting to learn

about your neighbours. Old Barbara Finch down the road

(who makes a mean apple crumble) and her neighbour

Julie Downs (no welcome gift sighted from her yet) have

been having an ever so polite battle of wills for the last

three years. Barbara hates that Julie rakes her leaves

over onto her property and Julie gets mad when Barbara

lets her dog ‘do its business’ on her lawn. Neither is willing

to stop until the other one apologises and neither one of

them is going to apologise first, so they smile and pretend

that things are fine to each other and make catty

remarks about witchcraft and demons behind each

other’s backs to their neighbours.

You’ve been told that there are a girl and boy in your

year at school about a block away, Frankie and Alan,

and you wonder if they’ll be in any of your classes. It’s

your first day at a new school in a new town. It’s pretty

scary, but you’ve always gotten along well with people

and you’re confident you’ll make friends quickly. It’s all

about having a positive attitude, after all. When it’s

almost time to leave for the bus you run upstairs to brush

your teeth. You pass the door to your bedroom and see a

yellow envelope jutting out from under your door. That’s

odd. It wasn’t there when you came out of your room

and you were with mum the whole time. Dad left before

you got up so it couldn’t have been him. You reach

down to find out what’s in it when your mum calls out for

you to hurry up. You quickly brush your teeth and head

off to the bus forgetting all about it in your rush.

Chapter 1 by Ms Bailey


You hop on the bus and try to find a seat, but everyone

looks at you strangely. You notice that the five people

who have little blue badges on their school jackets all

have seats next to them, and everyone else is sitting

together at the back of the bus without a seat to spare.

You try to find a spot and sit down, but with every spare

seat you go past, a blue-badged student moves so you

can’t sit down.

You finally get to the back of the bus and ask if there’s

anywhere you can sit, but no-one seems to want to sit

next to you. Eventually two boys get up out of their seats

and go and squish up in the back seat with some friends

and you sit in your own near the back of the bus. You’re

starting to think that making friends won’t be as easy as

you thought. What could those blue badges be? You

don’t think the school has that many prefects, and it’s

unlikely that they’d all be catching the same bus.

When you get to school you head straight to the office

to get your timetable. When you get to the office, the

deputy principal, Mrs Hadley, introduces you to the

school and the rules and hands you your timetable. Mrs

Hadley seems nice, but very busy and she rushes

through what she has to say like she’s said it a million

times before and doesn’t leave any room for questions.

She doesn’t make any mention of the blue badges

though, and you’re waiting for a gap in her speech to

ask about them when the bell rings and interrupts

her. Mrs Hadley looks at her watch and says ‘Looks like

it’s time for you to get to class. You wouldn’t want to be

late on your first day!’

You look at your timetable to discover, to your dismay,

that your first subject is History and it is with a teacher

called Mr Winters. While you are usually an above

average student, you always enjoyed exercising your

creative flair in English class over listening to the dry and

boring dates and facts in History. You look up from your

timetable to ask where your room is only to see the door

to Mrs Hadley’s office closing in your face.

In the reception area, you see a map of the classrooms

and, after some searching, manage to locate your

classroom on the other side of the school. Rushing to get

there in time, you arrive at the door only a few minutes

late, but late enough that the Mr Winters spots you

immediately.

‘Ahh, you must be Jessica Taylor!’ he guides you to the

front of the classroom, ‘everyone say hello to Jessica’.

The room is filled with a resounding silence. Most of your

new classmates avoid making eye contact with one

notable exception. A girl towards the back of the room

with mysterious grey eyes and long, dark hair looks

directly at you and shuffles a little bit to allow more

space next to her. Your new teacher notices the

opening and directs you to sit next to her.

Feeling heartened by this small act of camaraderie in the

face of an overwhelmingly hostile reception, you whisper a

brief thankyou as you sit down.

‘No problem. The kids here don’t exactly roll out the red

carpet for newcomers. I’m Frankie.’

‘I’m Jess,’ you say, ‘I think you live near me, on Robert

Street.’

‘That’s me, and my brother, Alan. He’s in the other History

class. They can only handle one of us at a time.’

After History, you find yourself sitting with Frankie again in

Art class where you get another icy reception from your

classmates and then spend fifty minutes drawing an apple

sitting on a table with a jug. Then it’s recess time. You’re

curious to meet Frankie’s twin, Alan, but on the way to sit

with them you’re cut off in the hall. A tall blonde boy

whispers at you as he blocks your path.

‘Where’s your mark?’ he hisses, ‘You’re supposed to be

wearing a mark, new girl.’

‘What are you talking about?’ you ask, thinking he’s kind of

cute until you recognise him as one of the boys on the bus

who wouldn’t let you sit down. You’re just about fed up

with the kids at this school. Where are everyone’s

manners? Is Frankie the only nice girl here?

‘You mean you didn’t open it?’ He pauses for a second

and a flash of worry passes over his face.

‘You know what? I’ve got someone nice to go sit with at

recess. I’m not missing out on another second of her

company so I can listen to someone like you talking riddles

at me!’ You’re about to push past him and catch up with

Frankie when he hisses at you again.

‘Keep your voice down! Look, I’m sorry about this morning

before school. There’s no rules for how to deal with

someone not wearing their mark and without a mark we

couldn’t talk to you in the open.’ He looks at you

plaintively and you think his apology is genuine.

‘Can you tell me what’s going on?’

‘Not now, it’s too risky. You’re safe with Frankie, though.

Just don’t mention to anyone I spoke with you.’ At this last

part he actually looks scared. You look into his eyes for the

first time and you feel your chest thump. You wonder what

could possibly be scaring him so much. Could talking with

you be… dangerous? You’re about to ask him more

questions when he stuffs something in your pocket and

turns, walking the other way.

Confused by this encounter, you head over to Frankie,

who is sitting on a bench with a boy with the same grey

eyes and dark hair who you figure must be Alan. They are

both peering intently into their lunchboxes. While Frankie’s

eyes are mysterious, Alan’s eyes are intense. When he looks


up at you it feels like he can read your thoughts and he

seems to study your face. Then he breaks into a huge

smile.

‘Mum always forgets which one of us hates peanut butter

and which one hates vegemite and always gets our

lunches wrong. You must be Jessica.’

‘Hi, you must be Alan!’ startled by his sudden change in

tone, and still unsettled by your talk with the blonde boy,

you don’t know what to say next.

‘I saw you talking to Kevin,’ he says, ‘I’m surprised. He

never talks to anyone outside of his little group of friends.’

Oh no! You’re not supposed to let anyone know you spoke

with him and Alan knows already! ‘I was just…telling him

off. He and his friends tried some stupid prank this morning

and wouldn't let me sit down on the bus so I was giving

him a piece of my mind. No big deal.’

‘Oh,’ He says. He’s still smiling, but his eyes have lost some

of their intensity, ‘fair enough.’

The three of you open out your timetables to compare

classes and to your relief the only class you’ll have without

either Alan or Frankie is German. Alan and Frankie both do

Japanese. You notice that they don’t have a single class

together. Your chatter with Frankie and Alan is fairly inane

for the rest of the day and you discover why they are kept

in separate classes. The two of them are insanely intelligent

and always talking. If they were in class together no one

could do anything but listen to them chatter. You were a

little nervous about meeting Alan, but you find that despite

his differences to Frankie, he’s still very friendly and you feel

like you can talk to him easily.

The rest of your day passes fairly inanely, with the frosty

looks from your classmates softened by the presence of

your new friends. Last period, your English teacher holds

you back to explain an ongoing assessment. After you

finally leave, feeling a little daunted by the work you’ll

need to catch up on, you go to put your assessment

notice into your pocket and see the note that Kevin left in

your pocket.

Meet me at the creek after school and I’ll explain

everything.

Kevin

Confused, you head out of the school building and almost

bump into Frankie and Alan, who were hovering near the

school gate talking quietly together. Alan looks like he’s

been blushing and Frankie has a mischievous grin.

‘So,’ says Frankie, ‘Alan and I were wondering if you

wanted to come over and hang out this afternoon,

maybe play on the xbox with us or something?’

If you didn’t know better, you’d think Frankie was trying to

set the two of you up.

So, what are you going to do this afternoon?

Rush home to find out what was in the yellow

envelope

Call home to let your parents know that you’re

headed to Frankie and Alan’s place

Go to the creek to meet Kevin and get some answers.

Chapter 2 by Sophie Burton-Clark

You decide not to go play Xbox because you want

some answers from Kevin. You can just play with Frankie

and Alan tomorrow.

‘Can we play Xbox tomorrow? I kind of just want to go

home and lie down. I’ve had a big day.’

‘Yeah that’s cool,’ replies Frankie. ‘See you tomorrow.’

You walk quickly to the school gate but get stuck behind

a large crowd of students. You jump up and realise that

the gate has not been opened yet. You and the rest of

the students have to wait another 5 minutes until the

door is opened by some strange janitor, who you

recognise but can’t quite put your finger on who it is.

You reach the creek but Kevin isn’t there yet.

‘Maybe he got out of school late?’ you think.

Then suddenly, something grabs you on the shoulder

which causes you to yelp. You turn around and see that

it is just Kevin, here to give you the answers you need.

‘You nearly gave me a heart attack! You’re lucky I didn’t

punch you.’

‘Sorry, but no time to chat. Quick! Put this badge on.’

Kevin hands you a blue badge similar to the one he is

wearing. You also notice that he is holding a yellow

envelope in his other hand, the one that appeared in

your doorway this morning.

‘Where did you get that?’ you ask.

‘I went and got it from your room. That’s why I am so

late.’

‘Wait, you went into my room? How did you get into my

house?’

‘I will explain soon just put your mark on.’

‘Not until you explain what’s going on and how you got

into my house.’

‘Look here new girl. You better put that mark on or

things will happen, bad things! I am already risking myself

trying to help you so put it on. NOW!’

This frightens you so you quickly put the so called ‘Mark’

on and remain silent.

After a minute of silence you speak up: ‘Are you going to

explain all this to me now I have my mark on?’

‘Yes but it may take a while. Let’s go sit down.’

You go sit down by the creek on some mossy rocks. For a

little you sit in silence listening to the sound of the water

rushing over the rocks.

‘Make sure you never take your mark off, even when

you are asleep.’ Kevin says, breaking the silence.

‘Why?’


Q1. 11

Q2. Gideon

Q3. The Book of Stars

Q4. Pontmercy

Q5. California

Q6. Luke Castellan

Q7. Human Flesh

Q8. He is immune to its pow-

er.

Q9. Pigwidgeon (Pig).

Errol was the Weasley fami-

ly’s owl.

Q10. The Tsimtsum.

Q11. Green

Q12. Bite things

‘Like I said bad things will happen.’

‘Look, I am fed up with you keeping me in the dark so

either you explain this to me or I’m going,’ you say as

you start to get up.

‘No wait. Ok I will tell you but you mustn't tell anyone,

ok, not even your parents. You can only trust someone

with a mark on. You understand?’

‘Yes’

‘Sometime, in the past, don’t ask me when I’m not

good with dates, strange things started happening. Kids

started disappearing off the streets and no one knew

what was happening. We still don’t know. My

grandfather was the only one who ever survived the

encounter. He disappeared on his way home from

school and everyone thought he was gone like the rest

of them. No one looked for him. Then one night, there

was a knock at my great-grandparents door and he

was there, mumbling to himself talking in tongues. He

looked exactly the same as when he disappeared,

except he was wearing a mark like this.’

‘What happened to him?’ you ask.

‘No one knows. He never told anybody.’

‘What is so strange about these kidnappings? They

happen all the time.’

‘Yes but whenever a kid disappears, someone new

moves to town, exactly 50 years older than the kid that

disappeared, and this person always looks familiar, but

we can never put a name to the face.’

‘How come you haven’t been kidnapped?’

‘Because of the mark. It has strange powers. My

grandfather gave it to me before he died and I was the

only one of my brothers and sisters that wasn’t taken. I

made more and gave them out and now the

kidnappings have stopped. At least they’ve stopped for

the kids that would listen to me and wear the mark. I

think that maybe the symbol on it identifies that you are

part of the group or thing that is taking these kids so

they don’t touch you.’

‘So, how often do these kidnappings happen?’

‘About once a week. There is always some kid who will

not wear a mark or some group who dare someone not

to wear their mark for a day. They are always the ones

that go missing.’

‘So, someone new moves here every week? Am I one of

those missing kids then?’

‘No, you can’t be. You’re too young. You would have

to be at least 50 years or older. That’s what’s so strange

about you. Not one kid has ever moved here since

these things started happening. I at first thought that the

kids that had been kidnapped were coming back, but

when I looked up the names, not one was called Jess.’

‘You are freaking me out here. You still haven’t

explained how you got into my house and why should I

believe this? I hardly know you.’

‘Look, I think this is more important than you knowing

how I got into your house…’

‘… Well how am I supposed to know if you are not just

some psycho killer who has been kidnapping these kids

from their houses and I’m next? I am going.’

In anger, you get up take your mark off and storm away.

Whilst you are walking home, you feel like someone is

following you. You keep turning around but no one is

there. As you turn the corner onto your street someone

grabs you ankle and trips you over. You are a little dazed

at first but as you try to get up, someone pushes you

back down. In the heat of the moment all you see is a

hooded figure with a skeleton face raising a heavy

looking object about to strike. It’s time to act and save

yourself!

Oh no! What do you do?

Hold up your blue mark so they can see it.

Ditch your school bag and run away as fast as you

can.

Fight back!

Anything else

To be continued...

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