This is our daughter Aleisha's short story - an English class project.  I was pleased with the results as it was a joint effort - her creativity and my editing skills ( lols ) ...

THE LOCKET

By Aleisha Slothouber

I always wanted to be a fairy princess. I would wear my fairy wings and tutu and dance around my room. My parents said I could be whatever I wanted but I knew a princess wasn’t a common job. I tried to ride milko (our light brown pug) around the house like a pony once but he fell asleep and I was late for the ball, the grand teddy ball. I was quite unhappy but I still got my warm milk and was tucked in by my mum and dad before bed just like any princess deserves … “good night princess Mishy” they would whisper (mishy is my nickname my real name is Michel).

When I woke up the next morning my parents had a locket for me that they had found while cleaning up the attic. They didn’t know where it came from but I thought it was magic so I wore it to school the next morning. I played on the swings, I was in the kindergarten playground, all of a sudden a boy said to me “Get off!” “But I just got on“, I responded. “I don’t care, get off!” “But there is a perfectly good swings right there I said pointing out the swing to my right” “I’m waiting!” “If you must make me move for no reason could you at least say please?” By this time two teachers were eyeing us suspiciously, I was watching their expressions carefully and they were worried then all of a sudden they were running towards us. I turned around and I was punched off the swing, the two Teachers just couldn’t get there in time.

I was taken to the sick bay and the boy was taken to the office to be suspended. It took me a while to figure out that I had a blood nose as I was lost in my thoughts, too dizzy to notice but a few minutes later when I finally noticed, I was cupping my hands allowing the warm red liquid too pool in my hands. It was all gooey and I nearly wanted to vomit before I had time to look for a bin. A big kid held a small container over my lap, I knew instantly who it was. It was Conner, my big brother. I could tell by the watch he was wearing as it was the one I picked out for him for Christmas. Even though he hated it, he was a great brother and wore it every day.

I leapt up to give Conner a hug without thinking, he stood up fast and caught my two handfuls of blood in the container without a drop astray. I froze in shame and admired my brothers reflexes, he does fencing in the Community Hall every Tuesday and Thursday. He handed me the container and ran to the front desk were the office lady sat then he came back and led me to one of the school bathrooms in the senior part of the school. I had never been in the senior part of the school before, I was not comfortable with the environment but having my brother there made me feel much better. Once I got into the bathroom, he was gone - ran outside in fear and he was standing there casually like he did nothing wrong.

“How could you leave me in there and be happy about it, I could have been stolen by a big kid or abducted by aliens?”

He started chuckling to himself a little bit louder than I was prepared for then he looked at my confused and concerned face, “… you’re serious right?”

“Yes!”, I squealed

“ … it’s the girls bathroom though”, he chuckled

“No, it’s the big girl’s bathroom!” I corrected him squealing loudly and I knew my brother couldn’t resist my dark green eye’s while in puppy dog motion mixed up with all his family responsibilities and that new skateboard he wanted “… I can’t believe you are asking me to do this Mishy”, he said surprised.

Conner always told me I had a great personality there was no way he would let me go into the big girl’s bathroom knowing I had the power to tell on him and he would lose that skateboard he was so close to buying. “Mum would like… ground you”, I said emotionlessly. He could not afford to get grounded. Eventually he brought me into the bathroom and I washed my face off and my hands clean, the room was cream coloured and tiled. It felt like it was as million times bigger than the normal bathroom that I was comfortable in, I had trouble breathing with all the different scents of perfume in the air, Conner was constantly turning around to make sure nobody saw him in the light of the big brother he is and how much he could do for me, or how much he wanted that new skate board.

He led me back to the office and we sat down and the lady said kindly, “.. you can go if you like Mr. Grey”

No thanks, I think I’ll stay with Mishy”, he responded but not for my sake.

“Aaww that’s sweet, okay I’ll check on you two later“ .. he blushed.

“Do you really want that skateboard this bad?”

“No I just came from cooking class and I like the girl I am paired up with. I am afraid she’ll laugh because I suck”. I rested my head upon his forearm, rested there comfortably until the office lady looked up from taking her phone calls. She smiled and winked at me. I just smiled and closed my eyes.

An hour passed, Conner had to leave and I was taken to the sick bay, I wanted to return to class but the teacher would know I was lying because if I told them I was fine … I would not be able to hide the feeling that I wanted to vomit and was dizzy. So I just laid there on the bed that squeaked ever time I moved, it was covered with a plastic sheet that made crumpling noises each time I breathed deeply. I sat up looking at the light green stickers on the walls and the ceiling. They looked weird and made the room look smaller. I ran my fingers across one and the office lady walked in.

“You like them?”

“ To be honest, no…….. they make me feel like I am being squished into a cardboard box.”

She shut the door and the blinds, then came over and turned the lights off. I laid back and couldn’t believe my eyes “ .. now you like it?” She asked with a twinkle in her eye.

“ yeah …!!” I whispered in awe …

The whole room was lit up by glow in the dark stars, “ Am I in space?”, I asked cheerfully.

“Close … I like the stars and I thought kids would too, so I pretty much turned the room into a solar system.” She sat next to me and pointed out all of the planets and constellations, very soon realized they were accurate. ”This must have taken you days to get so accurate?”

“Nah .. just a couple of lunch breaks here and there”. We giggled together.

We sat there talking for awhile, the lunch bell went and the lady turned the lights back on and reopened the blinds and the door. She helped me to my feet. I struggled to adjust my eyes to the sudden burst of sunlight glistening through the windows - flooding the office with light. There wasn’t much to look at in the administration room. Plastic plants, couches, pamphlet holders and then I laid eyes on a little boy crouched in a corner. I nearly walked out when I realized this was the boy that had hit me. I stormed up to him and demanded an answer, “WHY?” I demanded.

“I’m sorry I just....”

I walked away and he started crying. I walked back and sat next to him and we talked. He told me about his family issues and how he needed to take his problems out on someone and he was so sorry. He was glad that we both felt better now. I wasn’t happy but at least I forgave him. I just sat there fiddling with my locket the whole time and didn’t really listen but it seemed to make him feel better anyway.. after all, he was kind of cute..

I was finally allowed to return to class. As soon as I got in I started making a collage with colourful scraps. Suddenly, someone screamed. Looking up I realised my collage was turning red. Instantly the teacher was ready with a whole bunch of paper towels. She shoved them over my eyes before realising she had missed and quickly relocated the paper towels over my gushing nose. I was told to use more paper towels however blood got on the floor which made one of the kids vomit and the student helper was quite nauseous. She disliked blood and fainted, I slapped my hand over my forehead in frustration, whilst the girls poked the passed out student helper and the boys started throwing their crayons in the puddle of puke.

I just sat in my chair with my head back with nothing to do but watch the children be themselves. I accidently sneezed and blood splattered all over the desk and onto the teachers green lacy blouse. Conner surprisingly walked in and didn’t flinch when I shared my handfuls of blood with him in a hug, he was a good brother.

During the bus ride home, my brother sat next to me with blood smeared down his shirt. The door flung open before we had time to turn the keys. Mum came running out knocking us over. She shrieked “… oh I am gonna be late for my meeting. Get an ice pack for your heads or whatever … oh my you have a bloody nose, you look rather pale, how was....nooooo the time … love you, BYE!” she said all together in one long sentence that lasted about five seconds. We didn’t catch any of it. Conner took good care of me then about ten minutes later my dad got home. He walked through the kitchen, grabbed a beer and came to sit on the couch next to me.

“How was your day, honey?” he asked calmly.

“You don’t want to know”, I sighed. He looked puzzled then Conner walked in with two ice packs, one on his head and the other in his palm, without looking at either of us he threw an ice pack at me which I caught, badly in need of it then placed it upon my head swiftly … as he sat next to me on the other side.

Dad looked really buff in his firemens outfit. I love his job because I get to go to work with him sometimes and I love playing with the dogs. Dad called the firemen when I was sick on my birthday. The made me a mini firemens costume - it was a red shirt with yellow overalls. The shirt was blank but the overalls were decorated with my name, little baby Dalmatians and fake diamantes. I wore it every time I went to Dad’s work and it brought a smile to the mens faces but I was never happy when the dogs scratched yet another diamante off it.

Dad took another sip of beer before resting it on the coffee table. Grabbing his hankie out, removing his hat and wiping the sweat off his face then placed his hat on my head. I couldn’t see anything, so I jumped when he put his arm around me and my brother easily.

I told him everything. He suggested sugar therapy for our bad day so we went to the closest ice cream parlour and I ordered a rainbow ice-cream in a cone with a flake. Dad allowed it just this once. Conner had a choc mint one and Dad ordered macadamia nut. We walked all over the place until we finally finished our ice-cream. Dad even bought Conner that new skateboard he wanted plus the helmet and shoes as a reward for taking care of me.

Dad then took me to the Chemist to get the photos in his wallet cut to size for my locket and had takeout for dinner. I had trouble eating my dinner because my nose started bleeding again.

When we returned to the Chemist to collect the locket later, I jumped for joy and my nose started bleeding again. Dad put the locket around my neck and whilst we drove home, I was dying to look inside the locket but I couldn’t look down. I asked Conner but he said it was a short revenge for making him go into the girls toilets. I tried to reason with him but it was useless.

I am thirty two years old now and I always remember that day, but it is known as the day that I got the locket. I was wearing that locket when I met my soul mate, everyone is puzzled that the story isn’t “as soon as I laid eyes on him I knew he was the one” it was he punched me off the swing in pre-primary, but thats our story.