We are delighted to welcome back budding writers from Welland Park Academy.
My name is Oliver Grundy. Everyone knows my name. Everyone knows my face. Everyone remembers my voice. I guess you could call me everyone’s childhood friend in this neighbourhood. But if you were to look at me on an odd day in 1987, you wouldn’t recognise me.
On the fateful morning of 18th October, after a restless night I opened my eyes to find myself on the floor, with a painful headache. I had concluded that I had fallen out of bed and bumped my head on the nightstand but I was wrong. Really wrong. I just didn’t realise it yet.
I moved my limbs, shaking them so I would be full of energy, ready to start the day but when I tried to, I realised I didn’t have any. And my vision was so blurry I could barely see. Guess I needed glasses. But the direr matter was a hand – I couldn’t move it because had I lost my limbs. What was happening? There was only one way to find out so I looked at the mirror and tried my hardest to squint. I saw myself, but I wasn’t me. I was a snake! I tried to scream but nothing came out of my mouth.
I needed to get a hold of myself. This was just a dream. I would wake up soon but as I tried to wake myself up, nothing happened. When I realised it was real I heard a shrill voice coming from downstairs.
“Oliver get downstairs right now, breakfast is ready and you’re late!” my mother shouted as I stared panicking.
I needed to get out of here fast but how? I didn’t know how to slither and I could barely see what was in front of me. Snakes use their tongues to help them find their prey. I needed to use my tongue to see. I guess listening in biology was worth it!
As a human it would be very hard to do this but as a snake this hit me like I have done it all my life. Although I still couldn’t see, I could find myself around the room. Slithering took a bit more practice but after a couple minutes I was very good at it.
Without any warning, I heard my mum coming upstairs and angry. I needed to hide myself so with a bit of effort a found myself under my bed, enveloped in my school clothes.
“Where has he gone!… Oliver, are you in the bathroom?” called my mum in a worried tone.
This was my escape. As she left, I left my room to the dangers of the rest of my house. Luckily I live in a bungalow so I didn’t need to worry about stairs.
The kitchen, my second favourite place in the house. An aroma wafted through my nostrils and hunger enveloped my senses and I was drawn to my breakfast. My pet cat Twig also had the same idea as me and was hypnotised by the edge of the island. I was so hungry but it looked like she would get to it before me. As she sprung up and was about to devour her treat, her eyes shot towards mine, and the amount of surprise and fear I caused her made her jump up high and run away so fast I barely saw her go. By doing so, the food was knocked off the island onto the floor. The plate shattered but the food was still fine, so now I could enjoy my feast.
The plate must have caused my mum to rush into the room shouting my name, but what she saw, spooked her even more. A snake, attempting to eat some dirty food on the floor, discovering how hard it actually is to eat bacon as a snake. A high pitched scream emptied from her mouth as she ran to grab the phone.
I froze in fright.
About 10 minutes later, my mum was staring at me from on top of a chair the whole time, a van rolled up onto the driveway, a gruff voice and a quieter voice asked if they could go in and when they entered the room my immediate thought was to slither away. My mum had sent pest control to our house to bring her son away!
I tried to slither away but I wasn’t a master at it and they caught up instantly. As they scooped me up and put me in a cage I heard one of them say. “How did a python get in your house ma’am? Well glad we caught it anyway.”
Once we arrived at the pest control place, they put me in a cage. How would I get out of here? What will they do to me if I don’t? And most importantly, why am I a snake?”
But for the rest of the day and night I stayed in that cage, trying to get out, but all failed. All I could do was try to get to sleep, pondering the meaning life and how small we really are in this multiverse.
When I woke up, I was very uncomfortable. I realised I didn’t fit in the cage anymore and had grown… back into me?
How did this happen? But I didn’t have time to think about that because as I leaned against the glass, the cage opened and I fell out in my pyjamas in a bundle of confusion.
An hour later, the guys came back into the room. After explaining that I hadn’t stolen anything, I left.
Back to my home! As I walked home, I saw many ‘missing’ posters on my street; my mum was looking for me and she must be worried sick. I raced home and when I opened the door, I ran to her bedroom and opened the door. My mum clambered out of her bed and ran over to me. As I embraced her, she pulled back.
“Oliver Grundy, you are in so much trouble.”
