Who am I? Students from Welland Park Academy were asked to choose a character from film or literature to write about without mentioning their name, but to give clues. Can you guess who they are? Answers at the bottom of the page.
A: I will be shot for cowardice in the morning. It wasn’t a trial. They had decided I was guilty before they even sat down. I had 3 of them, a brigadier and 2 captains, looking down their noses at me. Going over the top was suicide: a dozen or more got wiped out in the attack and nobody even got as far as the German wire.
And I had to stay behind and look after my brother, Tommo.
By Ethan Bowden
B: How could this happen? We seem to have been moved so many times that no place feels like home. But that may change. I love libraries; they are like an island in a vast sea of ignorance, especially if the library is tall and the surrounding area is flooded.
But what really makes a home? A school can feel like a home; particularly if your real home has been set on fire. Friends can make a place a home and that’s more true than ever now. Friends are the thing that keep you grounded, that keep you from running away from a treacherous villain. But friends can’t help when they are trapped at the bottom of an elevator shaft. Or hidden in a fountain shaped like a bird. Or flouting away in a self-sustaining hot air mobile home.
But you can never lose a friend no matter how many guardians you go to. No matter how many secrets you learn. No matter how many codes you descript. No matter how high in the sky they are.
You can never lose your friends.
By Lillie Ford
C: He ducks his head down to his feet just to make it through the door. Even then, he only manages to squeeze his head in the gap. His huge ears pop out the doorway, and I’m taken aback by the sheer size of them both. Despite his great height, his smile is warm and full of kindness. I’m somehow not intimidated by him at all – he looks like he’d never even hurt a fly.
He watches me with his abnormally large eyes, sticking his hand inside the room, palm upturned. I know instantly what to do. I step on gingerly, careful not to lose my balance and topple off. He catches me before I fall, laughing at my clumsiness.
We wander the London skyline, stepping over buildings and hopping over rooftops. He stops to listen to the snores of sleeping children, holding me by their windows as they sigh happily, lost in their dreamworld. We continue our journey until I’m drowsy with exhaustion, the wind whipping my face as he leaps towards his home.
When we arrive, he sets me down and I curl up in my patchwork blanket. I drift off to the sound of his gruff voice reading my storybook, once again losing myself in my own land of dreams – where I know he’ll keep me safe.
By Niamh Whelan and Amber Timms
D: I have fought many monsters. I have two best friends. I have a teacher who is not human. He gave me a sword which was a gift from my father. I can control water if I wanted to. I had a friend and he tried to frame me by stealing a god’s special object for another god. I managed to get the object back to the correct god in time for a festival. I live in a camp, but I still visit my mother at her flat {we are quite a poor family}. She has been lonely since she kicked out my stepdad. I am twelve {almost a teenager, YAY!}
By Curtis Mason-Moor
E: I’m ginger and I have blue eyes. I have two main best friends: one is a smart, powerful woman, the other is an amazing, powerful man. I have five brothers and a sister. I went to an amazing school, however, I only go home on holidays. It was like a castle but it went through war. I have a pet rat who is actually a human who serves the person who is on the hunt for my best friend. A lot of people would call me brave when my friends are in danger. I married one of my best friends and we have two beautiful children.
By Ellie Blaine
F: Trouble always seems to find me. I stare at Mrs Martin, lying lifeless on the floor, and when I close my eyes, I swear I can still see the blood. I slowly retreat from the body, backing into the corridor, before I suddenly feel myself walk into someone and hear someone say,
“Really Watson!” The voice makes my heart flood with relief and I turn around to see my best friend, her loose blonde curls making her look even more angelic than usual. I see her face change as her bright blue eyes take in my bedraggled state, the blood drained from my face, my dark hair falling out of its plait.
I know she’ll be annoyed that she wasn’t the one to find the body, but all the same she holds my hand.
“Watson, show me the body.”
By Amelia McMillan
G: Water drips down from the ceiling and dampens my orange shirt. The darkness seems oppressive, but I feel comforted by the constant fall of water, and the ever present weight of the pen in my pocket. I stare at the mirror in front of me. Even in the darkness my sea-green eyes stand out. There’s writing on the glass but my ADHD distorts the words. I hope to see a familiar flash of blonde hair and grey eyes when I turn around, but there’s nothing there. Suddenly, I hear a hissing sound, that grows louder in my ears. I uncap the pen.
By Amelia McMillan
H: The knife hits the target; the way it always does. A gun can jam, but knives? They’re reliable. I trust them, like I trust in the Saints I named them for.
I vault across the wet cobblestones, and prise the knife out from between the bricks. It feels good to have the knife in my hand again, to feel the leather handle in my grip. It feels right.
This city is going to get me, one day, but I won’t die in a cage, like they want me to. I’ll die on my feet, with a knife in my hand. And I certainly won’t die alone. Because there’s six of us, and we’re going to be there for each other. No matter what.
By Amelia McMill
ANSWERS…
A: Charlie from Private Peaceful
B: A Series of Unfortunate Events
C: Sophie from The BFG
D: Percy Jackson, from Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
E: Ron Weasley in the Harry Potter Books
F: Hazel Wong, from Murder Most Unladylike by Robin Stevens
G: Percy Jackson, from Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan
H: Inej Ghafa, from Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
