Your work

The Wish Sweets
by
Catherine, age 9.

“Are you OK Lucy?” asked Katie.

“Well, a little bruised, all my lunch money has been taken and my jumper is in the mud but apart from that, I’m fine” she replied miserably. “It’s so annoying. Every day for the last two weeks that year 9 girl, Molly has been picking on me. I have to share your lunch most days and I go home with bruises and…..and she says not to tell anyone! Mum and Dad don’t even know.” By now Lucy was in tears.

“You HAVE to tell someone Lucy, you just have to – you could tell Mr Cook or Miss Allen”, Katie suggested.

“Please don’t tell Katie, I’ll sort her out one day, she’ll see”

On the way home from school, Katie and Lucy were discussing homework. Lucy looked down.

“Look Katie, a one pound coin. Want some sweets?” asked Lucy.

“Yeah, OK” said Katie eagerly.

They both ran to the sweet shop and looked at all the sweets. There were so many to choose from Mars Bars, Haribo, Maltesers and loads more. There was one new sweet called Wish Sweets. The packet said “I bet you’ll wish you wished for more Wish Sweets!”

“C’mon Lucy, haven’t you chosen yet? I’m having an Aero bar – they were half price, only 25p” said Katie. “Helloooo Lucy…?”

Lucy shook her head.

“What was that?” she asked.

“Hurry up!” yelled Katie.

“Oh sorry” said Lucy quietly and grabbed the Wish Sweets. “Phew, 75p just have enough money”, murmured Lucy.

“That’s one pound please” said the shopkeeper. “Be careful what you wish for”.

“What does that mean?” whispered Katie as they left the shop.

“I’m not sure” said Lucy looking thoughtfully at the packet of sweets in her hand.

Back at Katie’s house, Lucy opened her sweets and sniffed them.

“My sweets don’t really smell like anything” said Lucy.

Katie couldn’t hear her – she was listening to her IPod Nano and doing a very embarrassing dance. Suddenly she stopped and said, “What are you going to do about lunch tomorrow? I’m on a school trip so if Molly takes your lunch money you won’t be able to share with me.”

“Good point” said Lucy sadly. “I wish Molly would be off sick for once”. She popped a sweet in her mouth and scoffed it down. “Tastes like curry, yuk!”.

Katie had her headphones in again. “I’ll save the rest of these sweets for tomorrow” thought Lucy. At least she would have something to eat.

The next day, Lucy was dreading going to school. In the playground, she looked for Molly but there was no sign of her. At lunchtime she was still nowhere to be seen.

“Maybe Molly really is off sick” thought Lucy. “How funny that my wish came true”.

Lucy was late to lunch and there was no food left. She went to sit down and then remembered the sweets. She took them out and reached into the packet. As she popped a sweet into her mouth she sighed and muttered, “I wish I had a proper lunch”.

No sooner had she said it than she noticed a plate on the table in front of her with a mozzarella and tomato panini and salad. Lucy couldn’t believe her eyes. “Is this anyone’s?” she asked the people next to her. No reply. Lucy ate the lot.

After school, Lucy called Katie on her mobile.

“You’ll never guess what” said Lucy excitedly. “Molly was off sick today and I missed lunch but ate one of those sweets instead and a plate with a panini and salad appeared in front of me and its what I wished for and and….I think those sweets really are magic…”

“Slow down a minute” interrupted Katie. “You’re telling me that you ate a sweet and a plate of food appeared in front of you?”

“Yes and yesterday I wished that Molly would be off sick and she was” said Lucy all out of breath.

“Hmmmm” said Katie. “I have an idea. Lucy, don’t eat any more of those sweets. I’ll come over to your house tomorrow and we can talk about it.”

The next day was Saturday. When Katie got to Lucy’s house, she found her in her room playing on a brand new PSP.

“Awesome! Where did you get that?” asked Katie. Lucy looked guilty and said nothing.

“Lucy, the PSP?” said Katie.

“Oh, that!” replied Lucy. “Well I didn’t exactly buy it…..”

Katie looked around. There were lots of new gadgets that she had never seen before.

“Lucy, did you wish for all this stuff?” asked Katie.

“Well, yes…I couldn’t help it” blurted Lucy.

“How many sweets have you got left?” asked Katie.

“I kept one – I know you said not to eat any more but once I started wishing I just couldn’t stop” said Lucy shamefacedly.

“Never mind” said Katie. “One wish will be enough to sort Molly out once and for all”.

She told Lucy her plan.

Monday came and Lucy and Katie met and caught the bus to school as usual. They were feeling a little scared but excited too.

“It’s about time someone taught Molly a lesson” Katie said grimly. “And we’re going to be the ones who do it”.

They got to school and saw Molly across the playground.

“Not now” said Katie. “We need to wait until we have an audience”.

Sure enough, at lunchtime in the queue for the canteen their chance came. The whole school were either in the canteen eating their lunch or in the queue. Molly had been up to her usual tricks, stealing lunch money, throwing people’s jumpers over the fence or into the mud. She was now looking for a place to push in the queue.

“I’ll just go here in front of you, Lucy. By the way, give me your lunch money.” Molly swaggered in front of them.

Lucy said nothing.

“Didn’t you hear me cloth-ears?” said Molly, raising her voice. Still, Lucy said nothing.

“I SAID – GIVE ME YOUR LUNCH MONEY” shouted Molly.

By now, everyone was watching and the whole canteen was silent.

In a small but clear voice, Lucy said “No”.

“What did you say?” Molly couldn’t believe her ears. No-one had ever stood up to her before.

“I said, ‘No’” Lucy replied in a firm voice.

Molly’s face first went very red and then very white. She clenched and unclenched her fists. She was furious. She put up her hand to push Lucy but before she could do it, Lucy calmly put a sweet in her mouth and said clearly so that everyone could hear,

“I wish all your hair would fall out and all your clothes would disappear”

This time, the sweet tasted delicious, like a cross between pancakes with chocolate sauce and strawberries and cream. (What Lucy was tasting was the flavour of revenge).

Nothing happened at first. Lucy and Katie held their breath. What if the sweets didn’t work? Molly would beat them to a pulp today and every day. But slowly as everyone watched, bits of Molly’s hair began to fall out. First she lost the hair from the top of her head, leaving her with an old man’s bald patch. Then the rest fell out. People started sniggering – she really did look very funny.

Molly felt her head. It was completely smooth.

“How…how…..” she stammered.

By this time, the whole canteen was laughing at Molly’s baldness.

But worse was to come. The second part of the wish began to come true. Molly’s clothes began to disappear. First she lost her top layer of clothes, leaving her standing in just her underwear.

“Look!” someone screamed. “She’s still wearing teletubby knickers!” The whole canteen screeched with laughter.

This was too much for Molly – she ran. As she ran, even her underwear fell off and all everyone could see was a fleeing bare bottom.

They all laughed for a very long time. When the laughing died down, people came up to Lucy.

“Well done Lucy!”

“She deserved it”

“She’s been bullying me for weeks”

“I don’t think she’ll do it anymore” said Lucy.

The rest of the day was quiet. No-one saw Molly, although someone said she had been spotted running from bush to bush through the park trying to get home.

After school, Lucy and Katie ran to the sweet shop.

They looked for another packet of Wish Sweets but couldn’t see any. They asked the shopkeeper.

“Wish Sweets? Never heard of them” he said.

“But we only bought some the other day” said Lucy. “You must have them somewhere” she said, frantically scanning all the shelves.

“I have heard of something similar,” said the shopkeeper, looking very hard at Lucy, “but I think you can only buy them if you really need them. It seems to me that you don’t really need them any more.”

Katie and Lucy left the shop walking slowly.

“I do need them” said Lucy crossly. “I forgot to wish for a portable DVD player….”

“Well” said Katie laughing, “you’ll just have to wait for Christmas. C’mon let’s go to McDonalds for a milkshake.