Congratulations to Barrington Public School Year 5 student, Elana Pope, whose story in the Great Lakes Advocate’s inaugural Tell Me A Story competition was highly commended.
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This is Elana’s story.
I always knew there was something wrong with me. I just didn’t know what. Until one day something happened that helped me figure it all out.
I think I was about four when my Mum and Dad left me because of my abnormalities. They dumped me on the door step of number 6 Hidalgo Road. It was the middle of the night when they dumped me and unfortunately the lady who lived there hated kids. She screamed at me when she opened the door the next morning, and I awoke with a start. I don’t really remember what happened after that because I must have fallen asleep again. I think she rang an orphanage because the next thing I knew I was being driven a long way from Hidalgo Road. Squeals (that’s what I call the lady who screamed at me when I turned up on her doorstep.) obviously didn’t want to ever see me again because she made sure she called an orphanage that seemed like a million miles away from Hidalgo Road.
I ended up at a cold, stone building with a high, black, iron, gate that went all the way around the building. The housekeeper of the orphanage was called Mrs Mcosh, the cook was called Mr Mensies and the nun was called Mother Superior. They all call the orphanage Hillview. I call it prison. I call it prison because just about everyone hates me. The only person who doesn’t completely hate me is Mr Mensies. The bad thing about that is that I don’t get to see him much and even though he is nicer than the rest of the people, he still flinches at the sight of me. I don’t think Mother Superior likes ‘different’ people. She hates me. She always blames me for stuff I didn’t do and she always, always makes me tidy and clean more than anyone else; except maybe Mrs Mcosh. She always says: “Annabeth do this” “Annabeth do that” “Annabeth clean this up” “Annabeth don’t do that!”. It’s so annoying! It’s like everything I do at prison, I do it wrong! Unless of course it’s what the witch told me to do.
The witch is Mother Superior by the way. I don’t think it’s just that I act like a horse, oh did I tell you that? Probably not. The reason that I’m different from everyone is because I act like a horse sometimes. I know it sounds weird but I can’t help it. Anyway the reason I think Mother Superior hates me is because I accidentally called her mum once. As you probably already guessed she wasn’t too happy about that.
It’s my twelfth birthday today but I’m not too excited. I’ve never received a present in my life and I’ve only ever received a birthday card from Mr Mensies. So as you can see birthdays for me aren’t too exciting. Except this year was different. A letter arrived in the mail for me. I couldn’t believe it; I never got letters. A whole heap of questions was filling my mind. I didn’t say any of them though. I was too shocked. And when I read it, I almost fell over in shock. It was a letter from Savannahs school for centaurs! That explained everything! I was a centaur! I just must have been late on getting my horse body! That meant a two of things to me. I could leave prison and nobody would tease me anymore! I was so happy that I took off and ran around outside as fast as I could. “I’m leaving I’m leaving” I sang at the top of my voice. I ran inside and packed my bags at top speed. Mother Superior came in and asked me what I was doing. I told her I got a letter to go to a boarding school and she let me go without even looking at the letter! And a week later she drove me to Roman Station that was where the letter said to go and then someone who must have been a teacher took me from there. That day was the best day of my entire life.