"Hiding" // Short story

Here's my entry for the Monthly Writing Challenge I'm hosting! (If you don't know what I'm on about, check out this post. I encourage you to take part in it!) Actually, this is one of two stories I'm going to be sharing on September's subject, which is "school". I know, I know. I'm such an over-achiever. Anyway, the reason I'm going to be sharing two stories is that I didn't actually write this one this month, I wrote it back in June as a writing exercise while preparing for my English GCSE, and all I did now was polish it a little bit. It's also quite short. But since it's on the subject of school, I thought I'd share it. Though I want to write something new, too. (If anyone else who's taking part in the challenge would like to write more than one story, you're perfectly welcome to!)

Anyway, enough waffle, here's the story.

                                                                                 

“Why are you hiding under there?”

A pair of enormous, luminous blue eyes stared at me curiously. They belonged to the little girl who had crouched down next to me, next to the classroom table that I was hiding under. I didn’t reply to her question; I just stared at her, knees pulled up to my chest.

She looked friendly. She was the same age as me, and had a small, pixie-ish face that made her wide eyes seem even larger, and short blonde hair held back by sparkly hair-clips. She was wearing the same uniform that I was; a dark blue jacket and black trousers.

I wished she’d go away. I wanted to be left alone.

Why was I hiding? Because I was miserable, that was why. My parents had betrayed me in the worst way; they’d abandoned me here in this horrible place. Before they’d brought me here, they’d assured me that school was awesome, a place where I’d meet lots of new friends and learn millions of interesting things. I’d been looking forward to my first day of school all summer, eagerly counting down the days until the start of term. But now I knew how badly I’d been lied to. School was awful. It was a place filled with loud, misbehaved children who yelled at the top of their lungs, and stern, scary grown-ups who yelled even louder. I’d only been here for a couple of hours, but all I wanted was to be safely back home, calmly reading a picture book, surrounded by my dolls and imaginary friends.

“Do you want to play with me?” asked the girl.

Feeling annoyed that she was still there, I was about to tell her to go away when I noticed that she was holding a mermaid doll in her hand. My eyes widened. A fellow mermaid-lover? Could it be possible?

She noticed me looking at the doll. “Her name’s Marina,” she said. “I’ve got another mermaid in my school bag. Do you want to come and play with her?”

I only hesitated for a second before getting up from under the table and following my new friend eagerly.

Maybe, I reasoned, school wouldn’t be so bad after all.

                                                                                            

Heh, I hope you enjoyed this! Please let me know what you thought about it in the comments.

I'm going to be writing another story on the theme of "school", something longer and probably darker, because you know what my twisted little mind is like. I haven't really thought about what I'm going to write yet... I should probably get a move on... I mean, it is my challenge, how lame would it be if I failed it... but I've been busy lately, starting to do schoolwork again, and also I've had an idea for a longer writing project, so I've been thinking about that a lot. 

Are you going to take part in the challenge? 

Stay awesome,

-Indigo