Here are the winning entries from 2009 & 2010.

Henry Broadbent
Age 12 Lower Hutt NumberWorks’nWords

Revenge….

The house stood there in the early morning light, half obscured by fog, looking lost and alone. Most of the windows were smashed in or hanging off their hinges, making an eerie “creak..creak” in the slight breeze whistling through the air.

Trembling, I took a few shaky steps down the rough gravel path towards the house. I knew why I had to go there, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to do it. I walked up the crumbling stone steps, my walking stick making a clacking noise against the rough ground.

As I opened the rotting door and saw the living room beyond, colourful memories of m childhood hit me. Me and my little brother, playing with some building blocks he’d just got for his fourth birthday. My little brother’s first Christmas. Mum tickling the soles of his feet – his giggling face a picture of pure joy. There were too many half forgotten memories to count, and a feeling of extreme longing to once again be innocent, and ignorant, broke over me like a wave.

I knew it would be like this for every room, as each room was stocked full of so many dusty memories and emotions, but I had no time to visit them all. There was one room I needed to see, to jog my memories on something I’d tried my hardest to forget. This was the time to get revenge.

I hobbled slowly into my old bedroom, trying to remember what I could.

Mum, coming towards me, her panic stricken eyes locked onto mine. “Run Jonathon, hide where you can – just get out of here!” “But Muuum!, I start to complain. There is an angry hammering at the door, and her face creases with worry and fear. I begin to understand that this is important, and run into my bedroom – I step into the wardrobe and close the door, shutting myself in. My fingers scrabble against the smooth wood, trying to close it completely. I hear men at the door, then a loud crash and a scream. I hear a yell – my mother’s voice. “Don’t hurt him. He’s innocent!”

My brother! I realize with a shock that I had forgotten all about him. A scream splits the air, “Noooo!” My mum wails in despair. I hear a gunshot ringing in my ears, then a horrible final, thump.

My mum backs into the bedroom, her tear stained face staring unseeingly at something beyond the doorway, and then she collapse onto the floor in a crumpled heap, blood pooling around her…

“Alright then, glad that scene’s over!” one of the cameramen says, as the director strolls onto the set. He flicks a switch hidden behind a doorframe and large, bright overhead lights flash on above them. The woman crumpled on the floor stands up, straightens her ‘bloodstained’ clothes and tells the director she’s going to get changed.

A group of men run on and begin to take away the set, removing picture frames, vases, the wardrobe, beds, sinks and finally the walls and floor.

The main carrying the wardrobe almost drops it, as there is a muffled shouting from inside. Understanding dawns on the man’s face and he starts to chuckle. Placing the wardrobe on the floor of the studio, he opens the doors and lets a flustered looked five-year- old boy out. Still chuckling, he takes the young actor’s hand and leads him away.

The End

Nona Maclean
Age 10 Bondi Junction NumberWorks’nWords

A Lolly Kingdom Lesson

I loved playing my guitar. Every since I was six years old. My dad died when I was 4, and he encouraged me to live my dreams and stand up for what you believe in even if you’re standing alone. I practiced every Sunday. My dreams were to become a famous rockstar when I grow up.
I had a brother, but he’s 21. One Sunday, I was playing my favourite song when a little white arm popped out of the soundhole. I gasped. “Help!” A little voice shouted. “H-hello?”
I asked as if I was in a horror movie. “Help!” the voice shouted again. A beautiful little fairy popped out of the guitar. “Oh, hi, my name is Lulu, I’m a fairy” she explained. “Hmmmm… I better get home.” She said.
“Take me with you!” I insisted. Oh what the hell. My mum was at the gym half the time and my brother couldn’t care less. “Umm… okay.” She said, sounding uncomfortable. “Come with me!” she shouted excitingly. She wooshed out of the backyard and over the fence. I was a fast runner and it was easy to get over the fence. “C-come down here” She whispered. She waved her wand, and we both fell down a giant swirl. “Wahhh!!” I screamed. I wasn’t a girly-girl or a scaredy cat, but when you’re falling down a giant black swirl, with a fairy laughing her head off, you’ve got to scream.
We landed on a soft… thing. Wait, what? We landed on a soft thing. I looked down to find a white marshmallow. And I wasn’t on my marshmallow cushion at home, cause as soon as I looked around I realised I should go to Mr. Robinson’s back yard more often. There were clouds of fairly floss and a sea of pink lemonade. “Don’t you love that swirl?” Lulu asked.
“Umm… No!” I replied.
“Let’s go to my kingdom”
Wow, she actually lived here. A world full of lollies and she just wanted to go to some kingdom. We had to take the liquorice train to get there. But when we got to this kingdom, I wanted to take everything I said before back. It had never melting ice cream temples, caster sugar sand, chocolate grass and peppermint shakes. Could it get any better!? Suddenly a lady with long green wings and a lollypop stick came out of one of the vanilla temples. “The festival of Libertad will begin.” She took a deep breath. “Now!!”
She shouted. Everybody started counting down. “Uno, dos, tres, quatro, cinco!!” The crowd shouted. Suddenly, snow flakes of caster sugar fell and horns were playing music and people around me started dancing. Smiling, and for once in my life, I actually felt happy. I. Felt. Happy. Even though I didn’t really know anyone. I looked over at Lulu dancing away. It was amazing and I think I even saw my dad, yeah, that’s right he was smiling and dancing in the crowd. We met our gazes. His big emerald green eyes looking into my muddy brown eyes. He collided through dancing fairies in all different colours. Just to get to me. “How did you get here?” He asked looking very interested. “A-a fairy.” I explained. I hadn’t seen him for six years and that was all he could say to me.
“Aren’t you happy to see me?” I said feeling hurt.
“Well yeah, but it’s dangerous here.” He explained.
All of a sudden, two fairies came up to me, one wearing a red tutu and one wearing a black tutu. They grabbed me by the shoulders. “Remember to live your dreams and stand up for what you believe in even if you’re standing alone.” He reminded me. And with a blink, I was already falling down a black swirl. I landed in Mr. Robinson’s garden. I got up and jumped over the fence. My brother was waiting there for me.
“Where have you been?” He asked sounding worried while hugging me.
“With Dad.” I replied with tears steaming in my eyes.

Jack Stonnell
aged 7 Kilbirnie NumberWorks’nWords

Have you seen my Taniwha?

Have you seen my Taniwha lurking through the sea, pouncing at little fish with its big sharp jaws, slicing seaweed with its big sharp claws, splashing little boats around the seven seas, eating raw oil for lunch and tea.
YEEEEUUUUUUUUUUUUUWWWWWWWWW
Biting big pipes,
Grabbing tree trunks,
Making giant waves,
And smashing forest huts in the Taniwha forest.
Peeking in Volcano tops,
Chomping down trees,
Stepping on lake monsters,
Peeking in deserted lairs to find a good home to rest in.
Have you seen my Taniwha ?
The trail has gone dead,
Perhaps he’s searching for a comfortable bed.
Ok I know Taniwha are chameleons and I know that their footprints have 3 toes,
So there is no sign whatsoever.
Hey look a footprint, I will follow these footprints shsssssssssssshh the Taniwha is sleeping….tiptoe, tiptoe, Taniwha……… oh Mr Taniwha!
ROOOOOOOOOOOAAAARRRRRRRRRRR
Ok I will go, jeez, god, oh yeah!
Ok well this is the end
I suppose I will see you next time in the next exciting adventure

 

O’Connor Age 6

Kapiti NumberWorks’nWords

Leaves

Trees have leaves and then they don’t.

Where do the leaves go? I think they get blown away by the wind.

Autumn makes the leaves fall off and summer makes them grow back.

We put our leaves in the compost and we put our compost in our garden to help our plants grow more leaves.

 

By Taylor Chadfield   Age: 8

Wanganui NumberWorks’nWords

The Magical Hut

Hayley woke up from a deep sleep. She stretched her arms and legs and leaped out of bed. After dressing quickly, she zoomed down stairs. Suddenly she remembered when walking home from school yesterday with her friend Amelia Jane that today they were going to explore a hut that they had spotted in a paddock. Amelia was waiting patiently on the corner for Hayley. Pretty soon she appeared, together they climbed a brick fence. As they approached the black sparkly door their hearts started to beat fast. They crept inside and looked up and saw a black cat with glowing green eyes. She was busy combing her whiskers with a gold brush. “Mellow”, she purred. “Welcome, my name is Samantha. I would be delighted if you would join me for a tea party”. “Sure thing”, cried the girls. Samantha said, “Diddley dow set up now”. With that the table popped up, the cups and plates flew out of the cupboards. The jug started boiling, the teapot rattled and the cupcakes popped themselves into the stove. Amelia Jane and Hayley could not believe their eyes, their jaws dropped. The table was loaded with all sorts of goodies. They chatted all afternoon. “It’s getting late now we better go home”, said Amelia. “This is our own secret”, purred Samantha. It is our secret nodded the girls. We will be back tomorrow. They left very contented with big full tummies.

 

WHY ME?

By Hannah Hondroudakis

Aged 14 years

NumberWorks’nWords Chevron Island (Australia)

I was running, my heart was pounding like a bullet in my chest, and my legs were aching like hell! This wasn’t paradise, this was my living nightmare. As my feet continued to pound the concrete path, I heard the policeman behind me slow to a jog, and at the same time, my mates caught up with me. “That was awesome, dude” Levy chortled, with his hands on his knees to stop him from falling flat on his back with laughter. It was only when Cash took the bulky package from my firm grasp did I realise, I still had the widow’s handbag. For the rest of the way home I pretended to laugh along with the other two as they recalled the evening’s events. To tell the truth, it was horrible, the first time I set eyes on that poor lady, I didn’t want to do it. I guess that makes me a sissy, but I’m not cut out for this, breaking the law, and constantly being on the verge of death.

To be truthfully honest, my life had always sucked. My dad died of a brain tumour when I was two, and mum died a few months ago from the same thing, so I was sent to live with a foster family. I hated them; they never listened to me and tried to change my life around. So I ran away, towards a life on the streets. Well, it wasn’t all bad. Soon I met Levy and Cash who haven’t once let me down. It’s just… I felt like I was the world’s worst person. Sometimes in life, a guy just needs a father to talk to, or a mother to take care of him.

We rounded the corner and came to an alley way where we had lived the past fortnight. Levy slumped on the concrete straight away, letting his rolls of fat flow out from beneath him. To most people, Levy looked terrifying, but to us, he looked like an overweight pig. He had a large round face with dark brown hair just covering his tiny little ears. Cash sat awkwardly on a piece of debris, counting the total of our loot. He had a long, skinny figure with short, blonde curly hair and an oval sort of face. I on the other hand have really dark olive skin with medium, black, wavy hair and a smooth skinny body. I was pretty tall, but not as tall as Cash.

I curled up on an old rug and tried to get some sleep, it’d been hard trying to get some shut eye lately, and I had had a few nightmares the past couple of days. Always the same one, my parents standing there in the light but when I tried to reach out for them, they kept slipping away into the darkness only to be replaced by a fiery red creature with an evil grin. I closed my eyes and tried thinking of all the good memories I could remember of my mother; her smile, and how her hands were always stretched out to grab me when I needed her. This worked until I woke up in the darkness, shaking from head to toe with balls of sweat rolling down my forehead.

I calmed right down after a few deep breaths and got up to take in the early morning air. There was only a tint of pink in the sky but it was obvious it was morning. After a while, I sat up and waited for the other two to wake up. I listened to their heavy snores, Cash was the first to come round, then Levy, soon we were all up and the sky was a deep blue with odd clouds scattered across the horizon. We sat and chatted for a while before hitting the streets, wondering what havoc and destruction we would cause today. Suddenly, Cash stopped; he was looking at the bank with a wicked smile playing across his face. I knew that look, throughout my time on the street; I’d learnt to avoid this look. This was the look of planning something big, something to really make people run and scream in horror. “What if we rob the bank?”

I was horror struck, I didn’t want to do it but I had no choice, we planned our exhibition then grabbed our stuff and set our plan to action. I grabbed my gun and held it above my head as I entered the bank. The audience shrieked and cried in horror as I stood there, I was glad that the black balaclava was over my head, it hid the fact that my face was as white as a sheet of paper. To the occupants of the bank, I was terrifying, a danger, and a threat. I was shaking all over, my vision blurred and my senses completely cut off. The sound of sirens was audible above the muffled shrieks of my audience.

My heart suddenly left my chest and started beating in my throat; I witnessed everything as though it was in slow motion. The gun left my hands and I was running flat out, out the door and into the panicked street. I pulled off my balaclava and as I passed through the crowd, I saw the police arresting Levy and Cash, and tears ran silently down my cheeks. Some might say that my sudden flee was out of cowardice, others say it was out of bravery, I didn’t care, this wasn’t my life to live. I ran back to my foster home, my parents all cried with me because of the reunion, I never told them what had become of during my absence, and the police stopped searching for me.
That was twenty two years ago now, today I have a wife and a son to call my own. I will never forget Levy or Cash, and I’m sure they’ll never forget me; they gave me the strength to overcome my adversity and start a new life, a chapter in my life.