THUMP

She wibbled and wobbled and started to a fall! She came down with a - a mishap indeed.

“I’ve told you before” hissed the cat, annoyed

The next day, when she got back from school, Lila rushed through the door with urgent news.

“It’s just like I said” she cried “There’s a monster at school - In the old school shed with the paint, and the screws!”

EVERYONE knows that monsters don’t go to school!

went

Later, at dinner, Lila spoke again “Why won’t you listen, I thought we were friends!”

“I really did see that monster at school – I know what I saw. It was furry and brown with razor sharp claws!”

“Fine” yowled the cat “If you’re so sure –we’ll go there tonight and find out more”.

Lila jumped to her feet and ran to the door…

By the time Merlin got there, she had her shoes on and a look in her eye the cat hadn’t seen before.

They snuck into the garden and got on their brooms, flew into the sky like a shooting star through the gloom.

“Just wait” said Lila as they flew over the school gate “The monster is here – you might not believe me but soon the proof will be clear!”

The pair land in the playground right next to the shed, and Merlin jumps to the ground and shakes his head.

“We’ll see” said the cat, and Lila walks towards the shed door…

Merlin let out a YOWL and Lila a scream, and shot off a spell that once she had seen…

From out of her crystal shot thick vines green as snot, and wrapped round the monster and tied it in knots!

She stared at the place where the monster had been, but that horrid, clawed beast was nowhere to be seen!

Instead, a young boy stood in front of the shed, with vines wrapped around him from his toes to his head.

“Merlin!” called Lila “You were right all along! It wasn’t a monster but this boy, I was wrong!”

“Well” purred Merlin, “I told you the rule – everybody knows monsters don’t go to school!”. “Although” added the cat “I didn’t expect this – you were right to bring us here, imagine we’d missed it!”

Lila was speechless and Merlin was stunned.

“I was transformed into a monster, and it broke me to see just what I had become.”

The boy shook his head and wiped away tears “I hid at this school for two hundred years.”

He looked up with a smile and went on to say, “But then you spotted me – this must be my lucky day!”

Lila smiled at the boy and offered her hand, and the boy gripped it tightly, glad she could understand.

“All I needed” he said, as the three walked away “Was someone to show me kindness, someone who would stay.”

“If you hadn’t been brave” purred Merlin “If you hadn’t been kind, then this poor boy would still be cursed, in a terrible bind.”

The three climbed on the broom and flew their way home, and since that day the boy has never been alone.

We might not all be witches, with spells and potions, but we can all still be brave and protect each other’s emotions.

It doesn’t take much to choose kindness not cruelty and make the world better – that is our biggest duty. You never know what someone might be like inside, what feelings and thoughts they hold deep down and hide.

There’s no braver thing than to be a good friend. And with that, it is time, for our story to…