Shortlisted
City of Kuma
International College Hong Kong, Jennifer Cheung, 13
Chapter 1
Our story begins on a Friday. Friday’s a day where you can relax and take a break. It’s a day
everyone looks forward to. Well..everyone except Alex and Nicole. It’s the day their parents leave
to some arid desert for an archeology expedition. It’s usually to find something dinosaur related,
like bones or eggs.
The day would usually start with lots of hustling and bustling, the sound of telephones
shrieking and the rustling of paper echoing throughout the house. But that Friday was different.
They’ve looked forward to that Friday for years. They’ve wanted to go on an archeology expedition
for years! They begged and pleaded, but they knew they could only go when they turn 13.
So you could imagine how excited Alex and Nicole were to go on the expedition. And to the
Gobi Desert as well!
“Why won’t this suitcase close?!” Alex exclaimed as she jumped on top of her suitcase. Nicole
raised her eyebrow.
“Well.. have you considered taking some things out? Like your shovel? And bucket?”
“But you never know when they might come in handy! Maybe we’ll get in a sand trap and
we’ll need to dig ourselves out! You never know!”
Nicole rolled her eyes and sighed.
“Girls! Hurry up! We can’t be late!” Their mother, Nancy, hollered at them
from downstairs.
“Coming!” Nicole called back down. Exasperated, she threw some of Alex’s stuff onto the bed
and zipped it up.
Chapter 2
When the girls and the whole team arrived at the desert, they were in no mood to go digging
in the hot, blood red sun. But they did. After hours of digging, the team stopped to have a rest.
Just then Nicole noticed a red box with gold engraved patterns half covered in sand. She motioned
for Alex to come over and knelt down beside it.
The girls opened the box. In the box, there was......
Nothing.
Disappointed, the girls returned to the box itself and studied the engravings on it. On the
box was a symbol of a crown, a sword, and a Chinese character that read ‘moon’. They wanted to
explore more, but had to keep digging since break was over.
“Hey! Look at this!” Someone yelled. The whole team hurried over to where the man was
pointing. What they saw was a priceless, jewel encrusted crown. The girls stared at each other.
“It looks exactly like the one on the box!” Whispered Alex.
“I know,” replied Nicole, “but we should probably keep quiet until we’re sure they’re linked
together.” The man put the crown in the van and the team kept on digging. Their mother frowned.
“Where’d that come from?” Nancy narrowed her eyes at the sight of the two girls
