Fiction: Group 4
There were different doors along the corridors, each one of them shut.
The toilet door was shut and locked
and Sophie's mum tapped on the door.
"Hello?"
"Someone's in here!" A voice snapped.
"Mummy, why are people so mean?"
Sophie looked up at her mother with huge eyes.
"Sometimes people are just cranky.
When others misunderstand them, people think they're mean."
Sophie paused in thought.
"Like the Beast?"
The corner of her mother's mouth twitched.
"Yes.
So do you think you can be like Belle and give people a
chance?"
The little girl nodded.
At last, the door of the bathroom swung open to reveal a frowny old man, thin and bent over with age.
He
stared daggers at the parent and daughter but Sophie revealed her missing teeth to the man in a smile.
She
wouldn't admit she was a little frightened, though.
"Good morning, old man!" she called.
The old man squinted at her for a few seconds before tottering away without a response.
"Do you remember what I told you about good manners, Sophie?"
"Always say pleasethankyougoodmorning even if people don't say it back because it's a nice thing to
do."
The little girl felt accomplished.
"That's right."
Sophie felt her mother pat her on the head.
Her mother shut the bathroom door behind them.
~~~
Growing up was something that everyone did.
It was something feared, something kids wanted or both.
It
came slowly, and then it came all at once.
It creeps up on people.
"Sophie."
The teacher pointed to the sum on the board.
She didn't know how to do it.
She stood up anyway, moving past the desks to the front of the classroom.
Taking the piece of chalk that
the teacher held out, Sophie stood in front of class.
The numbers were unfamiliar aliens coming to attack
her; they stood there, her quest.
She wondered if Peter knew how to do math. She sure didn't.
The teacher didn't mind.
Her classmates were another story.
"It's so easy.
How can you
not
know how to do it?"
"Why do you always talk about fairytales?"
"Didn't your mum teach you how to count?"
"Why does your bag have a hole in it?"
