jeri telstar
competition
Tin Heng Mak
winner of the 10 to 12-year-old group
Jeremiah Lee’s best friend, Merry Weather, scratched her head.
The new teacher in the science lab looked just like the picture in
the newspaper of a supervillain who had just broken out of jail.
Just then he threw off his disguise. “I have locked the door
and will hold you all hostage,” he said. “Until I get my revenge on
Jeri Telstar, who put me in jail.”
She called Jeri on her secret wrist-phone. He replied: “I
can’t get there for at least ten minutes. See if you can defeat
him with something you find in the science lab. And try not to
be too violent!”
Merry flashed back in her memory. How could she not
know the teacher was a supervillian? There were no excuses for
forgetting. She read newspapers every day and memorised every
word of them. “Mourning and grieving will do no help” Merry
thought. She looked around the room and racked her brains.
Then she saw the answer.
Merry moved towards a girl chewing gum, a boy about to
drink some soda and a strong boy. To see her smiling, the people
thought she had gone nuts. Being held hostage is nothing to smile
about. But when she told them her plan, they started smiling too.
“
They’ve all gone nuts,” someone muttered.
The girl took her gum and stuck it on the soda lid. Next
she put a Mentos on the soda lid. (P.S. soda+ Mentos=explode!)
The girl then screwed the lid on tightly and handed it back to
Merry. Merry covered the soda in paper. Then the supervillain
barked “What are you kids doing?” “Wrapping a present for you,
my lord.” replied Merry. When the supervillain opened it, soda
exploded and sprayed all over him! That’s when the strong boy
came in. He rugby-tackled the supervillain and the supervillain
passed out cold.
Next they used some rope to tie the supervillain up. After
that, they put carbon, sulphur and potassium nitrate in a bowl
and started mixing. Soon gunpowder came out! They placed the
gunpowder on the door and used a trail of sulphur. They set fire
to it and the gunpowder exploded, opening the door!
Freedom! Instead of going to jail, the supervillain had a
worse fate – to clean up the lab!
Jeri Telstar Competition
congratulation to the Winners
Maya Xu
winner of the 7 to 9-year-old group
Jeremiah Lee watched the TV news with his eyes wide. He couldn’t
believe what he saw! A huge supervillain was emptying the city’s
biggest bank. The baddie was so strong that none of the usual grown-
up superheroes could defeat him.
The TV news camera crew caught the supervillain’s cry of
triumph. “No one can stop me! I, Musclehead, can defeat anyone!”
Jeremiah realised that if super-strength could not defeat this
bad guy, brains and the knowledge from his school textbooks
would have to do the trick.
Five minutes later, in his costume as junior superhero Jeri
Telstar, he was flying into action.
As Jeri flew towards the unfolding disaster, his mind whirled.
How could he win against a supervillain with super-sized muscles?
Jeri pushed himself hard to fly as fast as he could. Then he
felt a pull in his muscles and suddenly his body felt like Jell-O!
Jeri floated on a breeze to conserve energy, and suddenly he
remembered what he recently learned in science class. When a
person overworks his muscles, he can get ‘muscle fatigue’. So why
not work Musclehead’s muscles?
As he neared the bank, someone yelled “Jeri Telstar is here!
We’re saved!”
Musclehead had just grabbed a fistful of cash. “Telstar?”
he half growled, half laughed. “You think you can beat me?”
Musclehead lunged toward Jeri with clenched fists. Jeri darted
away, but Musclehead charged towards him again. This time
Jeri flew under him, tickling his hairy legs and somersaulting
away. The grown-up superheroes caught on. Sonicgal zipped
around Musclehead’s neck, zapping him with her laser. Bungyboy
jumped on Musclehead, and Insect Ima sent her worms oozing up
his nostrils.
Musclehead swung around and around, trying to get all the
superheroes and worms off.
Suddenly, Musclehead toppled over with a cry of pain. His
muscles had tired and suddenly he crashed down, breathing
heavily. The crowd gasped. Jeri quickly slipped special handcuffs
on the villain’s wrists. Insect Ima gently removed her trembling
pet worms, Squiggle and Squirk. She smiled at Jeri. “Nice work,”
she said. Jeri blushed, “Thanks, Mom.”
Amidst a wail of sirens, Sergeant Moor arrived. “This villain
just has a case of muscle fatigue,” Jeri said cheerfully. “Won’t be
too much trouble.” “Excellent work, m’boy,” said the sergeant as
he hauled Musclehead away.
Very clever, Jeremiah,” said Mrs Lee as she put Squirk in his
cage at home. Jeremiah shrugged as he petted Squiggle. “I guess
it just came to me.” Mrs Lee hugged her son and they watched
the news coverage of another adventure in the life of Jeri Telstar.
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