A Lucky Day(Leanne Chung) Creak…. Snap! Crash! Thump!

Excitement tingled in the air as our class scurried to the coach. We were going on a school residential trip, and the teacher told us that we were going to stop by at a forest for a picnic and play. Little did we know, however, that the sunny weather was going to take a turn for the worst and result in near injuries.

After putting our heavy bags and suitcases into the coach luggage compartment, we climbed aboard, jostling for the (in our opinion) best seats; trying to find a place where we could sit with our friends for the hour long journey to the forest. At last, everyone was satisfied, and the teachers did the usual seatbelt check.

We passed the hour with different activities, some of which included reading, drawing, playing games and talking way too loudly. One of the teachers told us off for being too noisy as we could have distracted the driver! (It was a very reasonable explanation).

At last, we arrived, and everyone bundled out of the coach in an avalanche noise, clutching our pack lunches for the picnic. After eating, the teachers let us go play in the park, which was very fun. It had climbing frames, monkey bars, swings of all sorts and a long zip wire where you get showered with water from the car tire stop at the end, to name a few. About 25 glorious minutes later, however, the sunny morning turned into a cold, rainy and windy afternoon. “Typical English weather!” we all thought. The teacher asked me and two friends to fetch the class. We happily agreed, as we loved running in the rain.

Soon, most of the class were under the shelter. Just two more to go! We raced back into the trees to find them. Just as we spotted them and opened our mouths to call them back, we heard a little creak. It became louder, then louder, until there was a snap. Just a little snap, barely louder than a how a little mouse squeaked. But that was what made us understand the situation.

“MOVE!” we yelled at the same time. Bewildered, our two classmates moved, just in time. Even though we predicted it, what we saw made all of our jaws drop. A tree branch, thicker than our waist and longer than a table, came crashing down, smacking the ground with an almighty thump. All I can say is that we were lucky.

We all ran back together, the five of us, not believing what we had witnessed, and told a member of staff what had happened. He thanked us for telling him, and immediately organised a team to remove the branch and cut down another branch which was hanging dangerously, balancing on another tree limb.

The news of us nearly getting squashed completely spread like wildfire through our class, so fast that in close to two minutes, almost all the students knew. Of course, us being in primary school, each time the story was told, it got even more dramatic, ending in me and my friends doing a flying leap and pushing over the classmates to save them! Obviously, we explained what actually happened.

Then, we packed up, went back into the coach, and continued on our journey to the residential. Thankfully, the rest of the trip was pretty much uneventful, except for a child dropping an entire open bag of mint imperials all over the coach floor.

Note: my friends may publish another version of this ‘story’ as we were in it together. If so, please can I just say that we did not write them together, so it is not a case of copying another writer’s work.

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