closed The Story Of My Summer Solo

Date: 20th July 2023
Time: 3:00pm BST


It had been a long final year at primary school. They had only attended this place for the last two years, after all, they had moved around the country lots throughout their education. But even after two years, Leaf still was just as friendless as they were on the first day.

For the last lesson of Year 6, Mrs Kentford had decided - and Leaf was not very happy about it - to have a water fight on the back field and play a game which was some version of 'last one standing', except you got eliminated when you were soaked. So the class of around thirty ran out onto the field, screaming war cries and wielding water pistols.

A short boy called Ben squirted Alice before the game had even begun. Mrs Kentford approached him and told him to go sit on the bench right away for misbehaviour. "I will make myself clear. No one is to squirt anyone before I say!" A huddle of boys at the back smirked. "Unless you want to spend your last half an hour of school sat on the bench like Ben over there."

Leaf clutched their water pistol tightly to their chest and shook it to check there was water in it. They turned to the patch of trees on the left of the field and found a tree perfect for climbing that, despite attending this school, had not appreciated before today. Perfect. I can hide there until the chaos is over.

"Three..." Mrs Kentford bellowed across the field. "Two..." Everyone held their pistols ready to fire. "One..." The tree was quite a distance away, they'd need to run. "GO!!!"

And chaos erupted. Children sprinted around the area, blasting each other with water and pretending to die dramatically when they were hit and eliminated. As soon as the word 'go' registered in their brain, Leaf had dashed across into the trees, unnoticed by the teacher or anyone in the class as they were all busy playing the game.

Steadily, they grabbed the lowest branch and used it to pull themselves up into the tree. From there on the climb was easy. Years of practice gave them the ability to climb trees subconsciously.

Up in the highest branches, Leaf could see everything that was happening down below on the field- now, only a few people were still not eliminated, and they were in the middle of a long-lasting stand-off. Any day now.

A couple minutes passed before one of the kids decided to violently squirt another without warning so that the target was covered in water and scowling as he sat with the other eliminated players. Before long, the game was over. Leaf couldn't quite make out who had won, but they scrambled down the tree and blended in with the class as they returned to the classroom. I hope no one noticed.

Back inside, kids kept complaining about how wet they were. The girl next to Leaf asked, "How come you're not soaked?" She looked very jealous, and they could see that her polo shirt was scattered with splats of water. Leaf was trying to come up with a good answer when the teacher's voice penetrated their thoughts.

"Congratulations! You have made it through this school and I thank you for all your hard work these last seven years. So, as the clock here is almost saying it's 3:30, I am delighted to say that you can now leave and I will never have to tell you to put on a coat again." The whole class stood up as one and charged out of the room. As they were leaving (last out, as always) Leaf thought they heard Mrs Kentford mutter 'that was a long year' under her breath. They smiled.

It was really over. Now they'd just have to wait for the oncoming torture of secondary school.