Super heroes come in all shapes and sizes! As we explored developing a story, we added in a complication for our protagonists. They discover a superpower!
These stories were all written by students at Westburn school who exercised their superpowers as writers!
What superpower would you like to give a character?
Time for a Super Hero!
Asher liked to sit inside alone at lunch and play on his gameboy or stare at the clock while thinking about superheroes. That's what he dreamed to be when he grew up.
He was staring at the clock one day when he noticed that the time was wrong. He grabbed the clock off the wall and spun the hands. As he was doing this, he heard a pin drop and then all his classmates were back in class even though it was still technically lunchtime. He thought he had just fallen asleep.
That day, after school, he was checking when the next bus was coming. He accidentally touched the time on his phone and the bus appeared out of nowhere as if time had just fast-forwarded.
When he got home and saw his mum wasn’t there, he snuck a sticky bun out of the cupboard. Then, thinking about what had happened earlier, he turned the hands on the kitchen clock. But his sticky fingers stuck on the surface. He suddenly felt different, much bigger and weaker. He glimpsed in the mirror and saw wrinkles. His hair had turned grey. His first instinct was to call his mum but when her phone went to voicemail, he panicked.
“Wait, If I grew… that must mean my mum is really old now?”
Asher went upstairs to his room and touched the little clock on his bedside table. This time he turned the hands backwards. He felt normal, he sounded normal and that's when he knew that everything was back to normal. How did he know? Well, his mum came barging in the door yelling to him about how he didn’t take out the trash. He quickly apologised and was right out to do it.
When he had a minute to himself, he thought, I AM a superhero now.
by Sylvia Z
Sprinting Away
Allison was walking home from school when she turned around and saw Emily, the school bully and her annoying sidekicks, Agatha and Edith, following her. For some reason Emily looked super angry and was staring right back at Allison.
What did I ever do to annoy Emily? thought Allison. I’ve never even talked to her.
Emily's footsteps quickened. Allison spun around and saw that Emily was sprinting at her with her fists ready to punch. Allison shook from fear and she turned back around and ran as fast as she could up the road. It was the wrong way but she didn’t care. Allison could barely hear Emily screaming horrible words at her. She turned around and Emily seemed to be getting really small really quickly. It didn’t seem right. After a moment, she glanced at the road and realised that the cars were going a lot slower than her. Either the cars were going really slow or she was going really fast. The skatepark, high school and the mall all blurred past her. She slowed down but it took a while to bring herself to a stop.
Her head was spinning and her stomach cramped. Allison sat down on the pavement and, as the world stopped swirling, she recognised where she was! She was by a church about 18 km from her house. She must have run 20km in only three minutes.
The only way to get home without being really late and her parents getting worried was to use her new superspeed. Allison took off running again. Around two minutes later, she was in her driveway. She walked through the black front door and sat down at the dinner table and ate a piece of cake that her mum had left out for her. A note on the table said We are going to be late home from work so we left some pizza in the fridge so help yourself. From Mom and Dad.
In her bedroom she stared into the mirror. She looked the same as usual, black hair with bright red highlights, hard dark brown eyes, black ripped jeans and t-shirt and silver hoop earrings. She realised she had about an hour until her parents got home so, with the power of superspeed she sprinted right back out of the house. She had already decided where to go. It was the place she spent her half of her life in before she had to move to Christchurch. She was going to Lake Tekapo. She knew she was going to just make it back before her parents so she ran as fast as possible.
Allison got to the little town in only half an hour. Running around brought back so many memories of when she was little. She ran over to her favourite shop in the world which is the ice cream store. She bought a strawberry ice cream and went and sat by the lake. She sat there for a moment but realised she had to get home so she took off running again.
by Kate C
Clam POWER
“You’re way too old to be playing with dumb seashells,” Jack said as he kicked Jonathan’s sand castle - scattering the shells across the beach.
At the sight of his ruined tower, Jonathan screamed out, “I wish this clam shell would clamp onto your finger and never let go!”
The opalescent clam shell wobbled in Jonathan’s palm then shot over to his brother. Clatter! The two sides of the shell gripped around Jack’s wrist. Jack shook his hand violently as the shell clamped even tighter. Yowling out in pain he collapsed.
“That’s enough!” Jonathan commanded in a worried voice.
The shell fell lifeless once more to the sand. Jack backed away, shocked at his brother’s power. After that day he kept his distance from his younger brother.
by Cullen L
The balloon up in the tree.
Joana really wanted to get her little brother's balloon down from the tree, but the tree was taller than her two-storey house.
She slowly floated up . She shivered thinking that she’d keep floating into space.
“Ahhhhhhhhh! Nick help me, I’m flying” she said as she went higher.
“ I’ll get Mum and Dad,” Nick screamed.
As he was bringing their parents, Joana realised that she didn’t have to worry about floating away into space because she was figuring out how to control her new powers. She used her arms and legs to change direction and when she put her hands on her head she stopped rising.
“Oh my god! Joana, how are you flying?” her Mum asked as she started crying.
“ I don't know if I’m mutated or we are all just crazy and we are imagining that I am flying,” Joanna said laughing.
As soon as she laughed she started going down. “Meh, at least I have your balloon Nick,” she said happily.
“ Yaaaaaaaay!!!!” Nick said.
by Joana A
Super Power
Jonathan was playing basketball with a team called the Buffaloes. It was down to the final point and it was all up to him. He jumped into the air for a dunk but once he left the ground it wasn't just a jump anymore he was floating. Jonathan felt weightless. He threw the ball into the hoop. The crowd went wild. He dropped to the ground.
After the game he had no idea what had just happened. He asked the rest of the team about it and they were just as confused as Jonathan. Then he heard screaming outside. Jonathan went to the roof of the stadium. He went over and saw two dozen matte black armoured toyota trucks with at least 100 black soldiers climbing out with black guns.
“Wow, they really like black” he thought.
The soldiers flooded into the stadium like bees coming out of their hive, lining up on the right and left of the stadium entrance in rows, one in front of the other, both sides facing each other. Then a soldier marched in, leaving massive footstep holes in his wake. He stopped and his cold steel eyes met Johnathan’s.
“Grab that boy,” he said to his soldiers.
But Jonathan’s feet left the ground and he was flying once again, this time for his life!
by Tyrone R
Mind reading
As I wandered down the stairs I overheard my parents talking about my grades, but as soon as I walked into the kitchen they stopped. I said morning to Dad but when I said morning to Mum I heard this: ugh I hate this child I wish we put her up for adoption instead of her twin.
I paused, “What was that mum?”
“ What was what honey?” she said, confused.
“Oh nothing” I quickly answered before hugging them both and rushing out the door. What is going on with me today? I thought as I took my seat on the bus.
Once I arrived at school, I went straight to my bestie, Rachel. “ Hey bestie,” I said cheerfully
Ugh not her, she's so annoying I heard her say without moving her lips.
“ I'll catch you later,” I said as I ran off to my class, almost in tears because of what I heard. Wait a second, what if I have, like, a superpower? I thought as I walked through the hall.
“Over here girly!” I heard Emma yell at me while I was holding my lunch.
“Oh hey” I said emotionless.
“What's up with you?” Emma asked
“Well I think I have, like, mind reading superpower or something and I heard that my mum had traded my apparent twin for me. And Rachel, who is supposed to be my best friend, hates me,” I said.
“Well at least you have me!” she said, trying to cheer me up.
“Yeah” I said smiling because I hadn't heard anything from Emma’s mind.
BRINGGGG. Finally the end of school,
“Hey Bella, wanna come to mine?” Emma asked me
“Sure! I would love that!” I answered
Omg yay I can't wait for her to come over. She's so nice! I heard Emma say in her mind.
At least I have a friend. Now to find more about my twin!
by Lola G
Invisible School mystery
Freddy was really excited for school because it was athletics day and the whole year 5,6,7 and 8 were doing it. He got to school but there were no kids or teachers there. He was getting worried when his hands started disappearing. Freddy got really scared.
Gunshots banged in the staffroom. People in black had captured all the kids and teachers and now they tried to get Freddy. But they could not find him. He threw a rock at the ground and then all the men in black came running out. Freddy ran into the staff room and untied everyone. The bad guys came back and Freddy tripped them up and tied them up and called 111. Once the cops came, people could see Freddy. He got scared but they all were so happy and he got given two million dollars for saving the whole school.
by Jacob F
Super Power
Blake, the cool kid in the school, had a secret: he had the power of shapeshifting. No one knows that he has the power but one day after school he was walking home and he suddenly heard a weird noise. It was Jimmy the school bully with his two mean friends Mason and Jacob. They were laughing at him and getting closer and closer every time he looked away. He looked away again and they started chasing him. Mason was the fastest person in school. Luckily, there was a street so Blake bolted around the corner into a dead end alleyway. Thankfully, there was a poor family of ducks living in a trash can that smelled like poop. So Blake shape shifted into a duck and joined the family.The bullies were confused of where Blake went and just gave the ducks a dirty look and left.
by Tom S
These stories were written by Westburn School students during a recent series of workshops with our tutor, Heather McQuillan. We will be sharing more of the writing from the Westburn writing groups over the following weeks. :) Thanks to the staff at Wesburn for facilitating these workshops.
(c) Write On and the Young Writers