The Tale of the Vine Catastrophe

Illustration by Logan
Harrelson 2nd grade

           Audra the duck was playing chase on Polliwog Pond with her friends, Xavier the frog, Emerson the dragonfly, and the butterfly twins, Summer and Madison.  Audra loved playing chase as long as she could be in the water.  She was a fast swimmer, which gave her an advantage.

            After a while four of the friends became tired and decided to rest for a little while.  Audra was the only one that didn’t seem to be tired at all.  She continued to zip back and forth on the water.

            “Hey guys, come back out and play,” pleaded Audra.

            “Give us a minute,” panted Xavier.  “It’s hard work hopping from lily pad to lily pad.”

            “Yeah, give us a minute,” said Emerson.  “My wings are tired.”

            “We need a break,” said the twins together.

Illustration by Elias
Harrelson 2nd grade

            “Well, hurry up then,” stated Audra.  “I’m not tired at all.  In fact, watch this”

            With that Audra zipped away across the water going as fast as she could.  She turned her head to see if her friends were looking and didn’t notice she was heading straight for a large cluster of lily pads.             

            “See guys, I’m still full of energy,” said Audra.

            Then the butterfly twins screamed, “Watch out!”

            When Audra turned her head back around, it was too late.  She plowed into the cluster of lily pads and became helplessly tangled in the underwater vines.  The more she struggled, the more tangled she became.  When she finally stopped struggling, she could barely move any part of her body.

Illustration by Marshall
Harrelson 2nd grade

            “Help!” screamed Audra.

            Emerson, Summer, and Madison flew to her as fast as they could while Xavier hopped to the shore closest to her.  However, when they arrived, they just looked.  None of them had any idea how to get Audra untangled.

            “Why are you guys just standing there!” screamed Audra in frustration.  “Help me!”

            Summer looked at her friend with wide eyes and said, “I don’t know how in the world to even begin.”

            Madison flew over and landed on Audra’s back to get a better look.  “Summer, Emerson, and I can’t go underwater,” she stated plainly.  “Xavier, this one is all up to you.”

            Xavier dove into the water and swam around to assess the situation.  It was bad.  This would take a while to even figure out where to begin.

            Xavier came back up to the surface.  “It’s bad,” he said with wide eyes.  “I don’t even know where to begin to untangle that mess.”

Illustration by Jacob  Age:  8
Harrelson 2nd grade

            Audra began to cry, but she couldn’t struggle anymore.  “What am I going to do?” she wailed.  “I can’t just stay here forever.”

            “Is there any way to cut the vines so we can pull you out of the water and then untangle you?” suggested Summer.

            “Maybe we can find a sharp rock that Xavier can use to cut the vines,” added Emerson.

            This sparked everyone into action.  Emerson, Summer, and Madison all flew away in search of a sharp rock.  Before long, Emerson returned with one that would work.  Then Xavier went right to work.  He dove down close to where the vines went into the bottom and began to cut.  After he had cut three of the vines, Audra began to wiggle making Xavier’s job more difficult.

            He came to the surface and said, “Audra, you will have to be very still if you want me to finish cutting all these vines.”

            “Sorry,” said Audra regaining her composure.

Illustration by MacKenzie
Harrelson 2nd grade

            Xavier dove back under and before long, he managed to cut the rest of the vines.  Then he grabbed the vines and helped pull Audra onto the shore.  Audra lay on the shore still unable to move very much at all.  For a moment her friends simply stared at her trying to decide where to begin.

            Finally, Madison decided someone would have to take over so she grabbed a vine and started giving orders.  “Summer, grab that vine and pull it out from under this one.  Now, Emerson, grab that vine and untwist it from the vine Summer has.”

            Before long Madison had managed to untangle the mass of vines and Audra was free.  Audra stretched out her wings and danced around happily.

Illustration by Conner
Harrelson 2nd grade

            “Thanks, guys,” she said as she gave each one a hug.  “I have never been so scared in all my life.  That was awful.”

            “You’re welcome,” said all her friends together.

            “Next time you want to show us something, “ said Madison, “please look where you are going.”

            “You got it,” said Audra sheepishly.

            For the rest of the afternoon the five friends sat on the banks of Polliwog Pond and talked about their big adventure that day.  They all decided that Madison was the best puzzle solver in the world, and that Xavier deserved a medal for his diving feats that day.  It was a day they would never forget.

The Tale of the Great Whine

Illustration by Leyex  Age:  5
Ms. Jana Bruce's Kindergarten class

          Emerson the dragonfly sat on a cattail next to Polliwog Pond.  He was not happy.  He had wanted a certain fly for breakfast, but it got away, and he had to settle for a much smaller fly.  Then we he went to find his friends, no one was out yet.  This just had not been his day.

            Finally, Xavier the frog came hopping down the path toward the pond.  “Good morning, Emerson,” said Xavier.  “Where is everyone?”

            “I don’t know,” said Emerson.  “Seems like no one wants to play with me today.”

            “Well, I’m here,” said Xavier.

            “Yeah, but what can just two do,” whined Emerson.  “I wanted to play tag, and that’s no fun with just two people.”

            “Well, why don’t we play something else until everyone else gets here,” suggested Xavier.

            “I don’t want to play if we can’t play tag,” said Emerson.

Illustration by Morrigin  Age:  5
Ms. Jana Bruce's Kindergarten class

            Xavier was just about to get angry with Emerson when Summer and Madison, the butterfly twins, flew up.  “Hey guys,” the twins said together.  “What are you doing?”

            “I’m trying to suggest something to play,” said Xavier, “and Emerson is whining about everything.”

            “I am not,” stated Emerson.

            Xavier just ignored him and said to the twins, “What do you guys want to play?”

            “Let’s play hide and seek,” suggested the twins.

            “But I want to play tag!” exclaimed Emerson.  “I’ve been waiting all morning for enough people to get here so we could play tag.”

            “Maybe we don’t want to play tag,” said Madison giving Emerson a stern look.

            “You guys never want to do what I want to do,” whined Emerson.  “I hate hide and seek.  If you don’t want to play tag then I don’t want to play with you.”

            “Fine!” exclaimed the three friends, and then they all took off for the clearing leaving Emerson sitting on the cattail.

            For a while, Emerson sat on the cattail complaining to himself about how his friends always mistreat him.  Then Hayden the turtle lumbered up to the pond and said, “Good morning, Emerson.  Where is everybody?”

            “My so-called friends left me here to go play hide and seek in the clearing,” complained Emerson.

            Hayden very quickly realized Emerson was in one of “those” moods and tried to figure out how he could go find his other friends without making Emerson even worse.

            “Okay,” said Hayden cautiously.  Then he said nothing for a little while.

            “Fine!” exclaimed Emerson all of a sudden.  “I guess you want to go play with them, too.  Go ahead!  Nobody loves me anyway!”

            Hayden didn’t know how to deal with Emerson when he got like this so he decided to just start heading for clearing.  When he arrived at the clearing Xavier and the twins were happily playing hide and seek.  Hayden joined them as they started a new round.

            For a good long while Emerson sat on that cattail telling himself about all the horrible things his friends had ever done to him.  He had just about convinced himself that he had no friends at all when he suddenly looked around.  He realized he was all alone.  He listened and heard his friends’ laughter from the clearing.  All at once, he felt very lonely and wanted more than anything to be with his friends.

            Slowly, he flew in the direction of the clearing.  He landed on a piece of tall grass on the edge of the clearing and watched his friends play for a few minutes.  Then he got up enough courage to speak to them.  “Hey guys, can I play, too?” he asked.

            “Do you want to play hide and seek?” asked Madison.  “Or are you going to whine at us until we play tag?”

            “I’ll play hide and seek,” said Emerson in a small voice.

            “Then you can play,” said Xavier.

            Emerson joined his friends, and before long his mood improved greatly.  He forgot all the horrible things he had thought and said about his friends while sitting on the cattail.  He was having way too much fun now.

The Tale of the Hurt Leg

Illustration by Audrianna  Age:  6
Ms. Natalie Norwood's 1rst grade class

            Audra the duck, Xavier the frog, and the butterfly twins, Summer and Madison, were all playing tag in the clearing.  Suddenly, Hayden the turtle lumbered up the path.

            “Sorry I’m late guys,” apologized Hayden.  “My leg is hurting today and it took me longer to get here.”

            “Hayden,” stated Madison rolling her eyes.  “Your leg is always hurting.”

            “Yeah, Hayden,” added Xavier.  “That’s your excuse for everything.”

            “I can’t pick that up,” said Audra imitating Hayden’s voice.  “My leg is hurting today.”

            “I can’t do that,” added Xavier also imitating Hayden, “because my leg is hurting.”

            “I don’t do that!” exclaimed Hayden starting to get angry.

            “Yes you do,” said Audra giving him a stern look.

            “Summer, do I really say that?” asked Hayden giving Summer a desperate look.

            Summer looked down and said as gently as possible, “I’m afraid you do, Hayden.”

Illustration by Luna  Age:  6
Ms. Natalie Norwood's 1rst grade class

            Hayden turned around and stomped off as fast as his turtle legs would carry him.  As he traveled down the path, he didn’t watch where he was going.  He stepped into a large hole and twisted his leg very badly.  For a while all he could do was sit there because he was in so much pain.  Then he decided to go back to the clearing to get help from his friends.

            It took him quite a while to get there because it hurt so much.  When he finally reached the clearing, he limped up to his friends and said, “Hey guys, I really hurt my leg bad.”

            Audra and Madison rolled their eyes, and then Audra said, “Really, Hayden, didn’t we just have this discussion about you and that hurt leg.”

            “But it really is hurt this time!” exclaimed Hayden as he tried to come closer.

            “What about all those other times?” asked Madison with a glare.  “Hayden, you are going to have to find another way to get attention.  We are done with your hurt leg.”

            With that, his friends left the clearing leaving him all alone.  Hayden sat down in the dirt and started to cry.  At first he was angry with his friends for not believing him, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized he had used a “hurt” leg as an excuse to get out of things or to get attention.  He began to really feel angry with himself for faking a hurt leg so much.  Now that his leg was really hurt, no one believed him, and he really couldn’t blame anyone but himself.  However, that did not help him at the moment.

            Suddenly Xavier hopped back into the clearing.  “Audra wanted me to come get our special rock to play with at the pond,” said Xavier as he hopped to their special hiding place.  “Hey, Hayden, have you been crying?”

            Hayden was so miserable that he didn’t care what Xavier thought.  “I really hurt my leg bad when I left, but I understand why no one believed me.  I have been faking a hurt leg for a long time.  I really can’t walk without it really hurting,” explained Hayden.

            Xavier looked at Hayden for a good long while trying to decide if Hayden was telling the truth or faking again.  Hayden just sat there and cried.  Finally Xavier decided that maybe Hayden was telling the truth and went to get the rest of the friends.

            As soon as everyone reached the clearing, Hayden started to apologize, “Hey guys, I’m sorry. I completely understand why you didn’t believe me.  I have been faking a hurt leg to get out of stuff and to get attention.  I didn’t realize how wrong that was until I really hurt my leg and you didn’t believe me.”

            All his friends looked at him for a good long time, and then Summer asked, “Are you really hurt so bad you can barely walk?”

            “Yes,” said Hayden.  “I stepped in a big hole because I wasn’t watching where I was going.  I think I did something to my knee.”

            Madison flew over and looked at his knee.  Sure enough, it was swollen.  “Wow, Hayden, that looks bad,” said Madison.

            The rest of the friends came over and inspected his knee as well.  Now they all believed him.  His friends helped him walk back to Polliwog Pond, and then helped him get into the water.  The cool water felt good on his knee, and being able to float in the water took all the pressure off of it.

            “Thanks, guys,” said Hayden as he settled into the water.  “This feels so much better.”

            “Your welcome,” said Summer, and then Madison added, “I hope you have learned your lesson about faking stuff.”

            “I sure have,” said Hayden.

            For the rest of the afternoon the friends played on the pond so that Hayden could be near them.  He was so thankful that they finally believed him again.