The Tale of the Copy Cat

Illustration by Xander  Age:  6
Ms. Ashley Miles 1rst grade class

          Audra the duck, Xavier the frog, Hayden the turtle, and Summer and Madison the butterfly twins were all playing tag along the banks of Polliwog Pond.  After a while, everyone decided to take a break and sat down in various places along the banks.

            “Wow! That was fun!” exclaimed Audra the duck.

            “Wow!  That was fun!” echoed Hayden the turtle.

            Audra gave Hayden a funny look but decided to just let it go.  Then she slid into the waters of Polliwog Pond and began floating on the water.  “Ah, this feels good,” she stated.

Illustration by Helaina  Age:  6
Ms. Ashley Miles 1rst grade class

            Hayden the turtle lumbered over to the water and crawled in as well.  As he floated on the water, he said, “Ah, this feels good.”

            At this point, Audra looked at Summer, Madison, and Xavier with a weird look on her face.  Her three friends returned her weird look, but still didn’t say anything.  Then Audra began to swim around and Hayden followed her.

            “Hayden, what are you doing?” asked Audra just a little bit aggravated.

            “I’m just swimming around,” stated Hayden plainly.

            “Why do you keep doing everything I’m doing?” asked Audra getting more aggravated by the minute.

            “We just happen to want to do the same things,” explained Hayden.

Illustration by Caelyn  Age:  7
Ms. Ashley Miles 1rst grade class

            “Well, go do something else,” said Audra.  “You are getting on my nerves.”

            With that, Audra set out for deeper water, but so did Hayden.  Then she swam back to shore, and Hayden followed her.  Audra was just about to explode and start yelling at Hayden when Summer landed on the end of her nose.  Summer whispered something in Audra’s ear, and Audra began to smile wickedly.  She glanced back at Hayden with that same wicked smile on her face.  Hayden just tried to act normal, but he did have a worried look come across his face.

Illustration by Colby  Age:  7
Ms. Ashley Miles 1rst grade class

            Just then, Audra set out for the deep water again.  Suddenly, she put her head under the water with her tail stuck up in the air.  Hayden tried to copy her, but ended up flipped over on his back.

            “Help!” Hayden cried trying to keep his head up out of the water.

            Madison flew over and landed on Hayden’s stomach.  “Are you going to quit trying to copy Audra?” she asked sternly.

            “Yes, yes!” he replied.  “I promise.  Just, please help me get back upright.”

            Madison looked over at Xavier and nodded.  Then Xavier jumped into the water and swam under Hayden.  He grabbed Hayden’s tail and pulled down hard flipping Hayden right side up again.

            “Thanks, Xavier,” said Hayden.

            “You’re welcome,” said Xavier, “but why in the world were you copying Audra like that?”

Illustration by Avelina  Age:  6
Ms. Ashley Miles 1rst grade class

            “I don’t know.  I just wanted to.  I thought it would be fun,” answered Hayden.

            “Well, let me suggest you never WANT to do that again,” said Audra very sternly.

            “Okay, “ said Hayden.

            For the rest of the afternoon, the five friends played follow the leader and made Hayden be “it” quite a bit.  They wanted to make sure he completely understood how annoying it is to have someone copy your every move.  It didn’t take Hayden long to understand their point of view, and he decided being a copy cat would probably never be a good idea again.