S H O RT S TO R I E S F R O M T H E G LO B A L C LA S S R O O M |
2014
Four weeks later and almost nothing had changed. Every day that had gone by seemed the same. I was growing
though. There were also these creepy stubby things attached just in front of my tail. I wasn’t really sure what they
were for. After a while I just ignored them. Then, as me and the rest of the shoal grazed on the algae lying on the
bottom, I realised that something was wrong. I looked up and saw a long yellow thing dipping down into the water
slowly … a split second later it lurched forwards at a tremendous speed, plucking a tadpole as it opened and then
it was gone. That was probably just the egret’s beak. The occupants of the shoal fled for cover, but what’d taken the
tadpole wasn’t coming back.
Soon, attacks like that were becoming frequent and the shoal was being depleted. Worse still, larger fish had found
their way into the pond, such as northern pike and channel catfish. They swam around, sucking tadpoles into their
hoover-like mouths. I also found that the stubs on my legs were getting bigger. They were very annoying as they
slowed me down and they did absolutely nothing at all. That night I hid under a waterweed in shallow water. I was
too big to lie on a leaf anymore.
T weeks later I found out that the stubby things were actually growing legs and also that now I could control
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them. I could swim faster than ever before with them, even if only for a few seconds. They were also good for
kicking off annoying visitors, such as leeches. Now I also had another pair of stubby things at the front of my body,
which I assumed would also turn into legs. I couldn’t control those yet though.
The next day I saw something really strange. It was a tadpole, with his arms fully grown, climbing out of the water!
I’d never thought I’d ever be able to escape the pond. I decided to give it a try as my arms seemed long enough. I
swam to the side and hauled myself out. The moment I got out I was overwhelmed by how much space there was.
The next thing I noticed was that all I could do was crawl. Unless … I pushed downwards with my legs, as strongly as
I could, and for a second I flew through the air before landing. I saw a large log lying on the ground. It looked like a
nice place to live, and there was probably lots of food there. One thing was for sure, however: I wasn’t going back to
live in the pond.
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