`Here we are,’ said the taxi driver. `That must be the house. There’s only the one.’

Sara frowned.

`Are you sure?’ she asked.

The taxi driver shrugged. `This is Woodfall Lane. That’s what the Satnav tells me, so it must be true.…

JACKIE AND ME:

My friend Jackie is way more adventurous than me.  Do I mean adventurous, or do I mean stupid?  Jackie knows no fear.  I am cautious. Cautious Caitlin is what everyone’s called me from the day I learnt to crawl.  While other babies at play group scooted across the room, I watched and waited, inching backwards, till I was absolutely sure it was safe to put…

A stroll through the woods can be quite enjoyable. Sunlight creating a nice dappled effect on the path, birds singing in the trees, and the sound of dogs barking happily in the distance. You come to a fork in the road; do you go right or left? Never having taken the right hand path, you’re tempted and off you go. Soon however the path dips downwards, and the trees seem to encroach upon the path. The sound of the dogs fades into the distance…

The dream is always the same; I’m home alone and it’s night-time. The bed sheets are cool and I can feel the breeze from my open window caressing my face. A fox screeches in the distance – at least, I think it’s a fox – but otherwise the world is silent and slumbering. That’s when I hear it, a faint scratch at the foot of my door, and my heart stutters. Not again, I whisper silently, please, not again.…

Three or four metres of rubble and stone that had once been a garden. The house behind, square and ancient. A wind that never stopped blowing up from the edge where the once-garden ended. Not the edge of a cliff, but the edge of the world and a drop so huge, so heart stopping, so blue, that to tumble into its immensity would be like falling into sky.

           …

Hi, this is Kabir and Declan. We are looking forward to getting our work published in the book. Thank you Mrs Humphrey for arranging this. We have really enjoyed it.

Well maybe it was unseasonably cold, but the flame of inspiration burned brightly. I'm amazed by the wonderful group of students I have here. Barely 12 years old and they could be writing crime dramas for television! I'll post some reflections from them next week, as they have a major, major presentation to do for the rest of the day (another reason why I am impressed with their whole-hearted participation).

Most of the students are credited as writers in the blog stories, but particular…

I never meant to be friends with him. It just happened.

 Usually I sat next to Rashid in Maths, but Rash had left at lunchtime to go to the dentist, so his place was empty. I didn’t notice the new boy until he was sitting beside me, getting out his pens and books. He ignored the glare I gave him; there was another spare seat nearer the front, so why hadn’t he taken that one? But…

The Darkness Deepens

Martin opened his eyes.  It was dark and it took a few moments to accustom them to the gloom.  He peered at the shapes slowly forming from the shadows.  He was in a large room, but a room that was unknown to him. 

            It was full of grim, ornately…

The Broken City 

The soldier crept along the ruined street, his assault rifle held tightly in his trembling hands. He glanced up at the buildings on all sides, convinced for a moment that he saw movement there. But the broken windows were dark and still.

He tried the walkie-talkie again, speaking his call sign in a…

Slowly, and with loving care Gaston le Roux ran his knife along the sharpening steel. One side, then the other. There was something calming, meditative almost, about the routine that steadied his nerves.   He laid the first down and moved on to the next. 

 

His knives were like fingers,  he thought: a vital part of his…

 The ladies’ toilets were full of weeping women. At the final whistle we’d taken the cowards’ way out and fled for the loos. We were just too numb – too swept up and tossed around and emptied out – to stand and clap the team round the edge of the pitch on their long walk back to the dressing room and another year in the nPower Championship. But the washroom was full of other deserters, and most of them seemed to be in tears

The tunnel was pitch black. Jaymz swung his torch across the floor making the darkness cower for a moment. Bones laid scattered here and there. They weren't old. 

 Then the horrible chittering started again. Not close, thankfully. But not far either.…

The Tent

 I once cut a hole in my tent, to sleep beneath the sky,

I wanted to feel like a sailor of old - using the stars as a guide.…

Stars

In the city, in the town, you look up at night

And only the…

Cast a star into the sky.
                                               Watch in wonder! Watch it fly

Stars are like beacons beckoning us,
                                      Luring us with light from long ago.

Stars

in stretch limo cars

Sip champagne,

Glamorous, though slightly…

The Martian Landing, started by Tommy Donbavand and completed by YOU!

My rocket blasted for the stars…