SeaBEAN An Extra Chapter :

By Libby R. - Year 6

Alice bounded up the pebbled path, which led up to the moss-coated gates of the school; her other yawning classmates were already waiting there for her. Almost instantly, Alice spotted her spectacle-wearing friend, Edie, chatting to a sullen-faced Hannah. Edie beckoned her over. Alice trotted over to Edie and Hannah, and quickly joined their conversation.

After a good five minutes of chatting, the caretaker opened the wooden gates to the little school. Everyone pushed and shoved their way inside. Only Hannah, Alice and Edie had the politeness to say thank you to the caretaker, before they rushed away to their classroom, like all the others.

Having successfully navigated the route to her classroom, Alice arrived at her lesson. She was warmly welcomed by a grinning Dr Foster.

Then Dr Foster uttered the words that brought joy to the students’ pink faces: “Today we are going to visit New York!”

Gasps of excitement escaped the children’s lips.

“Does that mean we can have an American lunch there?” Sam asked, causing Alice and Edie to giggle, bringing further colour to their already pink faces.

After a brief discussion about how waffles were better than pancakes (which Alice thoroughly disagreed on), everyone marched outside, in single-file, to where the black C-Bean was waiting. Gently, Alice pushed her way forwards. As she reached the obsidian black cube, she breathed a single word: “Hello.”

The hole in the wall opened with a little sigh, as if it had been waiting for this moment to come.

When everyone had clambered inside the cube (after a bit of pushing and shoving, that was), Alice silently asked for a whiteboard pen. In a flash, a little compartment in the wall popped out, like a spring, containing the said pen. Alice picked it up and gave it to Dr Foster, who scribbled the longitude and latitude of New York on the wall, leaving white marks where the pen had traced. Fog started to creep through the walls of the C-Bean, causing Alice to shiver. Then everyone stepped backwards, into the mist….

Alice opened her eyes quickly, instantly regretting it, as the New York sun blinded her. The first thing she spotted was a grey blindfold of clouds hiding in the very corner of the sky. Alice suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder. She screamed and turned around to see… Edie.

“Alice, you don’t need to wake the whole world up, you know,” she laughed, a twinkle in her chocolate brown eyes. “Come on, let’s go find Hannah!” she yelled, and ran out, with Alice quick on her tail.

After a few minutes, the girls found Hannah, sitting calmly on a bench, drawing a realistic picture of a tree.

“Hannah!” Hannah looked up and smiled.

“Hi. I guess you’ve found me. Shall we find the others?” she asked quietly.

Alice was about to agree when she heard petrified shouts and screams. The trio whipped around and saw a great swirling beast galloping towards them. The hurricane of motion seemed to yell at them, then it swept them up into its clutches.

The three girls screamed as they were mercilessly tossed around in the air. Alice whizzed past a screaming Edie, who was grasping her glasses for dear life. As Alice turned, she saw Hannah catch Edie’s hand and then they hurtled towards her, trying to save her from the beast. Hannah and Edie crashed straight into Alice, holding her tightly by the leg.

“Agghh!” the girls yelled in unison.

Suddenly, they were flung carelessly out of the monster. They sailed through the air like an arrow shot from a bow. All the girls could see was the diamond blue sea rushing up to greet them. The girls instinctively let go of each other, setting themselves into a diving position. Alice closed her eyes tightly as she was swallowed by the sea. Which way was up? She didn’t know. She was rapidly losing her breath. She quickly opened her eyes, seeing light shining above her. Alice swam upwards, her head breaking the salty surface. She spotted Hannah and Edie a few metres away. She yelled their names, having spotted the shore only seventy metres away. Frantically, they used the last of their strength, paddling towards the white sand.

Eventually, they reached the sandy shore. Almost instantly, they collapsed on the warm sand. Alice opened her eye and saw… the C-Bean!

Alice pulled herself up and yelled, “Look! The C-Bean! “

Hannah pulled her face off the sand and gasped, causing her to cough. The door of the C-Bean opened, and Dr Foster’s face peeked out. The girls jumped up and ran inside, but not before Alice snatched up a pink shell from the sand.

They arrived back at St. Kilda and rushed inside the classroom. Alice gently lay her shell on the nature table, grabbed a little label and wrote "California" on it.

“There!” Alice said with a smile.