Black Sea Schools

BLACK SEA SCHOOLS CREATIVE WRITING

As a Black Sea Schools member school, we were invited to highlight our students’ creative talents by submitting some entries into their second Black Sea School Creative writing competition 2021. The task of the competition was to write a short story or the opening to a novel connected to the theme ‘ ‘The Imposter ‘. Students were permitted to interpret this theme in any way they wished, but this message had to be reflected in each piece of writing.

Prior to commencing the task, all the year groups from Year 3 to Year 6 had a creative writing focus; this enabled the students to learn or have a refresh on the key components of a good piece of writing such as hooking the reader with a powerful ‘start’, using description to build up atmosphere, using dialogue to enhance a character, ‘show don’t tell’ and so forth.

The students really impressed all their teachers, producing great results that showcased their creativity and literacy skills. The Primary School asked the IBSB Secondary School English teachers to judge the writing from each year group and choose which 3 stories we would submit into the competition to represent IBSB.

The winning entries were:

Sofia Matei, Year 3, Andrei Popescu, Year 6, & Daria Ghioca Mititelu, Year 6

The Imposter by Sofia Matei

Aged 8, Year 3

In 1920, during the last days of the year, in the Meanbelly Kingdom, King Edward the fifth organized a contest of voices. Many people from his kingdom wanted to participate in this challenge.

The King put an admirable stage in front of the castle. All the gardens of the castle were full of decorations with many lights; it was like in a fairy tale. The King’s daughter, Stella, who was a young girl, angelic and with a wonderful voice, wanted to participate too. The best servant of the King, also, wanted to enter the contest. The King and the servant grew up together from childhood. The servant was very tall and very skinny and looked like a scarecrow. His voice was also ugly, very grave. At the preselection, the servant wasn’t admitted. He was miserable. He wanted to be in the finale; he asked the King’s daughter to take him to be her assistant in the finale of the contest. He begged her to sing a song he had. The song was about our voices; ‘Voices from above’ was the name of the song. In the finale, when Stella sang the song ‘Voices from above’ all the public were hypnotised. After this, everyone had very bad voices, like a crow. The King asked the detective to find out what happened. The detective was a clever, remarkable, young man. The detective asked everyone what they did before the problem started. Everyone told that the last song was ‘Voices from above’. The detective investigated from who had the girl this song. She remembered that the song was from the servant. The detective put the servant to sing the song and he realised that the servant had the most wonderful voice. He asked the servant how he changed his voice. The servant recognised that he had stolen the voices. He admitted he was dishonest. The detective forced the servant to return the voices. The song contest was won by Stella, the daughter of the King. Everybody was happy that everything was like normal again.

The Imposter by Daria Ghioca Mititelu

Aged 10, Year 6

“MOVE! GO! GO! GO!” yells Dad. The alarm is making my ears bleed and the chaos around me isn’t helping. I cover my ears and close my eyes. For a second, I am actually calm, but then I can feel someone’s arm grasping mine. They are running, I am running… all this with my eyes closed. Then, I hear a whisper which might’ve. been a shout but I don’t realise the difference: “ I think you should open your eyes.”

I open them.

First thing I see is Lir. Her black, silky hair blowing in the wind. I take a moment to look around. I look backwards and I see the Tarantulas (our enemies, not the spiders) about 100 yards away. Then I look forward. A cliff. On the other side I see the other Snakes ( our team, not actual snakes). And then I look down. If we don’t make the jump we’ll fall into the 100 meter pit and most probably...die. On the other hand, if we don’t, the Tarantulas will get us and they are 50, we’re just 2. So, there is only one clear way… Jump. I look backwards, the Tarantulas are getting closer. Lir already jumped and now it’s my turn. Every Snake is looking at me so I jump. I take a step backwards and prepare for flight. I run forwards and jump. I don’t really make it. I am hanging on a rock by one hand, so now I’ll have to climb. I see everybody’s eyes looking down so I try. I struggle to climb to the top where I am embraced by my sister, Lir, and my Dad.

We see the Tarantulas, but they are on the other side of the cliff. They looked as confused as a child that has been spinning all day. I couldn’t help but giggle. Lir looked at me and started giggling too. Then, we saw the face of our dad which was as hard as rock and we put on straight faces as well. Later that day, when we made camp in the woods, a feast was prepared.

We were sitting at the table, eating, when I couldn’t help noticing a guy. He was standing at the far side of our camp. His face was hidden by the darkness of his hood and he was quite cross (I could tell by the movements his arms and feet made). I nudged Lir and discreetly pointed at that guy. Our thoughts were the same, however, they were interrupted by our dad, The RattleSnake (That is what the snakes call him).

He was giving a speech about what happened today: “We all have experienced losses during the fire and we are all worn out by the chase… The Tarantulas clearly have a spy that is located in our camp. We all need to stay cautious because we... have an impostor among us!” Lir and I look at each other because we have a feeling we might know who it is...

The Imposter by Andrei popescu

Aged 11, Year 6

It all happened on Christmas Day. I was with my other crewmates in the spacecraft, heading towards the new planet. We just finished our daily tasks and so we were taking a break in the cafeteria. My friend Larry was sitting next to me. Larry had a lime suit, (he loved that colour) and for that reason, everybody called him Lime.

“Hey, how would you name the new planet if you were the head of Mira?”

He would always ask that question. Mira was the company that we were working for. When we first got into their HQ, we were amazed by how big it was! They had so many laboratories, offices, and even training areas!

When we finished eating some of us went to sleep while others were busy with tasks. However, right when I was ready to sleep, an alarm started shrieking throughout the rooms. We all headed to the room titled “Communications” to see what was happening. I ran to the desk and picked up the phone. A familiar voice started talking. “Hello? Is anybody there?” the voice asked.

“Yes, it’s me, Cadet Bruce” I said.

“Cadet Bruce, we just got a report that two aliens infiltrated into your spaceship. They killed two of your crewmates and are now disguised as them.” He said.

“Ok, we will find them and eject them.” I said.

After I put the phone down, everybody exploded with questions. I couldn’t believe that aliens were among us. I told everybody about the situation and then headed towards the Meeting Table. But as I was about to press the button, the lights turned off. I couldn’t see anything. I am sure I bumped into some walls and boxes. By the time the lights were restored everybody was gathered in a circle at a corner of the room titled “Navigations” (where we navigate). I made my way through the circle of crewmates and what my eyes saw next I will never be able to forget…

To be continued...