The Tunnel at Recess
By Emily
! “Yay, snow!” shouted Noah as he stepped outside onto the blacktop. Recess had just begun, and the fresh snow that the snowplow had shoved off the blacktop lay in huge piles on the side. I followed Noah out the door, snapping pictures of the playground for my report on recess. " Noah, Grant, Maddie, Zach, Ethan, Maeve, Will, Ashirah, who are kids in my class, and I all raced to the biggest mound of snow. We slid down the side of the pile, laughing as Maeve threw snow at us. But soon that got boring, and we sat around, wondering what to do. “Now what?” asked Zach. " “I know,” answered Will. “Let’s build a tunnel!” " “Uh, we can’t,” said Noah. “We aren’t allowed to go through a tunnel if we make it.” " “We can if we are sneaky,” I told them. “Just kind of hide the tunnel when the teachers are near!” Everyone liked this idea, and set to work. We chose a good spot to work on our tunnel, and started digging. Noah, Zach, Will, and Maddie went on one side, and Ethan, Maeve, Ashi, and I helped on the other. Grant switched between both sides. Soon Will, Noah, Ashi, and Maddie started another tunnel not far away.
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" I sat down on one side of the mound of snow with Maddie, and began scooping snow and flinging it behind me. “Wait, I don’t want to damage this,” I said, pointing to the camera in my hand. I handed it to Zach, and began to dig. Starting with a shallow dip, the tunnel was beginning to take shape. I could now fit my head and shoulders in without it being too tight. I stuck out my arm and scraped away at the tunnel, gradually digging farther into the mound. Once in a while, if I hit a block of ice or something hard, I would slide out of the tunnel, go back in feet first and kick with my boots.
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! ! “Uh oh!” Zach suddenly said. “Here comes Marla!” I looked over and saw Marla, a recess teacher making her way toward us. " “What?” Maeve yelled, with half of her body in the unfinished tunnel, making her voice sound far away and muffled. " “MARLA”S COMING!” Zach shouted. " “I CAN’T HEAR YOU!!” screamed Maeve. " “No, I do not chew goo,” said Ashirah. “That’s a strange question, Maeve!” I groaned and stuck my head right next to Maeve. “MARLA. IS. COMING!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. " Maeve slid out from the tunnel and sat up. “Okay, why didn’t you just say so the first time?” "
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" “Everyone, act like we’re just playing in the snow and meanwhile hide the tunnel,” whispered Grant. We all stopped digging and climbing up and down the snow pile. Marla glanced at us, then walked away. We all sighed with relief. " “That was close!” said Noah. " “We should have someone on the lookout for teachers from now on,” said Ethan. " “Good idea. How about I go first?” answered Ashirah. So Ashirah scrambled to a big block of snow on the pile, and everyone else got back to work. Soon we had almost broken through to the other side.
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! ! ! “Whee!� Noah had started sliding down the pile again, and falling on his face. As he was climbing back up to the top of the slide, he tripped and fell back to the ground. Everyone thought this was very funny. Noah said nothing, because he had found another slide.
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! ! ! ! ! Other people had started to gather where we were, and Ruby started taking pictures of us working with her giant gloves. She was working on taking pictures for a story, like me. Once in a while Ashi would suddenly announce, “Marla’s coming!’ and everyone would start acting like we were just playing in the snow. " “We’re almost through!” called Grant from the other side. " “Woah, I can hear you really well from in here!” I said from inside the tunnel. " “Keep digging!” Grant said. I rapidly scraped at the snow in the tunnel. Light shown faintly in the deepest part of the tunnel, proving that we were close to breaking through.
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“I’ll go get a stick,” I said. “We will work faster with it.” I rushed to the trees and started looking around for a good, long, stick. I found one sticking out of the snow. I pulled it out and ran back to the mound. I handed Grant the stick and he started digging with it. “I’ve broken through!” he suddenly yelled. Everyone got exited and wanted to help. I was too busy taking pictures. Suddenly, I realized that Ethan wasn’t there. I looked around, and saw two feet sticking out of the snow.
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! ! ! ! Ethan wriggled out of the snow mound, and ran over to where everyone else was. “You broke through?” he said. I smiled. " “Yes, and we’re widening it out so that people can go through,” replied Ashirah. " “I think someone who is small can fit through now,” said Noah. " “Hey, I’m small!” I said. “Could I try?” " “Sure!” I gave Ethan the camera. I stuck my head, and shoulders into the the tunnel, and wriggled deeper. It was tight, but I wasn’t stuck, so I kept going. Suddenly felt sunlight on my face and pushed myself the last couple feet out of the tunnel.
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" “Yes!� everyone cheered. Zach threw snow up in the air, Ruby and Ethan were snapping pictures like crazy, Noah was sliding down the pile, Ashi was doing some sort of weird dance, and Maddie insisted on having her picture taken with Ashirah.
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Suddenly Marla blew her whistle, signaling that it was time to go in for lunch. Everyone raced down the pile, toward the door, but I called Grant over for one last picture. Hopefully tomorrow we will have the same luck we did today and make something else out of snow that we aren’t supposed to!
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The End
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