Hi Kids!

Here is a short story I wrote about going back to school! I hope you have fun reading it!

Rumple’s First Day of School

Rumple hated school. He was always teased for having a name that sounded like a fairy tale character. You guessed it: Rumpelstiltskin! Last year’s teacher always called him Rump! Can you imagine? He could never seem to concentrate in class. All he ever heard was the teacher yelling all the time. And at playtime he had no one to play with so he would hang out in the boys toilet cubicle where he couldn’t be seen or found. Well mostly!

Today was his first day of school for the year. Grade 6! His mother kept telling him he was a big boy now, whatever that meant. He didn’t feel any different than he did last year.

He put on his school uniform, which he hated. That neck tie made him feel like he was being strangled all the time.

His Mum dropped him at school. He didn’t even bother to look up at the school building as he slumped his way toward it.

“Hi Rumple!”

“Hi Rumple”

“Hi Rumple”

Did three different people just say that to me? thought Rumple.

He looked up for the first time. He stopped walking. Did Mum drop me at the wrong school? Why is everyone dressed normal? And why are they all smiling at me and waving and saying Hi? Is this some sort of a joke? His thoughts were racing.

He walked into the building and headed for his classroom. The kids he knew from last year were all saying ‘hi’ to him as he walked. He wondered if they were teasing him because he was in school uniform and they weren’t?

Is it casual day today?

Hold on a minute, he thought.

Even the classroom looks different. It was all interesting looking. There were science things all laid about the room. There was a pet hamster in the corner in a cage. There were posters up everywhere. And there was a little library of books in the corner, with a reading mat and comfy chairs.

Has the room grown bigger, he thought. Now he was seriously starting to worry he was at the wrong school. For real!

But there was no more time to think, because suddenly the bell rang and in came everybody else, including the teacher Mrs Hankerman. He had her for a day at the end of last year during Step Up Day, when everyone got to meet their new teacher and he didn’t think much of her. She yelled more than last years teacher and kept calling him Rumel instead of Rumple!

Rumpel was getting ready to start daydreaming, like he always did when the teacher started to talk, or more likely yell!

“Hello students. Pop your things in your pigeon holes and pick a desk. Your choice for the whole year, unless you want to change of course. We’re going to start the school year with some fun science experiments this morning.”

Oh, I’m definitely dreaming! thought Rumple. Did he hear right? And who was that talking? That wasn’t his teachers voice. He looked up suddenly interested. It was definitely Mrs Hankerman speaking, but she looked different. She looked younger somehow. She always frowned but today she looked all cheery.

The whole day continued like this. Everyone was nice, school was fun, the teachers all friendly and at lunchtime, Robbie and Jess both wanted to play with Rumple. No one called Rumple names, no one teased him and by the end of the day, he had forgotten school wasn’t normally like this.

When Rumple went home that night he didn’t tell his mum or dad anything about school that day. There’s no way anyone will believe me anyway, he thought.

On the second day of school Rumple jumped out of bed early! He was excited to get to school. Mrs Hankerman had promised a whole day of art and this was his favourite subject. He looked for his school uniform that he had thrown at the foot of his bed, but couldn’t find it there. That’s weird, he thought. Oh well, no one else was wearing a uniform yesterday so why should I?

“What’s come over you?”asked mum when Rumple announced he didn’t want a lift and would simply run to school.

He was a little worried as he turned the corner into his school’s street, in case it really had all been a dream. It was quite possible, he thought.

Nope. He hadn’t dreamt it. School on the second day was even better than the first. The teacher gave them all lamingtons for morning tea as a surprise. At lunchtime, Robbie and Jess as well as Stewart and Ted all wanted to play with Rumple. They played marble’s (which was suddenly allowed even though they had been banned last year) and chase and down ball. RUMPLE LOVED SCHOOL. He had almost forgotten that this wasn’t normal and something weird was going on.

After school Rumple was walking home with a smile on his face. He was day dreaming about what cool fun stuff they would do at school tomorrow. He turned the corner without realising he had walked right into…. Hank! The school bully! But Rumple wasn’t worried, because even Hank had been so nice to him the last couple of days.

“Hi Hank!” said Rumple.

“Just who I was looking for, you little shit!” said Hank.

“What?” said Rumple in shock. This isn’t the nice Hank. This is the normal Hank, he thought!

Hank grabbed Rumple by his top and threw him to the ground. Rumple grazed his hands from the hard landing. He didn’t know what to do or what to say. He was shocked.

“I’m sick of pretending to be nice to you Rump Head! Your little Mummy paid us all to change this school just for you, and now this school sucks! I hate this school and its all because of you! I’m going to kill you!” He yelled as he took a low swing to punch Rumple.

Rumple’s head was spinning, but he managed to pick himself up and run. He ran. He ran so fast.

What? Mum paid everyone? Mum did this? Mum did this! Mum? What? Rumble’s head was spinning. Mum? How could she do this?

Rumple’s Mum was the local Mayor.

Rumple ran home faster than he’d ever run before. He ran straight into his Mum’s office at home. There she was on the phone. Rumple grabbed the phone from her and threw it into her waste paper bin.

“Rumple! What did you do that for?” the look on her face suddenly changed from angry to shocked. “You know don’t you?” she said.

“Is it true? Did you pay everyone to be stupidly nice at school? I mean EVERYONE? Seriously. You’re unbelievable!” He was so mad he didn’t know what to say to her.

“Rumple!” she pleaded. “I was only trying to help. You were so miserable and look how happy you were yesterday? It clearly worked. There’s nothing wrong with a little money motivation to get people happy, is there? I’m sure lots of other kids suddenly loved school too!”

“Mum, you can’t just buy whatever you want in life with money!” yelled Rumple.

“Well I don’t see why not” she said.

“I want you to turn it back to how it was!”

“But you hated school hon! You love it now. What’s the harm in leaving it the way it is. You’re clearly much happier.” She stood up and tried to hit Rumple. He pulled away.

“Mum! Turn it back!” He reached into the waste paper basket and handed her the mobile phone.”Call whoever you need to and fix this!” He stormed out, ran upstairs to his bedroom and refused to come back down even for dinner.

The next day Rumple got up and got dressed in casual clothes ready for school. He walked. He was still super mad at his Mum for what she had done. He hadn’t said a word to her all morning. When he got to school he noticed that everyone was wearing their school uniforms. Everyone except for him. “Hi ya Rumple Dumple!” yelled some random kid.

“Mr Scott. Late I see and decided to come in casual clothes for some reason today did you?” It was Mrs Barry the school Principal. “To my office immediately young man”.

On the way to the principals office he walked past his class. There were no posters, no hamster and Mrs Hankerman was yelling. Thank goodness everything is back to normal, he thought. Well almost everything! One thing had changed.  Hank, the school bully was super nice to Rumple from that day on. Hank was so glad Rumple changed the school back to normal that he became Rumple’s friend. He was impressed that Rumple had changed the school back rather than taking the easy option. Eventually everyone stopped teasing Rumple because Hank threatened to thump them if they didn’t.

Rumple was happy. School sucked. And he preferred it that way!