Story Contest 2016 #1 - Outstanding Stories » A Memorable April Fool Day

"A Memorable April Fool Day” is one of the outstanding stories of the first biannual Short Story Contest 2016 written by Sarveena, Malaysia.

A Memorable April Fool Day

I really like to trick people, especially my friends. But after one particular day, when a strange incident happened, it changed. I learned a lot on that day. Well, you don’t want to hear the rest of the story before even listening to the beginning.

My name is Sylvia Stone. I’m twelve years old. I have two friends that I am very close to, who are Cherry and Harry. Cherry is good in arts and Harry is excellent in sports. Me? I have the brains. I have an elder sister, Lilly and two younger brothers, Kevin and Todd. My parents are Mr. Danny and Miss. Samantha.

What is the awful incident? How did it happen? Well, it all started when Miss Beth introduced us to a new exchange student, Pei. “She is very tall,” I said to Cherry. “Speaking of heights, wouldn’t she be perfect in the cheerleading team?” Cherry asked. “Maybe...Well, we better keep quiet. Miss Beth is looking at us,” I said.

Surprisingly, I was assigned to guide the new girl around. During recess, I wanted to start a conversation with Pei, so I quickly approached her. “Hey Pei,” I said. “Hello,” she replied politely. I had a short chat with her and she seemed to be a nice person. Before going home, I showed Pei around.

The next day, I was very excited because it was April fool Day. I planned to trick my friends with Pei since she was new. I really hoped that she would cooperate with me. So, I quickly ran to her before our Math period started. Unfortunately, Matt, the school bully came to our classroom, realising that there wasn’t any teacher in. “Go away!” I shouted. As usual, he ignored that. I got very angry. I took Pei’s notebook and hit Matt until it fell on the floor. Well....it wasn’t actually a notebook. It was Pei’s diary. “Ooh it’s a diary!” shouted Matt. Then, he started to read out Pei’s diary loudly. “I really think Mal is bossy and.......” Matt kept reading all of Pei’s inner thoughts.

I could see that Pei was embarrassed. She didn’t want to create any problem so she grabbed her diary from Matt and went to her seat. I went to my place quickly, knowing that the whole class was looking. “What were you thinking?” Harry whispered as he passed by. “Gee, I didn’t know that it was Pei’s diary. I’ll apologise to her later,” I said.

Just as the bell rang, I saw Pei running towards the restroom. I followed her just to say sorry. Well, I heard someone sobbing and guessed that it might be Pei. I waited for 20 minutes but she didn’t come out.

I went to the cafeteria to buy a sandwich since I was starving. Then, I went back to the toilet but I couldn’t hear or find Pei. I thought that she would be in the classroom so I went there. Unfortunately, she wasn’t in. I was quite upset, and had a bad feeling about the whole thing.

Suddenly, the school bell rang so I had to stay. “Where were you?” Harry and Cherry asked me as they walked in. “Trying to find Pei, of course. Have you seen her?” I asked.

“No”, they answered.

Then, Miss Beth walked into our classroom for our English period. She checked the attendance and noticed that Pei was missing. “Where’s Pei?” Miss Beth asked. “We don’t know,” answered the whole class. Suddenly, our class monitor, Dennis stood up and told Miss Beth about the incident that happened earlier. I could see that Miss Beth was upset. She asked me to meet her at the staffroom before going home. “I am in boiling water,” I said to Cherry. “Don’t worry. Everything will be fine”, Cherry told me.

Later, I went to meet Miss Beth. “Ma’am, did you want to meet me?” I asked politely. “Yes, but can we go out?” she replied. “Sure,” I said. After we went out, I saw Cherry, Harry, and most surprisingly Pei. I was too shocked to speak. Then, Cherry explained and told me that this was an April fool trick. I was relieved after finding out that Pei wasn’t actually missing. Well, my own trick blew up in my face.