The start of the second trimester has begun and with it the English content and projects continue.

In this line, the students of second ESO have been part of an epic writing competition, in which they had to write a story with certain characteristics in common, which they themselves put in common. The students agreed that the protagonist of the story would be a woman named Petra, who would be immortal (she would not age, although she could be killed), and would have a series of virtues and defects. The winners would be those who fulfilled the requirements in the most efficient way, following a certain style of writing and above all, rewarding creativity and wittiness.

In the same way, a cover contest for the aforementioned stories has been carried out, this time voluntary, with the final objective of gathering all the students’ stories and that everyone can have a copy of it as a present. The winners were: In third place, Emilia Ordoñez for “I Am The Crown Jewel”. Second place for Marta Vinagrero with “Epic Valkyrie”. Finally, first place went for Mencía Garrote with “Coffee with a Scent of Death”, written in the style of witty and noir Agatha Christie. Apart from the grade of the task, the winners were rewarded with a breakfast on the teacher.  You can read Coffee with a Scent of Death here:

 

COFFEE WITH A SCENT OF DEATH

 

It was a stormy night in the year 1800, with roaring thunder and threatening lightning.

Petra, the mighty hero, couldn’t sleep. That afternoon she lost a fight with the owner of the clothes store. She really hated losing. She was very busy being angry to notice the door of her small and cold house was opening, but when the floor cracked she saw a masked man with a knife approaching her. Petra took her sword, her dear sword, and she shouted some kind of insult as she ran to the window. The man ran to the door, he knew she was crazy and clever enough to jump out of the window (he didn’t want to do the same), and went down the stairs. But when he arrived at the street Petra was gone.

Our hero had been hiding for the last hour inside of a trash can in a small and silent street. She was angry, those strange men had been chasing her for the last three years. She was born in 500 B.C and since then until a few years ago her life was easy: she took part in wars, she constantly killed people… normal things. But those men, the time thieves, wanted to experiment with her, with her immortality, and only to know things from the past that people already knew. Or that’s what they said.

At first the time thieves offered it politely, but when Petra refused several times, they came for her uncountable times. They tried to kidnap her, negotiate, but now they wanted to kill her. She could tell the police everything that happened, and in that case the bad men would be in severe danger.

Petra didn’t know where to go. She didn’t have any other places to hide, the old ones were seriously guarded. It was still 5 a.m. and the streets were empty, but soon the village would come alive again. She was starving and so thirsty. The only thing she could do was to walk and walk until a café opened and she could have breakfast.

At 7 a.m.  a small bread store began filling with people. Petra joined them and bought some hot delicious bread. She sat on the floor outdoors and watched people walk across the street.  An old woman got out of a small cafe and stared at it sadly from the outside, then, she stuck a piece of paper on the door “FOR SALE”. Petra approached the cafe and looked inside. It was huge. Petra saw a trapdoor under a table, it was camouflaged but nothing could escape to our great hero and her sight. “The perfect place to hide”, she thought. She didn’t think about it too much (apart from smart, agile, quick and other qualities she was very impulsive), and  shouted to the old woman “Hey!, wait!” maybe because she was shouting, maybe because she had a sword in her hand, but the old woman started shouting “Help me!” as she ran as fast as her old lady body could. But well, a 70-year-old woman doesn’t run very fast, does she? So, Petra caught her in a few seconds. “Wait, I just want to talk. About the cafe, I would like to buy it” The old woman answered, “That’s why you are chasing me with a sword in your hand and shouting like a donkey” Petra took a bag from her pocket and showed it to the woman “Take it, look inside, I promise it is not an explosive or a mortal weapon”. The old lady liked what she saw inside: gold and shiny money. She smiled, “All yours» and threw Petra the keys.

A-ha, another victory. The interior of the cafe was very good, all chairs and tables were still in their place, and the kitchen had ingredients and cooking instruments in very good condition. Immediately big plans began taking shape in Petra’s head: she would disguise herself, she would open the cafe the following morning and she would prepare the hiding place for emergencies.

The next few days were great: the cafe was a success and there were no signs of the time thieves, well, until that Saturday morning.

It was very early so the only person in the cafe apart from Petra was a blonde woman. Suddenly the doors opened and a masked man entered the door saying “Excuse me, I would like a coffee with extra blood, but it will be yours if you don’t come with me”. Petra looked for her sword, but it wasn’t there. She left it in the emergency room, but there was no time to look for it so she jumped on a table while the woman was screaming extremely loudly, and then jumped on the masked man. He fell, and a chair’s metal went through his head. The woman was petrified, she was so afraid.

A tall man crossed the door, the time thieves’ leader, Paolo. “Come on Petra, that was an unnecessary death”. The other woman fell to the floor, unconscious. Petra turned red with pure anger “I’m not killing you if you let me tell you why I don’t want to follow you, and maybe then, you will let me live without hiding from one place to another constantly. “Okay, let’s have a coffee,” he answered.

Petra went to the kitchen and prepared some coffee, then she poured it into two cups: in one, she added sugar; and in the other, poison. She returned with the man and gave him the poisonous cup. He took a sip, and another, and another more. After a short time in an uncomfortable silence, Paolo started saying “Well, I know in this coffee there is poison so before I die, I want to tell you some things: first of all, I´ve been chasing you for three years, to make a stupid experiment, but you already know this. I wasted money, time and sweat on you, and you’re being a complete idiot. This was the chance of your life! We could pay you! But you are so stupid! This became personal now, now I only want to catch you for the pleasure it will be killing you with my own hands” Petra was really, mad at him. “You are crazy” she said, but Paolo didn´t care for what she said so he continued.

“I have little time now, so I must finish. While I was distracting you with my chatter I injected you with poison so we will both die and… that… will… be the most… pleasurable mo-…” Paolo fell onto the floor, smiling. “How gullible you are” Petra said “You injected me with water, I changed the syringe” But Paolo couldn’t hear because he was already dead. She left the cafe and breathed fresh air “Where should I go now I’m not in danger?” She thought “Probably Spain, yes! Spain! They have very tasty ham” And our mighty hero began her trip to Spain, where she would live a stressful life full of danger and adventure (and tasty ham). But wait, what happened to the unconscious woman? She woke up with no memory and when she saw Paolo, she went unconscious again.

 

Findlay Redpath

English Teacher