Setting: Modern

How the Platypus Came to Be

Dec 10, 2024

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Genre: Myths & Legends

Setting: Modern

New Vocabulary: Beak, Beaver, Came to be, Can’t be bothered, Dam, Otter, Pester, Platypus, Tail

Word Count: 1040

Original Author: Ariel Goodbody

The nose of a duck, the fur of an otter and the tail of a beaver: platypuses are one of the strangest animals in the world! So where did they come from?
The Freezer Door

Oct 15, 2024

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Genre: Philosophical

Setting: Modern

New Vocabulary: Cheek, Cliff, Freeze, Freezer, Gooseberry, Kid, Nightmare, Parallel universe, Pick at, Sober, Weigh something up

Word Count: 1517

Original Author: Ariel Goodbody

A woman has a loving husband and children, and she’s great at her job. So why is she sad? One day, she opens the freezer door and sees the way into another world. If she goes, she will lose her husband and children. But could she be happy there?
Misty the Snake (Rerun)

Sep 3, 2024

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Genre: Comedy

Setting: Modern

New Vocabulary: Bubble wrap, Ex, Lick, Marmite, Owner, Parcel, Prison bars, Put a bounty on someone’s head, Queue, Sneak, Tongue, Yeast

Word Count: 1457

Original Author: Ariel Goodbody

Misty the Snake loves eating other people’s pets. This does not make the people of the United Kingdom happy. So her owner takes her to Brazil, but really she wants to go home to Ghana…
Doing Evil Part 2

Aug 20, 2024

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Genre: Philosophical

Setting: Modern

New Vocabulary: ‘Even if I die trying’, A-level, Brush yourself off, Detention, Do-gooder, Frame someone for something, Indoctrination, Oxbridge, PE, Practically vibrating, Put your head down, Ripple, Theology, Wet the bed

Word Count: 4021

Original Author: Ariel Goodbody

Tobias arrives at St Gummarus’ School for Nasty Children. At first, he thinks his parents might have made a mistake, because all the kids here are badly behaved and nasty. But he soon realises that deep down, they are good, and they’re threatening his mission to do evil. So Tobias decides to use goodness as a weapon…
Doing Evil Part 1

Aug 13, 2024

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Genre: Philosophical

Setting: Modern

New Vocabulary: A cross to bear, Atheist, Boarding school, Bullying, Chapel, Evil, Host (Christianity), Hypocrisy, Lord, Mass, Rota, Satan, Seven deadly sins, Spit, Tabernacle, Test the waters

Word Count: 3625

Original Author: Ariel Goodbody

When Tobias’s parents ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, he says, ‘Evil.’ There’s just one problem: his parents are devoted Christians! As Tobias does more and more bad things, his parents try to find ways to make him good, until finally there is only one option left…
The Kind-Hearted Pea

Jun 4, 2024

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Genre: Children’s

Setting: Modern

New Vocabulary: Afford, Blow, Crack, Harvest, Kind-hearted, Pea, Pod, Shaped like, Shoo, Water (verb)

Word Count: 1081

Original Author: Saviour Pirotta

The wind carries a pea to a crack by a window. Inside the house, a boy is sick and dying. The pea wants to help the boy, and slowly it grows into a plant. When the boy sees the plant he is so happy, and he helps the plant grow.
What Makes a Snake

Mar 19, 2024

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Genre: Drama

Setting: Modern

New Vocabulary: Dread, Drill down, Filing cabinet, Get the memo, Line manager, Minutes, Piss, Scroll (computer), Sexual harassment, Squeeze out, Synergy, Touch base, Urinal

Word Count: 6590

Original Author: Ariel Goodbody

Sam works in the stupidest department of his company: the ‘Synergy Snakes’. What they’re actually supposed to do, he has no idea, but he’s managed to create a system where he doesn’t have to talk to his co-workers and does as little work as possible. The only problem is, the company is looking to get rid of some people, and Sam’s an easy target…
The Red Book

Jan 16, 2024

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Genre: Horror

Setting: Modern

New Vocabulary: Dive, Keep doing, Leaf, Pile, Push, Run away, Scary, Treasure, Wrap

Word Count: 1821

Original Author: Ariel Goodbody

Gemma finds a strange red book on her way home from school. She starts reading it, and it is a story about a boy called Nai. In the story, Nai also finds a red book, and when he starts to read it, the story is about Gemma…
Simon’s New Job

Sep 12, 2023

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Genre: Comedy

Setting: Modern

New Vocabulary: Chase, Control, Deodorant, Put the heating on, Scream, Smell, Stick to, Still, Sweat, Tear (pulling)

Word Count: 1033

Original Author: Ariel Goodbody

Simon gets a new job, but everything goes wrong. He doesn’t wear enough deodorant and smells at work. He tries walking, taking the bus, the train, a taxi, but he always gets there too early or too late. One day, it all becomes too much…
Four Windows

Jun 20, 2023

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Genre: Philosophical

Setting: Modern

New Vocabulary: Aerosol can, Distort, Moral (story), Mundane, Pristine, Quirk, Rut, Scrub, Sleep in, Warfare

Word Count: 1609

Original Author: Ariel Goodbody

Two people live in buildings next to each other: a clean man and a messy woman. Each day, they look through the window into the other’s flat and imagine what their life is like. But in the end, only one person knows the truth…