For our Elementary Short Story Write-Ahead competition we asked our youth writers to “write a short story about the grossest thing you ever witnessed (or heard about) at school. Here’s the trick: don’t just gross me out. You have to make me laugh, too.” As you can see, we’re not afraid to embrace our silly side at TBAWP.
Yuck! Oops, no whispering shhhhhhhhhh……….
by Muryum Firoz
“Phhhhhffftttttttt” farted John. “ Someone farted, but who was it?” questioned everyone in class. I turned to my left where the disgusting odor of rotten eggs or maybe a stale banana was coming from. John slid down lower on the rug sheepisly. Robin saw me grimacing and staring at John and whispered to Ken sitting next to her, “It’s John!” Ann muttered to Katy and Katy purred to Mia and soon the whole class was giggling and as it was circle time, the last one to be mumbled to was John. “It was John you know! ” said Ravi to John trying to keep a straight face and changing it to “It was you!” as he realized he was talking to John himself. John tried to laugh with the other kids till Miss Kaylee silenced us. “What exactly is the meaning of this immature behaviour?” she addressed the whole class. “ Why are you ridiculing a child for farting ?” Everyone became quiet for a few seconds till “Phhhhhffftttttttt” and the giggling started again as Miss Kaylee had farted too. “What I mean is everyone does it, you cant help it !” she went on trying to ignore the laughter. “ Right Miss Kaylee! ” we chorused and burst into even louder laughter. Miss Kaylee was very mad now and also self-conscious. Her face was turning red with anger and embarrassment. She just rushed out of the room. We all giggled again after someone said “Toot, toot, here comes the choo-choo train.Who’s next?”
Muryum Firoz is a 5th grader at Countryside Montessori Charter School. Muryum has been attending FIRE camp with Ms Abercrombie for 3 years and this year attended EARTH publication camp as well.