Week 6 Storytelling: Playground Wars

Back at Lincolnwood Middle School, there was a strong dynamic between the small first graders and the intimidating and rowdy fourth graders.  The fourth graders would continually take all the good playground equipment, but the first-graders were too scared of their taunting jeers to say anything to the teacher.  After all, they didn't want to be considered a "snitch."  On day, a fourth grader named Randy offered a challenge to any one of the first graders.  He said that if someone could beat him in a treasure hunt, he would allow the first graders to have half of the playground equipment and the fourth graders vowed to keep the second and third grades from taking it from the first grade.  None of the first graders stepped up to the challenge day after day, but after listening to a month of taunting, one brave small first grader named Charlie decided he had experience enough and wanted the taunting to end.  Thus, at recess that afternoon, he approached Randy and said he'd accept the challenge.  Randy said, "Tomorrow at noon, if you can find a buried toy in the dirt before I do, you can have half of my playground kingdom." First, Charlie was upset - how was he supposed to dig up a toy?  The fourth graders had all of them - there's no way he could find one.  Even if he did, it would be really gross.  That night, when Charlie was getting ready for bed, he thought of a plan.  He decided that in the morning, he would get to school early and bury one of his own toys from home. Then, at noon, he would know where to dig the dirt up and would find it.  At noon, he did just that and won the playground back for the first graders.  Charlie soon became very popular among the first graders and as a result, he had new confidence and was no longer afraid to talk to older kids about problems the first graders had concerning the older students. Charlie served as their mediator and was loved by all  Randy respected Charlie from then on and they ended up being good teammates in high school as a part of an archaelogical recovery team.

 Typical elementary school playground

Source:  Wikipedia

Author's Note:  My story is based off of The Tiger and the Frog found in Tibetan Folk Tales which were compiled by Albert Shelton and published by his wife in 1925 based off what she found written down by him after his death three years earlier.  I wanted to make this story be more modern and between kids because it makes it more relatable and brings fond memories of childhood and the playground rivalries that most of us experienced.  I kept it third person so both characters could be talked about equally - also, the original story was in third person.