Making Monster Mates Written By Joey

It was Leo's first day at Monster School. His parents gave him a kiss and cuddle then said good bye.

His teacher was very nice. She had purple skin and two heads which both smiled happily at him.

"This is Leo. Leo would you like to tell us about yourself?" Miss Fortune waved him up to stand in front of the class.

"Hi, my name is Leo. I like playing sport. My favourite sport is Rugby." The class smiled and whispered.

Leo realised some of the kids in the class had tails too. One girl had a feathery tail like a bird and one boy had two tails that looked tiger's tails. Another girl had red skin and bright yellow hair. One boy had a skinny, long nose like Pinocchio.

"You can sit down now," Miss Fortune said.

Leo sat down next to the boy with two tails. The boy smiled and whispered, "I'm Bede and I like rugby too."

Then the class did reading. He was the only one to read a book to the teacher by himself because she was trying to find what reading group he was in.

After reading, he sat down with the class to listen to the teacher. The class were writing a shared story about going to the zoo. Leo hadn't been to the zoo with them so he got bored. He started playing with his tail by flicking the spikes with his fingers.

"Stop playing with your spikes, Leo," Miss Fortune growled.

Leo stopped flicking his spikes and he shivered. He took a big breath to stop himself from crying.

The class finished their zoo writing and Leo wrote a story about himself.

Later, the bell rang for lunch. After eating his food, Leo realised he had no friends. A boy covered in black feathers came up to Leo. He was carrying a cricket bat and a ball.

"I'm Billie. Would you like to play cricket?"

Leo shook his head. He was too shy to say yes.

"I'm Lizzy. Would you like to play tag with me and my friends?" The girl with the feathery tail asked him.

"No thank you," Leo said because he saw Bede had a rugby ball. "Can I play rugby with you, Bede?"

Bede said yes.

They played Touch. There were lots of tries, lots of running and lots of passing the ball. Finally Leo got the ball. He side stepped someone and dodged another. Bede was coming up behind him and was about to touch him. But Leo's tail got in the way. Bede reached out and the spikes swung around to cut his arm.

The game stopped and everyone gathered around Bede lying on the ground holding his arm. Leo comes over nervous that he had hurt his new friend.

There was blood on Bede's arm and he was crying softly.

Leo was worried because one of the other kids went to get a teacher. He thought he would get told off and sent to the principal. So he ran away to hide behind a big oak tree on the other side of the school.

He stayed there for the rest of lunchtime. When the bell rang he was still too scared to go back to class so he stayed behind the tree.

Eventually Miss Fortune found him.

"Leo, are you alright? We miss you in class. Bede says you are a good rugby player."

"Thank you," Leo said.

"Come and see what the children have made for you."

Leo followed her to the classroom. Inside, the class had a bag and a roll of cello tape.

Bede had a bandage on his arm and was smiling at Leo. "When you want to play rugby with us, you could wear this cotton wool around your spiky tail." He pulled a bit of cotton wool out of the bag and gave it to Leo.

Leo smiled and wrapped the cotton wool around his spikes. "That's a great idea, thank you."

Bede put his arm around Leo's shoulders. "Do you want to be in my rugby team?"

By Joey Room 16