By Claire

Claire? Claire! Wake up, we are almost there.” I was shaken awake, I opened my hazy eyes and rubbed them. When I looked clearly, Daisy was staring at me. I could feel her breath on my face. I was startled and moved back, “Why are you so close to me! Have we landed?”

Daisy ignored my shock,” You finally woke up! I'm super bored, so now you can chat with me! Did you know that my favorite Kpop idol finally released a new song!“ I was by her shaking my shoulder, my mind went blank.

“It's been a year since they released a new song. Did you listen to it yet?” She looked at me expectantly with her big grass-green eyes.

“Let me sleep a little longer. I only slept four hours last night. I will talk to you later.” I closed my eyes again.

“Fine.” She was a little disappointed and turned to chat with others.

Time flies by so fast, it has been a year since I came to Ireland. Now I’m on a plane to Austria, to stay at a ski resort. I remember that the last time I took a plane was to Ireland. After all, I was reluctant to leave the place where I had lived for 11 years, but it was also good to come here, because since I started junior high school in China, the classmates I used to know are no longer in my class, and everyone in the new class has their own good friends. Although I tried to make friends, I still didn’t have any friends. Every day in school, I was like a ghost, wandering around after class. The only two good friends were not in my school, and they were very busy every day. After coming to Ireland, everyone was very friendly, and I made a lot of good friends.

In 2023, my mom and I moved to Ireland and I began attending a famous private school in Cork at the start of sixth grade. At the end of the school year, the teachers planned a week long graduation trip to Austria. I was astonished when I heard that, because I never heard of graduation trip in China. It was 1000 euros each, and we had two weeks to decide whether to go or not.

Sitting on the bus going home, my mind was full of excitement: skiing, learning a new skill, trying unique food ,living with my friends! This must be the most excellent trip in my life! I bounced back home with delight, eager to tell my mom. When I arrived home I saw my mom typing seriously on the computer keyboard.

“Mom, guess what! We are going to have a school trip to Austria!”

My mom said, “Really? How much is it?”

“It’s 1000 euros per person.”

My mom looked back at me in surprise, her eyebrows knitted together, her eyes was full of amazement. “1000 euros! Are they mad? Maybe next time.”

I felt depressed. l had a dreamed of this trip, and I knew most of my friends were going. I walked slowly to my room, dropped my bag, and sat listlessly at the desk. Staring at the clock. I felt overcast, like the sky was falling. All of my hopes of skiing, learning a new skill, trying unique food, living with my friends... faded into the distance. The clock went ‘Tick-tack,tick-tack-ta...’ the time elapsed, and before I knew it, it was dinner time. The desolate mood was gone after two days.

“Mom, I’m back home.”

“I have a surprise for you!” Mom said when I came home. “I booked the trip to Austria for you!”

”Really! Are you joking?”

“I’m not joking, get ready for an amazing trip!”

Joy returned to me immediately, l couldn’t stop smiling. Sitting at the desk, the ticking clock sound like music.

The next day of school, our teacher gave everyone a page.

“Write five names of the people you want as your roommates.”

Cheers filled the classroom. I was amazed, we could choose? In China, teachers just decide everything.I quickly wrote down Eli, Lily, Daisy, Ella, and Sophia.

The night before the flight to Austria. I was so excited, I couldn’t fall asleep, I felt cheerful even just thinking about the trip. I arrived at the airport at five, ready glad to see my friends. Soon we were on the plane, it took five hours to arrive. I was flummoxed when we arrived the hotel. The sun shined softly in the sky that was pale blue with undertones of green, the white snow shining in the sunshine covered the streets and roof of houses, looked like a fairy tale town.

On the fourth day of skiing, the coach took us to a very high snow slope by cable car. It was freezing when I was standing on the top of the snow slope, but after sliding all the way down the mountain, I felt very hot. I didn't expect that, since I was only wearing a fleece long-sleeved shirt in sub-zero weather. Almost all the students fell down at least once because the snow slope was too steep. When I was sliding down the snowy mountain, I looked up and saw the endless foot of the mountain. On both sides, there were dark green pine trees swaying in the wind. My colorful classmates followed the coach in front of me. The coach led us to slide down from the top of the mountain in an S shape. However, it was very easy to fall when turning. Once, I almost twisted my foot.

Seven days passed so quickly ,the end of the incredible trip . We were having the last dinner at thehotel. The food was not attractive, it’s just pasta. The best food we had was the plain pizza that our school ordered, which made me very disappointed. My friends ate their dinner so quickly like a vacuum cleaner, then they went back to our room. I still hadn’t had the dinner yet, because of the long queue, so l decided to grab a fruit and eat in our room. There were only oranges served that night, when I was about to touch the orange, suddenly a memory came.

An ordinary school day.

“Is there any fruit you guys hate? I’m bringing some fruit candy,” said Sophia. Sophia was very kind to everyone, she even shared her snack with an unknown first year student. Her hair is waist-length. She and Eli are best friends, they were friends with Lily since second grade.

“I hate orange badly, the smell of it it’s disgusting! It makes me want to throw up when I smell it, if anyone eats it around me I will go crazy!” said Lily. Lily was always dramatic, but she is very good at dancing. She has big eyes and long eyelashes.

“Claire? We’re leaving now, hello?” Daisy’s words brought me back to reality. When I looked up, I saw Daisy looking at me with a smile, her face is so friendly. She is also very gentle.

“Oh, ok.” She gently took my hand and led me forward.

Back in the room, I was sitting on my bed. There were at least two meters between me and Lily. Lily won’t smell the orange from there, I thought. Unless she has a dog's sense of smell. I quietly took out the orange out of my pocket and started eating it.

“Lily, is Claire eating orange over there?” said Eli.

I don’t know how she saw me when they were chatting enthusiastically, and why she told Lily. Lily looked at me frowning her eyebrows. I thought I saw Eli glance at me, but she turned her face to Lily.

“Why are you doing this to me!” Lily’s voice was mixed with anger and sadness. ”Just get out of the room!”

“But we’re far away from each other......” before l finished the sentence Sophia grabbed my hand and said, “Finish your orange outside.”

She looked at me with complicated eyes, it seemed to be a hint of sympathy. Does she want to do this?I wondered. But she turned her face away immediately, and held my wrist with a little force. Maybe we all didn’t want to make it awkward, we were all smiling and laughing. By coincidence I saw Daisy look at me with sympathy, but when she noticed l was looking at her, she moved her eyes away and sighed. Sophia opened the door and pushed me out of the room. I accepted somebody say something, but I didn’t think the introverted Ella would have any reaction, she wouldn’t even say anything if someone stepped on her. She is the only person in the room that wear glasses. I was stunned, looking at the door that’s been slammed by my friend. I didn’t know how to describe my feelings, fury? Sorrowful? Maybe more of a disbelief in what happened. I knocked on the door,

“Guys stop kidding me, let me in.”

With a helpless smile on my face, I tried to open the door. Sophia opened a small gap, l could only see one of her eyes through it.

“Lily says after you finished the orange.”

I can’t tell is she happy with this, or forced to do it.

“Stop joking, how could you bear to leave me alone in the cold corridor, right?”

I was joking, trying to lighten the mood. But Sophia didn’t respond, she glanced at me and closed the door. The wind that blew from the closed door chilled my heart. I ate the orange quickly, so I could go back. Then one of my classmate Emily walked out, her flowing golden curls fluttered in the wind, she looked up and saw me, looked at me questioningly with her clear sky blue eyes, and asked me uncertainty,

“Claire ,what are you doing outside at night?”

I told her what happened, she walked to my room, about to knock on the door. I tried to stop her because I didn’t want others to know about this. Emily looked at me, and knocked on the door. Sophia opened a small gap, “Why did you leave Claire outside of her room?”

“Because Lily doesn’t like orange, and Claire is eating it in the room.”

“But you can’t just leave her outside alone.”

Emily saw me still standing there and pulled me over.

“Come on Claire, this is your room too, just go in, it’s fine.”

I threw away the unfinished orange in a panic, Emily pushed me into the room and left. Sophia stared at me, grabbed my arm and trying to pull me in.

“Wait, just in case, search if Claire hid any orange,” said Lily.

Sophia stopped me from walking in to the room, she searched my whole body. It made me very uncomfortable, then she let me in.

Everyone was chatting and giggling like nothing happened. What are they thinking? Why are they are laughing? Are they laughing at me? Why was I the person being kicked out of the room, I ate the orange quickly orange two meters away from her, how could she smell it?

They didn’t even give me a chance to say anything, I ate the orange because I was very hungry and it’s the only fruit served tonight. I didn’t want to eat dinner alone when others were together, having fun in the room.

I sat on the hard wooden bed, staring at my teddy. I reached my hand to touch it, it was soft and warm, l hugged it tightly. I wondered if I’m still friends with them or if this has ruined everything. Maybe they thought the whole thing was just a joke? But what kind of friends who liked you would kick you out of the room? Maybe they realized it wasn’t an appropriate thing to do to their friend, and they felt awkward and just wanted to laugh it off? I thought about it for a long time, trying to guess what they were thinking. Every possible answer led me back to the question: Are we still friends?

I listened to their conversation quietly, curious about whether or not they were talking about me.

“Sophia, can you believe our coach yelled at me only because I didn’t follow the team tightly? Why did she blame me when I just fell on the hill? I was a beginner, I’m not some skiing pro!” cried Eli.

“Our coach was so nice to us. She treated everyone gently,” Sophia boasted.

“Our coach is nice too, she.....”

It didn’t seem like they were talking about me, which was a relief, but it also meant they didn’t care about what just happened. I looked down at the quilt. Maybe I should apologize to them, but only because I ate an orange far away from Lily and she seemed like she’s pretending to have a strong reaction to this, itdidn’t make sense to kick me out of the room. If Lily really doesn’t like the orange, she can just cover her nose. I didn’t say anything when they were eating the durian besides me in my house long time ago, and they know I hate it.

“Hey Claire,” Daisy said, breaking me out of my thoughts. “Don’t you think our coach is so mean!”

Everyone else turned to stare at me.

“Emmmm,” I was surprised that Daisy talked to me. “Kinda.”

They didn’t seem very happy about my dry answer, because they all turned around again and kept chatting. I lowered my head again, actually thinking about it, they are my only friends, I don’t have anyone else to play with in Ireland. I don't want to be alone like I was in China. We can all pretend nothing happened, and no one will feel awkward, we can all be good friends again. Maybe I’m too sensitive. Thinking like this, I walked towards them, forced a smile and asked, “So what were you talking about?”

Everyone was stunned for a second, then Daisy suddenly reacted, smiled and took my hand, pulled me to sit next to her and said, “We were just guessing how many bread Sophia stored on the shelf that she stole from the restaurant.”

Ella blinked and said, “I think she stored five.” Then everyone started laughing.

“Really! How can she stored that much?” “Actually I think...”

This dreamlike ski trip ended with real and fake laughter.

Julia Hollingsworth

Julia holds a Masters in Creative Writing:

Nonfiction from the University of East Anglia and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Abilene Christina University.

Tutor’s comment：

Claire,

I am so impressed by the effort you put into this essay. The new introduction you wrote, the details about moving from China and your experience with friends there and in Ireland, and the edits you made to ensure tenses and grammar were legible and smooth, really made this essay shine. I have attached your essay with my comments below and a few edits when it came to dialogue or the occasional incorrect use of tense. There were really very few suggestions, this is such a lovely short story. Well done.

You have already shown so much grown and improvement, highlighting your strengths as a young writer. I look forward to reading more of your work.

Sincerely, Julia

今天的作品來自三明治12-16歲英文創(chuàng)意寫作工作坊

新一期的夏季工作坊正在報名中，

免費體驗活動

Story Leading Education12-16歲專業(yè)英語創(chuàng)意寫作工作坊

導師Julia Hollingsworth

體驗時間：2025年6月29日 北京時間 周日 16:00-17:30

體驗平臺：騰訊會議 （僅限15席）

適用人群：

1、想嘗試英語寫作的青少年（即將升入或者已經開始初高中學習）

2、正在青春期中，希望通過對內心對世界進行探索的青少年。

3、未來有志于用英語學習人文專業(yè)的青少年；

4、想要形成自己的英語作品用于申請各類海外夏校、專業(yè)學術機構及獎項的青少年；

報名條件：

1、報名需提供過往英語寫作作品參考；

2、英語需達到美國孩子5年級以上閱讀水平。

報名方式?

請聯(lián)系工作坊負責人Rey

還有更多適合6-16歲兒童與青少年的

春季英語線上工作坊

歡迎垂詢

接入全球化的學習體系，在互聯(lián)網時代不再是需要等到上大學以后才開始的事情。三明治和故事星球Storyland于2020年在英國創(chuàng)立的教育公司Story Leading Education，整合了全球的英文創(chuàng)作資源，將持續(xù)在閱讀、創(chuàng)意寫作、人文社科、藝術、科學等方面將優(yōu)質的導師團隊和項目帶給全球各地的中國孩子，形成一個隨時、隨地可接入的全球創(chuàng)作力社群（）。

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