A Big Mistake by Workshop Star Eva Aukim-Schneider (age 6)

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Curly the witch, who had one bushy eyebrow that looked like a caterpillar and black frizzy hair, lived in the enchanted forest made of sweeties. She had a candy cane walking stick, which she clasped her pointy fingernails around. Her nails were so pointy that she couldn’t clean them and therefore, they were always filthy!

Beside the enchanted forest, there was the seaside and by the sea, there was a boathouse. In the boathouse, there lived a young girl called Ella Frittata. Ella Frittata went out nearly every day, hiding, spying and stealing. All of the people in the enchanted forest knew her but people rarely saw her. Only on wanted posters! She had greasy, blonde hair which she wore in an untidy bun on the top of her head. She had a wicked grin but was always sad as she didn’t have any money to buy food. Her turquoise jacket had a hole in the back and the bright yellow zip was broken.

It was a miserable day in the enchanted forest and Curly was inside her cobweb-covered gingerbread house with her pet spider, who was as fast as a cheetah because he had eight legs. She was just settling down for her favourite lunch – mouth-watering fried eggs on toads with a glass of slime water – when there was a great big thud at the front door. “Goodness gracious me!” she said, hobbling to the door and opening the letter which had been pushed through the letter box. Inside the envelope there was a big poster: ENCHANTED FOREST BAKING COMPETITION. BAKE YOUR BEST BISCUIT.

Curly was very excited but she didn’t know what she wanted to make. She thought and thought and then said in a high-pitched voice, “A-ha, I’ve got it! I’m going to make shortbread batwings. My favourite!” She hobbled out of the front door. On the way out, she grabbed her basket but didn’t get her candy cane walking stick because of all the excitement. She also said goodbye to her hairy spider.

In about a minute, she was in the centre of the enchanted forest. There were scrumptious sweets on the trees. There were bent candy cane tree trunks. There was a multi-coloured Haribo pathway, which led in any direction. There were gorgeous lollypops on the bushes and Curly just wanted to taste them all. A family came by and looked disgusted when they saw Curly skipping along the Haribo pathway, with her basket already with a marshmallow or two in it. She cackled at them and shrieked, “Goodness gracious me!” and she continued looking for more ingredients for her shortbread batwings.

When she had found all her ingredients, she hobbled back to her house, put her basket in the kitchen and went to wash her hands but obviously, she didn’t wash her nails because they were too pointy. Then she got busy baking. When the biscuits were perfect, well Curly thought they were perfect, she put them in the oven and went for a snooze because she was exhausted after all the baking she had done. She dreamt about holding the gleaming trophy up above her head and seeing everyone around her clap and cheer. “HOORAY!”

A few hours later, she was rudely awoken by her rumbling tummy. Curly hobbled into the kitchen and looked all around for her brilliant batwing biscuits, desperate to taste one but they had vanished. “Goodness gracious me, where are they?” she shrieked. “Has Ella

Frittata been and taken my scrumptious, prize-winning biscuits? I’ll find her and punish her and she’ll never want to come into my house again!”

Just then, Curly heard a loud banging at the front door. She opened it and there, on her front doorstep, was the famous Ella Frittata and she looked very worried. Curly shouted, “Are you coming to steal something else of mine? I’m going to turn you into a batwing biscuit and eat you myself!”

Ella opened her mouth like a codfish and looked very confused. She was going to say something when Curly shouted again, “How dare you come into my house and steal my prize-winning biscuits? Are you going to say sorry?”

Ella finally had the chance to speak. “Look behind you! Look behind you! There’s smoke!” Curly looked around as quick as she could and saw smoke and flames billowing out of the oven. She looked back at Ella Frittata and saw all the flowers, the trees and the bushes outside her house melting into puddles of sugar syrup. Only then did she realise that she hadn’t actually taken the biscuits out of the oven and now her house was on fire.

“Help, help! My house is on fire!” Curly shrieked and with that, Ella ran off. Curly thought, “That useless girl. She’s no help.” But at that exact moment, Ella returned with a bucket full of water and a very long hose, slopping water everywhere. They worked perfectly together, spraying water at the rooftop and all the way down to the ground and finally, the fire was completely gone.

By the time they were done, the biscuits were very burnt and Ella wrinkled her nose as Curly offered her one. “Erm…no thanks,” she said with a grin.

“Goodness gracious me,” Curly laughed. “I don’t think I’ll win the prize this year!”