The Break-In
The sun glistened down on the school of Crookhaven, in the early morning of a new
term. A fresh layer of shining dew had been set over the lush grass and dancing leaves.
The pure air was bone cold and all you could see of the passers by was a misty breath
and very, very warm clothes. The lake was a ripple spawn centre and the banks of it
were nothing but mud.
There was an excited murmur of chatter, buzzing around the crowd, all waiting in
anticipation for the news of the break-in. Everyone took in a simultaneous gasp of
breath as the grand headmaster strutted up onto the stage. His immaculately gelled,
short-cut hair was somehow staying still, as no matter how hard everybody tried their
hair was serving as a better whip than a cat-o-nine. His dark, beady eyes scanned over
the students like cctv, waiting for any slip up.
His cold icy voice cut dangerously through the air, piercing the air bubble of all those
around. As he spoke everything seemed to change. The wind stopped whirling, hair
stopped whipping and everyone quietened down completely. A suspenseful aura
formed as Master Silver began to speak.
“Welcome everyone, to another term at the school of Crookhaven. As always you will
have all the same classes as before but I know none of you want to hear about that so
let's get to the fun stuff. The break-in. This term you will be competing against everyone
else to break into …. The New York Bank. A replica, anyway. To win you must push the
golden button at the end of all the obstacles. Good luck to you all.”
As Arthur dispersed from the crowd he started plotting. Arthur loved the Break-in, not to
say he found it easy though. Each year the challenges were harder and harder. Even
the years before in which he had completed it in such a way that made it look easy, he
still had a lot of help from others. So straight away he decided to seek their assistance
again.
In the end, it wasn’t very hard to convince the other winners from previous years to
team up and go again. As soon as Arthur started speaking they were on board.
And so the planning stage began. Months and months of viewing, re-writing, scheming
and plotting. Each night, after lights out, the group of four, Arthur, Luke, Thomas and
Ollie, snuck out to their secret spot. On a solid perch in a thick spiny pine tree, they
went about their business. There, they viewed multiple failed attempts of other students,
analysing each one like a hawk eyeing off its prey. Then came the night when everyone
felt they were ready.
As they stalked through the graveyard of trees a mood of eeriness formed. Once they
crept inside it was straight action. The first obstacle was …. lasers.
Slicing through the air, they were demons from hell. No match for Luke though. He
ducked and weaved smoothly through the labyrinth of lasers, silent like a mouse,
cunning like a lion. The next thing the others knew the laser path was gone and they
had a friend called Luke grinning ear to ear.
They silently continued to slip past traps and obstacles, mischievous smirks spreading
across their faces like butter on bread. In no time at all they had theive’d their way
through all the traps but one. This was something they hadn’t come up against though.
Real life human guards.
Their enormous shadows darkened the moonlit room completely. All of the planning,
every bit of work they had done, all came down to this moment. As they silently
shimmied along the wall, every step they took, they got a tiny bit more careless.
‘SQUEAK!’ An ear splitting noise pierced the silence. The boys sprinted into the next
room, heavy, pounding footsteps behind them, the golden button in sight.
Arthur dived for the button, victory flashing before his eyes. He reached his arm out as
far as he could and…. just got the button! Green light lit up the room and all the boys
were in a joyful state. Once again they were champions of Crookhaven!
As the boys walked into Master Silver’s office they were jubilant and could hardly
contain themselves.
“Well done boys” he said. “Once again, you are champions of Crookhaven!”
Written by
Finnegan M (Year 6)
