The Horrible Dream

Note from the Editor:
Hello Readers,
This short story is written by Vansh Mulchandani of grade 6, Udgam School for
Children. In the 5 -day 'Tell a Tale' Level 1 story writing workshop, our young
creative talents followed the tips to story writing to the best of their abilities.
'Tell a Tale' workshop is conceptualized and executed by me. It is an initiative to
create child authors and provide them with a platform to hone and showcase
their creative writing skills.
Each and every participant has come up with a unique story of their own. Some
followed the prompts given to them, while others created their own story theme.
Some young writers have gone ahead and created some awesome illustrations
too, while others got busy only in writing.
It's been a very interesting experience for me to work with the creative and
enthusiastic participants. I, whole heartedly thank 'Udgam Proactivity Club' for
extending their full support towards making this workshop a huge success.
Sincerely yours,
Aritra Raj ( Tell-a-Tale Faculty)

All the children of Harrisons Boarding School were uneasy. It was a
silent night. There was no noise at all. The children were scared,
thinking there could be a monster outside. No one could sleep
properly. But there was one exception- Peter. He was sleeping
peacefully. In fact, his friends could hear him snoring too.
Peter is a very funny character. He loves to sleep , can sleep anywhere
and according to him, he has a record of sleeping for 72 hours at a
stretch!
Every morning, Peter entertains his friends with his absurd dreams.
Some find his dreams funny, some brush them off.

Peter slept through the eerie night, woke up and started narrating his
dream to his friends. “ I saw, I was deep into the woods, lost from my
group. When I was searching for my friends, I heard a loud noise. I
turned back to see where did the noise come from?” He asked his
listener friends, “ Can you guess what noise was that?” No one could
guess. Peter continued “ It was the noise of two elephants farting”. He
said that and started laughing out loud. He was disappointed to notice
that none of his friends found his dream amusing.
Peter’s day at school started on a bad note. He was thrown out of the
class by his Maths teacher . In the P.T. period, his teacher scolded
again, because Peter had forgotten his sports kit. Peter was completely
demotivated now. He didn’t want to attend any more classes. He
chose to go to the washroom and found himself a seat. Before he
settled in, he remembered to clean the toilet seat with a tissue. After
sometime, he sat there and slept off soon.

It was the Sports Day of the Harrisons Boarding School. Peter was
interested in participating in the relay race. But he had hardly
practiced for it. He requested his classmates to include him in their
team. But since Peter was a slow runner, no one was keen on
including him in their team. Finally, the teacher came and put Peter’s
name in James’ team. James and Peter were not particularly fond of
each other. Peter , however, decided to adjust, but James clearly
showed his disappointment.
It was time for the Relay Race to begin. The P.T. teacher was the
referee of the event. He asked all the participants to take their
position. James, being the team leader, asked Peter to stand in
between the 2 fast runners . So that even if Peter runs slow, the other
runners will be able balance their positions.

The referee fired the shot-gun and screamed “ Ready, steady …..” All
the participants' heart was beating out of their chest.
As soon as the referred yelled “ Go!”, each team’s participant took off
at the speed of a rocket. Peter stood shocked at their speed. Peter was
in the 8 th position of his team. Soon, it was the boy’s turn who stood
just before Peter. The boy ran as fast as he could with a baton . Peter

was praying hard “ Please God , make me as fast as Usain Bolt- the
World’s fastest runner)”. And the boy soon appears at a high speed.
He passes the baton to Peter and …..
Trrrrrring..triiinggg ..Peter woke up with a jolt , at the noise of the bell
and the students. The next period was over and as Peter wanted, he
had successfully skipped that period. Peter wanted to know the
outcome of the relay race. So, instead of going back to his class, he
chose to sleep in the washroom and continued to dream.
…. ‘So, the boy finally hands over the baton to Peter. Peter takes it
from him and starts running. While running, Peter could hear the
audience cheering loudly for him. Peter thought to himself " really, all
this cheerleading for me." He is now too confident of himself. He
thinks that he will make his team win the race. While running, he
even waves at the audience. Suddenly, he tripped on a small stone and
fell. He was hurt but he was more worried about not making his team
win. Now he realised that the audience was not really cheering for

him but for the team they supported. All his friends and team mates
surrounded him and started mocking and blaming Peter.
“Nooooooo!!!” screamed Peter at the top of his lungs. He was so loud
that the students standing outside the washroom were taken aback.
They found out that instead of attending the classes, Peter was
actually sleeping and dreaming in the washroom.
James went and reported it to the class teacher. The teacher called
Peter, scolded him for skipping classes and sleeping in the washroom.
The teacher called his parents to take up the matter seriously.
Peter, sadly muttered “getting punished is only written in my luck”.
After this incident, Peter was never the same again. All his friends
were astonished at the new, and changed Peter. He was indeed a more
sincere fellow. Some of his friends were happy for Peter, others had
their doubt. You never know, he might just become the old Peter,
soon.