A series of short stories written by our Student Nandini Gupta.

Nandini is 10 years old young writer from Jaipur. We are proud to have her as a student of the Little Writers Program, an Online Creative Writing Program using Applied Storytelling & Theatre tools under the mentorship of Trainer Khusshbo Chokhaani. We congratulate Nandini for this exemplary true self-expression.

Short Stories Collection #6 – By Nandini Agarwal

1. The Mystery of The Old House

A girl named Mia lived on the outskirts of New York. She was 17 years old, had elbow-length flaming red hair, green almond-shaped eyes, and was tall. Mia’s best friend, Joy had shoulder-length light brown hair, and sparkling blue eyes and was 18 years old. They lived in the same neighborhood. Joy and Mia wanted to become Detectives, but their parents thought differently. Every morning and night, Mia and Joy used to secretly go cycling around their neighborhood in search of mysteries. They thought that if they solved a huge mystery then they could finally convince their parents about becoming detectives.

Straight across from Mia’s, was an old house. It was rumored to be haunted. It was painted black, the windows were dirty and broken, there were many cobwebs and bats all around the house and the door had strange markings with a handle shaped like a snake.

On the night of Halloween, when a group of small kids went trick or treating, there was a scream from inside the old house. Joy and Mia decided to investigate. They grabbed their flashlights, a rope, and magnifying glasses. When they opened the door, it creaked and they heard the scream again. Mia and Joy were scared but they knew that they had to do this. They went in and as it was dark they turned their flashlights on. They then saw a huge cupboard and a staircase. They went up the staircase and saw a room that had a mirror, a bed, a few cans of blue paint, and blue clothes. They went inside the room and looked up and saw something blue hanging from the ceiling. They looked carefully and saw that it was a ghost! Joy screamed but Mia threw her flashlight at the ghost and the ghost fell on the bed, screamed, and ran downstairs. Mia and Joy ran after the ghost and Joy somehow made the ghost trip then Mia tied him up and called the police.

After the police came, they found out that the ghost was a robber who the police had been trying to find for the past 8 months and had hidden his loot in the house. He was trying to scare people away from the old house to avoid getting caught.  After this, Mia and Joy’s parents realized that their daughters were destined to be detectives.

2. The Adventures of Minnie and Cherry

Once upon a time, there was a mango named Minnie who lived on a tree with her brothers and sisters. Right under the tree was a cherry tomato vine. Minnie used to talk to the cherry tomatoes every day and her best friend was a cherry tomato named Cherry. One day Minnie saw a girl coming near the tree with a basket and a small ladder and immediately alerted her brothers, sisters, and the cherry tomatoes. Minnie saw the girl pluck all of the cherry tomatoes from the bush and keep them in her basket. The girl then took her ladder and started to climb the tree. When she reached the mangoes, she reached out for Minnie and plucked her. Minnie felt as if she had been struck in the head with a frying pan and suddenly everything went dark, and Minnie passed out. When she woke up, she found herself on the counter of a kitchen. The kitchen was huge and had a big white fridge, lots of shelves, and drawers.

After some time, she heard a voice and the person sounded as if they were crying. Minnie decided to check so she asked the cherry tomatoes to come with her, all except Cherry said no.

They both followed the voice to one of the shelves that had a few bowls, a dozen lemons, and knives. They hid in the bowls and saw that a lemon was pleading to the biggest knife to not cut him while the other knives were holding the other lemons back. The biggest knife then told the other knives to retreat and that they would come back the next day. When the knives went away and Minnie checked that the coast was clear, they came out from where they were hiding. After making friends with the lemons, Minnie asked them who the knives were. The lemons said that the leader of the knives was Kranky and that the knives chopped a few fruits and vegetables every day for no reason at all.

After hearing this Minnie and Cherry decided that if they wanted the others and themselves to live, they needed to stop Kranky and his gang. To do so, they needed an army. They asked the lemons if they wanted to help them defeat Kranky and his gang and they all agreed.

They planned carefully and were finally ready to defeat Kranky and his gang. The lemons told them where Kranky and his gang’s hideout was, and they went there. Minnie and Cherry distracted Kranky and his gang while the lemons attacked them from behind. Kranky and his gang fought back but Minnie and Cherry had more people, so they overpowered Kranky and his gang and were sent to the utensil jail.

After that Minnie and Cherry were given the title ‘food sheriffs’ and vowed to stop crime happening with food and utensils.

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