“Bin, hurry up! We have to go to the beach!” I exclaimed as Bin took his own sweet time to get changed.

What was I going to do? The fire was surrounding me! “Help! Help!” I barked.

  “Hey, Peter! Are you ready for our hike yet?” my classmate, Ben, chirped as he gave me a bright smile.

  “Yippee!” I whooped in exultation. A triumphant grin materialised on my face as I gawked at the newest model of bicycle standing magnificently before me.

“Keep this a secret,” Jessica whispered, “and the money is yours, Raelyn.” After saying that, she looked me in the eye with a stare that was intense. It looked like it was saying, “Do not betray my trust.” Then, she gathered her books from her locker and stalked off.

The smell of acrid smoke wafted into my nose and it jolted me awake. I stifled a yawn as I arose from my deep sleep slumber in a state of stupefaction. Just what is the time? Crawling out of bed, I opened the bedroom door, only for the horrific realisation to hit me like a twenty-pound sledgehammer.

The piercing cry of the school bell reverberated through the corridors, signaling the end of another tiring school day. Once their teacher had dismissed the class, Alex and his classmates streamed out of their classroom.

As I sat on the couch, my heart was filled with guilt. I recalled how terrible my mistake was, regretting my every move.

The clock struck noon and I grew more irritated. I had been searching for my school notebook that I needed for my assignments for the past two hours, but my efforts were in vain. As I reached the back of my desk drawer in frustration, I pulled out a slightly tattered dusty book that contained the photographs that I had taken since I was young. As I was flipping the pages of the book I saw a picture that caught my attention – it was a photograph of myself with an old friend, Joe, whose advice for me to eat healthily had changed my life for the better.

“Let’s go home!” John exclaimed as he waved at Tom. Grabbing their schoolbags, the brothers rushed out of the school together. Tom, the elder one, was thoughtful and mature. He was also a tall, lean and athletic boy. John was the polar opposite; he was a short, scrawny and bespectacled child. Although slightly immature, he was a sympathetic child. Nevertheless, they were like two peas in a pod. They were finally dismissed after a tiring day at school and the two could not wait to get home.