True Colours

AN EXTRACT FROM THE STORY - POLLY AND HER SISTERS When Polly blew the final whistle, Mandy and Lesley had hugged five trees and Polly had hugged six, because Polly always had to be the winner of any game that they played! But all three did agree that they had felt more energetic afterwards. All the girls loved sitting by the lake, which was in the centre of the park, and had a few bench seats dotted around the banks, having been put there for fishermen and others to use. Polly gave her sisters a good talking to before they reached the lake, telling them that they must stay away from the edge, as she was not going to jump into the lake that morning, to save any one of her sisters! Hayley was happy to just watch the fish swimming around in the water, which was usually until it was time to go home, and it was her that Polly had been worried about, in case she leant over too far by the edge of the lake. Anyway, Polly knew that her sisters took notice of her, whenever she told them not to do something, so she followed them down to the lake, and was just hoping for the best! By the time she reached the lake, Hayley was on her knees and trailing one hand in the water, but at least she was not leaning over the edge, thought Polly. The twins were sitting on one of the seats and chatting to each other, as they both enjoyed talking, more than all their other four sisters put together! Polly went over to them and sat down. After about fifteen minutes, the twins asked Polly if they could go up to the far end of the park, because that was where the childrens play area was situated. Polly called out to Hayley that she wanted her back with the others, and then answered her sisters by saying, 'Just wait another five minutes, then we can all walk over there together.' When the girls reached the play area they saw a notice which read, 'The swings and all the other play equipment are not to be used, by children over twelve years old.' This meant that Polly was still able to have a swing, just like her three younger sisters. Luckily for the girls, there were very few children in the play area, so as they could see four vacant swings, they each sat down on the seat of a swing, before any other child could appear! Polly had just got into her stride on a swing, ( but being Polly, she was still watching her sisters as well,) when she noticed that the swing next to her was empty, and was swinging to and fro by itself. At that moment, a little girl about the same age as Hayley, ran in front of the vacant swing, without looking to see what was going on around her, so straight into where Polly was swinging, and was knocked face down onto the ground by Polly's swing. Polly jumped off her swing at once, taking her mobile phone out of the pocket in her trousers, and rang for an ambulance, asking for it to be sent to the childrens play area, the one in the nearby park, where a young girl had just had an accident.