1. McCarthy, 1
Karlynn McCarthy
May 23, 2012
8-2 English/ 7th
Short Story
The Adventures of London
The rain, which splatters, on my face and body is cold, wet, and depressing. Mason and I are
waiting for the bus with the rest of the 8th grade graduates for our trip. “This is definitely what we
needed to start our 8th grade trip don’t you think, Mason,” I say in an extremely sarcastic tone.
He smiles and says, “Cheer up Noela. We get to go and see all of London for two weeks! How many
8th graders do you think can say that?”
I think for a minute, and say, “Well Mason, I’m pretty sure that everyone in England goes to London on
the 8th grade trip. So I’d have to say that a lot of 8th graders go to London.” He laughs, while we wait
for the bus to arrive.
The bus windows are a complete blur of green and rain drops. I’m sitting next to Mason
thinking about the things we are going to do in London when he pokes me and plops his Kindle on my
lap. The page is on the front cover of the London Weekly; in bold black letters, it reads ;“Queens
Crown on Special Display for Short Time only”. He leans over, and whispers, “Nela, we get to see that
today!”
I push him away from me and smile and say, “Yes, we do get to see that today. Are you exited?”
“Yes!” he says while laughing.
“Well that’s good and me too I have always wanted to see the Queens crown.” I say while also
laughing. Ms. Enola gives us a suspicious glance because we are both laughing so hard. While
we wait to arrive in London for the remaining hour we listen to my iPod touch and laugh about

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everything there is to laugh about.
“Wow! You can see everything from here” I say in an exasperated voice.
“I know isn’t it amazing!” Mason comments.
“Ya it certainly is something up here in the London Eye” I mumble. As I look at all the beautiful sights
in London, I wonder how old each building is, who made the designs. My thoughts are interrupted by
an abrupt jerk and stop, on our way down to the ground. The whole city’s power went out for three
minutes. After those three minutes that I thought I was going to die everything went back to normal. It
was like nothing happened. Mason glanced at me to see if were thinking the same thing. We were. My
thoughts were in a blur the last time this had ever happened in London as we learned in history class
was about ten years ago. On that day, the biggest and richest bank was robbed in clear sight, the men
were never caught. I whisper to Mason, “No, it can’t be. Do you think they would do it again or maybe
something even worse this time?”
Mason whispers back “I honestly don’t know, Nela”.
The rest of the day I couldn’t get my mind out of what might happen. Mason asked if I was ok
but I was worried. Something was not right. I had a feeling that the blackout was too familiar. When we
left the London Eye, where you can see all of London in a farewell type structure, they gave us our
money back and said to come again. As we travel on the bus to our next stop, which was the crown
jewels, I decided I needed to relax and so I did.
As we continue on the bus, Mason, with his bright blue eyes and freckles, motions me to go on
to the second floor with him. Today is a beautiful day. As I sit and look around, I pull out my chopstick
from the back of my head. My hair looks so bright and shiny in this light. Definitely not
its dull dark straight as a pin brown that it normally hangs like. Masons hair looks the same but then
dirty blonde hair never looks dull. As I get ready to get off the bus at the Tower of London, where the
crown jewels are, I notice a man with all black on staring at me.

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The shock and giddiness comes and boils up inside me. I don’t know why he’s looking at me like
that. I mean, I do have diamond earrings on but he wouldn’t steal that right of my ears, would
he? When the bus gives a little jolt signaling that we have stopped the man speed walk right off the bus
and into the tower. “Strange man, don’t you think Mason,” I say.
“Yes he was staring at you the whole time. It was very weird! Let’s forget about him and enjoy this
exhibit since it is special.” He comments.
“Yes! Let’s go and have a grand old time in there.” I say cheerfully. As we walk into the tower, it's
dark. I can’t see a thing because there are so many people and reporters in the hallway. I drag Mason
with me over to a staircase and say, “There now we can see.”
The crown jewels are so beautiful, shiny, and expensive looking that it takes my breath away.
The outstanding exhibit is astonishing! The Queen was sitting right there, with the crown on
her pretty little white fluff of hair, greeting everybody and having a grand old time. When it was my
turn to gradually walk by, The Queen waved at me and wished me a good day.
Mason leads me down the stairs to the hall way while we wait for the others. I tell him all about
my visit with the Queen. All of a sudden the lights go out. I gasp and as we stand there in silence. The
wind whooshes around me for a second and I hear someone running. Suddenly the lights come back on
and I see the man in black running away with a bag in his hands. I look at Mason who looks back at
me. We start running as fast as we can and we see the man in black run onto a bus. We calmly get onto
the bus like nothing happened and take a seat. I spot the man in the corner. He is watching me again,
but I pretend not to notice. Right now inside I’m scared, adrenaline rushed, and in super hero
cop mood. I look at Mason telling him in my mind “Are we going to follow this scary man in black?”
He nods in response.
The man in black, gets off the bus and so do we. The bus stop sign reads Tower Bridge on the
green sign post. Mason takes the lead while we follow the man and I call the police. I tell them

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everything. So far all I know is that the man in black is scary, he has stolen the crown jewels, and
I need to get him arrested for that sweet little old lady, who is our Queen. The police say that they will
arrive in a matter of minutes and tell me to try and corner him the best I can. So that’s what we did.
Mason left me to take the other side and we cornered him.
The man in black is laughing. He calls out, “Do you think you can play constable and catch
me? Ha! I don’t think so you little twits.”
“What’s in the bag?” Mason asks the man. He quickly steps towards the man in black and I grab his
arm. Right than I hear police sirens and the man takes off. Diving is a beautiful sport, so graceful, and
almost magical. The man in black dive off the bridge with such grace that it almost took your breath
away. The bobby's run up to us looking for the man in black and Mason and I point to the water, still in
awe at his dive.
The bobby's dive after him with less gusto than the robber had. Then they grab him and retrieve
the crown out of the water. I jump up and down and hug Mason. “We did it! I cry, "We caught
the bad guy! We are formidable!” He starts laughing, “Yes we did catch the bad guy! We were
always formidable Nela!” The chief constable comes over to us and congratulates us on catching
the bad guy. He also tells us that he needs us to go back to the Tower of London and present Her
Majesty, with the Crown Jewels. Mason and I agree. We return the Queen's crown to her and of course,
she is extremely thankful and overjoyed to see it again. This will undoubtedly be the highlight of my
trip. What could compare? The rest will be boring compared to our little adventure with the man in
black.