We are sharing the next story in our series, Featured Short Stories, written by students in the Creative Writing Club.
Every week, the students in the club work on writing short stories, sometimes from their own ideas, and sometimes from story prompts. This week’s prompt was – write a story about a celebrity who decides to live undercover for a month.
This week’s story was written by Samar, aged 10. Enjoy!
Undercover Celebrity
One evening, David Johnson, dressed as usual in an expensive three-piece suit and a Rolex watch drove to his local pub in his royal blue Rolls-Royce. He was a muscular, six feet tall and had a stern face. He was the fifth richest person in the world.
David often visits the lively Greyhound pub in Yorkshire. On entering, this evening, he wondered if he had entered a zoo as it was noisy and more crowded than usual. He saw a fight going on between rival football fans which he managed to dodge and weave past the crowd.
Once he found a seat at the bar, he was able to relax and order a drink. Suddenly, a hooded figure came to sit next to him and said, “Are you the owner of Central Electrics?”
David looked into the two yellow eyes glowing in the darkness, and the dark brown hood which was covering the man’s forehead. The hood was torn and was covered with red blotches.
“Yes,” David replied hesitantly.
“Would you like a challenge?” the hooded figure asked while taking a sip of his drink.
“Hmm… yes please,” replied David, staring at the scar on the strange man’s hand.
“Can you live undercover for a month without anyone finding out your real identity?”
David felt suspicious and paused for a moment. Then he replied apprehensively, “I didn’t think you will give me a challenge like that.”
“Okay, I will take that as a no then,” the hooded figure continued, “I challenged your twin brother to live your life and now I am challenging you to live his. Nobody will notice.”
“Okay then, I accept the challenge.” David said excitedly.
David’s twin brother, Bob Johnson, was a sports teacher in Saint Mary’s school in London. They had not seen each other in a while. They were identical, but Bob was relaxed and easy-going person whereas David was completely opposite. At school, Bob was one of the most popular teachers and was cheerful.
“Good,” the hooded figure said, then he simply got up and disappeared into the crowd.
David spent the weekend practicing to dress up like his brother, who usually wore tracksuits to work and like to dress up casual. It was strange, but he felt up for the challenge.
On Sunday morning, the brothers switched their houses and identity. David took the train to London, and found it strange. He was used to driving his posh cars and had not taken the train for a long time. He found his way to Bob’s small flat and settled there. This would be his home for a month.
On Monday morning, David reached the school where he was to pretend to be a teacher. The gates were very tall, towering over the main building with red bricks marking up the boundary around it. The building itself had glass doors, and the entrance had thin dark green carpet leading up to the staircase. Heading into the corridor, he saw teenagers chatting and laughing as they headed off their classrooms. A few moments later, the headmaster entered and the corridors became as silent as a graveyard. The silence continued while David headed towards the teachers’ lounge. His anxiety was an anchor dragging him as he carefully entered the lounge.
Everyone greeted him as Bob, and he tried to smile and respond as Bob would.
When the bell rang, he followed a group of students, who were wearing sportwear, assuming they will be going to the sports hall. Unexpectedly, the children vanished, and he found himself in a narrow mysterious passageway.
“What is this gloomy place?” he muttered to himself while fumbling in his pocket for his phone.
As soon as he found his phone, he switched on its torch to lighten the curtain of darkness. In front of him, he saw a thin door made of steel, above that was an antique round clock with roman numerals on it. He cautiously crept down the passageway to open the door that squeaked like a mouse when he opened it slowly.
He had a good look around the room. It was no bigger than a double bedroom and had a wooden desk. On the wall, right in front of the desk was approximately fifty tablet size screens surveying multiple parts of the school. Suddenly, he heard footsteps from outside of the room. He crawled under the desk and saw a man coming into the room. He noticed the trousers were the same as the headmaster was wearing. “What on earth is he doing here?” David wondered to himself while the headmaster surveyed the screens.
Soon after the headmaster left, David cautiously followed him. When David exited the passageway, he lost sight of the headmaster, but he found himself in front of the door to the sports hall. The students were already warming up, so he quickly joined them, and started teaching the class.
At the end of the first week, David was happy that he had pulled off his hidden identity. But he kept wondering if the headmaster was linked to his challenge.
Meanwhile, Bob was rolling in the dough in David’s palatial mansion. He enjoyed playing golf in the garden, watching movies in own cinema and playing video games in the massive gaming room. He relished various cuisines cooked by his own chef. Like a playful puppy, he explored all the expensive cars his brother owned and drove them around the countryside.
He didn’t worry about airport security, flying in his brother’s private jet. He visited world wonders like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Eiffel Tower, Sphinx, Great Wall of China, Taj Mahal, Burj Khalifa, and Statue of Liberty. He enjoyed five-star restaurants, luxurious hotels, and private meetings with his favourite cricket and football players.
Back in the school, another two weeks had passed. David was about to give up, when he thought he would go and see if there were any more clues in the surveillance room. He spotted a USB stick on the desk and took it home with him. Keeping his fingers crossed in the hope that he finds some evidence, he plugged it into his laptop and was shocked to see that it had all the video footage tracking his time in the school.
“How did headmaster know I wasn’t Bob?” he thought to himself while watching the videos.
That evening, David stayed awake thinking about how to confront the headmaster.
The next morning, he confidently walked into the school and waited in the headmaster’s office. There was a tidy, large walnut desk in front of a window and bear skin rug in the middle of the room. On the wall beside the desk, one of the shelves was overloaded with the trophies that the school’s sports teams had won. Few minutes later, the headmaster entered the room and looked surprised to see David sitting on the opposite side of his chair.
“Good morning, Bob. Why are you here?” he asked.
“I have come to demand an explanation,” David explained, slamming the USB on the desk.
The headmaster was lost for words but said, “Meet me at the Greyhound pub on this Sunday in Yorkshire.”
David did not ask any further questions and left the room bit puzzled.
That Sunday when David arrived at the pub, he was shocked to see Bob was sitting right next to the headmaster exactly where he met the hooded figure. Trying to work it out in his head, David started to approach them both. While shaking hands with the headmaster, David had a strange feeling of ‘Déjà vu’ as he looked at the scar on his hand.
Both of them smiled and said, “Happy April Fool’s Day!”
“Oh!” David got it and laughed. The whole thing had been a prank and a bet by Bob.
They ordered a drink and laughed about what had happened. When David went to pay for the drinks at the till, the man behind the counter said, “Sorry sir, you have no money left in your bank account.”
“BBBBBBOOOOOOBBBBBB!!!!!!”
The End.
If you have a child who loves writing stories and you want to encourage them to explore their creativity and their imagination, then we would love to have them join our writing club! Just click on the link to register, and we will be in touch. Creative Writing Club – Registration Form.
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