Belinda and the Weird Watch
by Reeti, Grade 6B

In the busy streets of New York, there once lived a girl called Belinda. Well, she was quite bright, she simply loved watching T.V. ,and enjoyed drawing pictures (I tell you, she’s a really good artist), but there was just one thing: she hated doing her homework and going school.

Ever since she joined fifth grade, her stern and strict teacher, Mrs. Brown, was always mad at her for sleeping during class. While doing her probability math problems she would suddenly collapse onto her desk out of boredom and fall asleep. Then she would be awakened by her teacher’s voice, who would be shouting, “Belinda! That’s the tenth time you’ve slept in class! The next time you do it, I’m going to send you down to the principal’s office! Enough is enough!”

Then Belinda would reply, “Sorry, I won’t do that again in future.”

The place Belinda loved to go to was her bedroom. Once she came back from school, she would quickly run up to her room and joyfully jump into her bed for a nice little nap until her mother woke her up by saying that she had a lot of homework to do.

One day, when Belinda was in school, something unusual happened. And by unusual, I mean a miracle. And by a miracle, I mean a big coincidence which is fabulous!

It was one of the most normal days. It was recess, which was Belinda’s favourite period. Not because you got to play and all, it was that she always slept during recess. She didn’t know why. She simply felt like it. But with the racket outside, it was quite impossible. Her best friend, Miranda, had also gone out to play. Sometimes she felt lonely, but she took care not to show it.

“Don’t you want to play? You’re all alone in the classroom.” It was Miranda. She had sneaked into the class and was shaking Belinda’s shoulder.

Irritated, Belinda said, “Well, I’m much better off when I am alone. Now if you don’t mind, can you please go out of this classroom and leave me alone?”

After a long time, Miranda agreed. Belinda glanced at her watch and then at the clock. Her watch followed the school time. The time was a quarter to three. It would be a matter of time before the bell rang for the end of recess. Belinda thought she saw something sparkle on her watch. She wasn’t so sure, though, it could always be just a bit of dust.

“Oh my, how long these fifteen minutes are taking to get over,” Belinda said to herself. She glanced at her watch again. Now it was just ten minutes to three.

Bored, Belinda looked for something to do. She didn’t want to go out and play, she hated sports.
Finally, Belinda pretended as if the time had gone forward, to the future (as if she was time travelling). I know, it’s crazy, but she actually did it. If you don’t understand, it’s okay, just read on.

This is what she did. She spun the time on her watch nine minutes faster. The time on her watch now showed 2:59. She looked at the school clock. It also showed 2:59.

 “That’s weird,” thought Belinda, “I thought the time was supposed to be 2:50.”

Belinda pretended as if she had gone into the future and the bell had already rung. She packed up her bag with her homework books and pencil box and waited.

One minute afterwards, the bell rang!

“Hey, who spun the school time nine minutes faster?” Belinda said aloud. She knew no one could hear her but still it was worth a try.

Then it hit her. She had actually time travelled nine minutes into the future using her watch! It took a little time for Belinda to understand what exactly had happened. She couldn’t believe it! Through some connection, her watch and the school time were linked!

After a few minutes, she heard footsteps coming up the staircase. It was the students coming back from recess. Miranda joined Belinda.

“I have a feeling as if the recess bell has rung a little too fast,” exclaimed Miranda, who didn’t have a watch on her wrist.

Belinda, a little too excited about her new discovery, wondered if she could go into the past. “I’ll spin my watch fifteen minutes slower, to the time when Miranda came to me. I won’t linger there to long and I’ll come back to 3:00.”

And that’s exactly what she did. Suddenly she found herself in the classroom, and saw Miranda walking towards her and say the same thing. So this watch was really magical. She would take care of it as much as she could. Then she remembered that she had promised herself not to stay there for long.

She spun the time back to three o’clock. She found Miranda in her classroom, packing her bag.

“Where were you, Belinda? I was looking for you everywhere!” cried Miranda.

Belinda didn’t want Miranda to know about her watch. She thought she wouldn’t believe it.

“I had gone to the restroom,” she said as an excuse. And they were friends again. It was only Belinda who had the watch to control the school time as she wished.

Now Belinda keeps the watch in the drawer in her room. At school, whenever Belinda got bored of her teacher shouting at her all the time, she would simply spin her watch to the end of the period and everything was taken care of.

What a world and what a life Belinda had! She was lucky!

The End