the odd trio
the odd trio
Written and illustrated by Roseville College Team 8.3 Cassandra
Gray, Kirsten Love, Michelle Tseung, Miranda Read, Monica Vicente
Demoze, Nicole Power and Olivia Okely at Roseville College
Copyright
Published by Katharine Susannah Prichard Foundation Inc. 11, Old
York Road, Greenmount, Western Australia 6056
Copyright© Cassandra Gray, Kirsten Love, Michelle Tseung,
Miranda Read, Monica Vicente Demoze, Nicole Power and Olivia
Okely
All rights reserved. This book is copyright. A part from any fair
dealing for the piurpose of private study, reasearch, criticism or
review, as permitted under Copyrigh Act, no part may be
reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries
should be made to the publisher.
List of parameters:
Primary Character 1: Curator
Primary Character 2: Rubbish Collector
Non-Human Character: Ferret
Setting: Volcano
Issue: Loneliness
Words: Hectic, Fascinating, Cantankerous, Furry, Curious.
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Thankyou to all our sponsers for supporting us:
Andrew Okely
Helen Bakewell
Scott Power
Leanne Power
Luy Tseung
Ben Tseung
Joshua Tseung
Erin Shee
Colette Read
Phillip Read
Stuart Gray
Yvonne Gray
Pedro Vicente
Rachel Demoze
Graeme Love
Roslyn Ayers
Abigail Montgomery
Dearest reader,
We hope you enjoy this book as much as we have enjoyed making it for you.
Remember to always embrace your own oddities. They often prove to work in
your advantage.
Yours Sincerely,
Chapter One
Once upon a time, it was a dark and stormy night… Wait!
Wrong Story.
Unfortunately this story is a story of incredible
loneliness. This story is about a lonely rubbish collector
with no friends or relatives to be seen. He lived in a
dingy, cramped apartment, possibly a lot like your room.
His dull, boring life consisted of collecting rubbish and
putting it in the dump. Day after day, he stuck to this
routine, never doing anything else. Robert though was not
a dull, boring person. Robert was a vibrant young man,
with admittedly a bit of a potbelly, bright red, unkempt
hair and pale skin. Robert was a sad sight to everyone he
did not know. Everyone who did know him, knew he was
a loving generous soul. There was one creature though
who was always loyal to Robert. Fetch was a small, furry
ferret that had lived with Robert since Robert’s
abandonment by his parents nineteen years ago, after he
turned two.
He was an outcast, not wanted by anyone. He went for a
job at the garbage disposal unit and knew he would get it
because no one else would want the job. The reputation
and the stereotypes of people who worked there put
people off. One day after coming back from his shift at
work, Fetch was not at home. Robert wasn’t quite worried
yet.
The next day after coming home from work, Fetch still
wasn’t there. Maybe he has lost his loyalty. Robert
thought No that can’t be right… He always comes home…
maybe something happened to him. I hope a dog hasn’t
taken him. I hate dogs. Robert really hates dogs, the only
thing he hates more than dogs was being lonely and the
way this was looking he would have to face it today.
Chapter Two
A fair walk from the shabby side of town, where Robert
lived, there was a young woman who was the owner of
the rather popular museum in the centre of town. She
was a very thin and delicate woman with a passionate
dislike for rodents. She didn’t have any close friends
because she feared social interactions.
She was always busy and worked overtime quite often.
Her life was a constant struggle for acceptance. She was
judged and disliked by society because of her name,
Serena Green. Who even had that sort of silly name?
Serena was tired of the stress and anxiety so she bought
her own house far away from the family home.
Her home was beautiful and neat, filled with well kept
antiques and China collections. Serena had bookshelves
built into her house and she barely had any space for her
basic needs like her bed and bathroom. Even in the
kitchen she has shelves filled with vases and China cups,
all of which are all extremely expensive.
Serena’s collections were always dust free and she
constantly collected any rustic objects because nothing
made her constantly happy, but when she bought the
fascinating antiques they made her feel full but never for
long. She thought this was due to not having enough
antiques.
Her everyday life included sitting in her office and filling
out paperwork or researching about artefacts, this was
her daily routine, never doing anything else, but on her
birthday she sometimes went shopping. Serena was well
off and had no financial issues; she also had her parents
as back up when she needed it. She was well educated
and was a scholar. If Serena had more self-confidence she
could have won so many awards on Historical Knowledge
and could possibly even be famous.
Her museum, Historical Collection of Ancient Artefacts
was popular and very neat. Her home could almost be
considered a museum especially because her home has
more artefacts than the actual museum. On talks and
tours of which she occasionally presented she brought in
some of her own artefacts. Her office was always clean
but much like her house it was filled with more and more
artefacts. Stacks of paperwork were always seen on her
desk. Serena didn’t often stop for breaks and sometimes
had coffee in her office alone. Except lately she hasn’t
done much paperwork as almost none has come in for her
to sign. She watched the clock, desperate for something to
do.
Chapter Three
Robert walked cautiously up the twenty stairs that led to
the huge museum doors. He had never been to this
museum before but had heard that this was a very
popular place and the locals liked coming here. He was
worried that he would not be welcome here as he was just
a garbage disposal person and his job was not well
respected. Suddenly he was worried that Fetch would not
be in here and he was wasting his time, and a dog had
taken Fetch after all.
Walking into the museum, all Robert could think about
was how well kept it was, especially compared to the
hectic apartment he stayed in. The marble floor had a
smooth shine to it, though now the smooth shine also
included tiny ferret-sized muddy footprints. He knew
then that Fetch was in the museum, but the museum was
massive, and there were many places he would need to
look to find the ferret.
He looked around at all the books and wondered where
anyone had gotten all of them and how much money it
would take to own a museum like this. There were so
many interesting things in here. Looking around, he
realized that he had never been to a museum before this
and that he looked out of place standing there, it was so
clean.
He saw a janitor cleaning in a corner nearby. As he
walked over to the janitor, all he could think about was
how dirty he was making the floor. Robert looked at the
nametag on the janitor’s shirt. It read ‘Larry’. Larry gave
him a cantankerous look before asking, “What do you
want?”
He said it very rudely, and Robert was very offended. He
ignored the rudeness and asked, “Have you see my... um
ferret”. His voice came out a lot quieter then he wanted it
to. The janitor looked at him strangely before saying
“No… You would probably have better luck asking the
Curator”. Robert nodded and left, feeling a bit awkward
for asking.
Robert followed the small signs to the Curator’s Office. It
was curious that Fetch’s mud prints also lead to the
Office. Oh well, I guess the Curator found Fetch and is
taking care of him for me.
When he got near to the door, Robert heard muffled
screaming mixed with the unmistakable squeak of Fetch.
He threw the door open and quite an odd sight greeted his
eyes. The Curator was standing on a chair with a broom
in her hands, trying to whack the tiny ferret that was
running around the chair. When they realized he was
standing there, Fetch immediately ran to him, stealthily
jumping up on his shoulder, the Curator stopped
screaming and stepped down shakily from her chair,
looking puzzled. She looked different to what Robert was
expecting her to look like.
Chapter Four
“Uh, hi,” the Curator smiled awkwardly at him.
Robert removed Fetch, who was now on his leg and put
him up on his shoulder. Fetch squeaked before curling up
on Robert’s shoulder to sleep. Robert was quickly pulled
back into reality by the Curator’s voice “Who are you?”
“That’s Fetch,” He mumbles, avoiding eye contact. Serena
gave him a strange look, as if he had said that he was not
from this planet instead of just telling her that his ferret
was named Fetch.
“I don’t care what his name is, I want to know your
name.” Serena continues to look at him strangely.
“Oh, my name is Robert,” She looks at him really closely
before saying, “Well Robert, I am going to call you Bob,
you look like a Bob,” At this, Robert starts to get really
annoyed, why was she being so rude? I don’t think that I
did anything wrong. “My name is Robert, not Bob!”.
“Fine big guy, Robert, not Bob”. Robert was pleased with
her response, as she had actually called him by his right
name, he hated the name Bob.
“Well, ok, well, umm… I need to do, you know, so, yeah,
I’ll just go you know, yeah, bye”. Robert, speeds out
awkwardly.
“Okaaaaaaaaay, he is very weird and a little awkward.”
Serena says to herself before walking out, still a bit
scared from the ferret. She hated ferrets.
***
As Robert walked towards his old garbage truck, he
thought about his day. His ferret ran away, he met a
really weird lady, he talked with that really weird lady,
he realized then that he never asked her name, which
might be considered impolite, especially after he had just
ran straight out, now that he thought of it, he was rude
and he probably shouldn’t have ran away like that
without at least apologising. Now that is a really weird
day, especially for Robert. All he ever did was collect
rubbish. It was even weirder that he had actually spoken
to someone as he was usually ignored or yelled at by
people. He couldn’t believe that he had been rude to her.
***
Today has been a really weird day, Serena reflected. It
started off like any other normal day. She started at home
with her normal routine. She then left home after getting
ready and she opened the museum. She then started to
worry because nobody was there, which was unusual as
there were usually at least twenty people waiting for her
when she got there. She did all of the taxes while waiting
for customers who never came. Then, after a few hours
the ferret came. That was probably the worse part of the
day, she hated ferrets and she was petrified of them.
That, and the weird man that came in. I mean, why would
someone have a pet rat or ferret or whatever it was. He
was also awfully dirty and stank of garbage. He definitely
needed a long bath or a hose down. As I watched TV, still
deep in thought, something curious caught my eye on the
TV. The anchor man was talking about the Icarus peak. He
was saying that in about 5 weeks the volcano would
explode. This could not happen to me.
Chapter Five
Robert and Serena had been talking on the phone lately.
He found her really fascinating to talk to already even
though he had only known her for a week. He liked her
already and had just realised that he was really lonely
before but just hadn’t realised what it was. After his shift
he decided to call her again. She picked up after a long
time and when she talked to him she sounded stressed.
“What happened? Are you alright?” he exclaimed, really
worried now.
She didn’t reply for a while. She took a shaky breath and
for a while Robert thought she was going to reply.
“Nothing,” she sighed, and hung up.
I’ll just have to go over there then. He thought moodily.
He grabbed his keys angrily off the hook that they were
on and got into his garbage truck and started the long
drive over to the museum. He was a bit upset at her for
hanging up on him like that but he knew that there was
something wrong with her that she was not saying… he
would see when he got there.
He pushed open the huge, double doors to the museum
expecting it to be the same as usual, and it was, before he
looked around. When he had a proper look around he
realised that the museum was a complete mess, books
over the floor, there was even a broken sculpture, which
Robert suspected was an original artefact from a very
long time ago, he could not believe that it was on the
floor, especially something as priceless as that artefact.
Maybe someone was looking for something in here and
couldn’t find it. He thought, but then he realised that it
was probably messy for the same reason Serena was
distressed on the phone just twenty minutes ago. He saw
the janitor again, Larry he remembered now. He thought
of going to ask him if he knew where Serena was but
thought better of it after his first encounter with him. He
knew that he would find her eventually.
He found her in a little isolated room watching TV,
looking completely stressed out. He sat down on the
couch next to her without saying anything and watched
for a few minutes, trying to figure out what was wrong.
He then realised why she was so stressed. “This volcano
has not erupted for at least sixty thousand years,” the
news presenter announced, “we don’t know that this will
be a big eruption but historians say that the sixty
thousand years ago this volcano had the biggest eruption
ever seen.” The volcano was going to erupt. He should
have realised that last time he was over. Of course she
would be stressed about this, she had never been there to
see any of the artefacts and she had never gotten any
photos of the city before it erupted.
Robert knew that they would be safe on this side of the
town but he wasn’t so sure about his home and he didn’t
have anywhere else to stay.
“Oh no,” he mumbled.
“Oh, I am so stressed. This can’t be happening!” She
started to cry.
“What? Why are you crying?” Robert asked, wondering if
it was something that he had done.
“Nothing,” she sniffed, “I will be fine, you can go, you
don’t have to look after me.”
Robert wasn’t sure what to say or do, so he just left her
crying silently on the couch for a while.
He promised himself that he would come back and check
on her tomorrow.
Chapter Six
Serena sat there on the sofa and looked around at all of
her beautiful antiques especially her favourite vase,
which was from the 18th century, but they weren’t enough
to cheer her up. She had to find some way of keeping the
museum open… but how? She didn’t have enough money
if the museum had to be shut down and she had no other
way of income. She sat crying and crying on the sofa,
feeling warm tears cascading down her face like a
waterfall in the amazon, slowly becoming duller. Why
does this have to happen to me! She thought to herself. It’s
not fair! She sat glaring at the TV, not really watching
anymore as rage consumed her.
She walked to the one of the many bookshelves, still
crying and places in yet another book, which she brought
to the museum for more findings. She always got her
work from the authors; she got the original copy of all the
books on the shelves. Serena looked at her beloved
bookcases thinking about getting a glass case on all of
them to help keep the dust off the precious and delicate
books, filled with the rich history of places all over the
world. She could not wait to start reading her new one; in
fact, she was so excited about it that she put it in the
place of the one that she about to start reading.
After trying to find a comfortable position for five
minutes she settled down onto the couch and flicked
through the channels on the TV and finally stoped when
she reached the social science channel, which was her
favourite. Hopefully, she thought to herself, something,
maybe a miracle could happen “And now, drumroll please,
we have spectacular findings from the Icarus Peak, it will
erupt within a week. Hopefully we will have more reports
on it later. We’ll see you next time on social science
channel.” Wow! I have to go to Icarus Peak now! This
might be the miracle to keep the museum going! This could
be my big break! I can’t tell Rob though; he’ll only try to
stop me. I’ll tell him later. She thought to herself
joyously.
“I, Serena Green, will set off to Icarus Peak and uncover
more artefacts from the volcano! I will not let my beloved
museum shut down!” She promised herself, her voice
piercing the once silent and miserable atmosphere. She
smiled happily and left her room. She chose which
artefacts to bring to the museum the next day to present
at a talk or tour. She ended up deciding to bring one of
her vases, which was in the kitchen, and a leather bound
book nearly three hundred years old, which contained an
ancient popular folk tale in China. She loved this book and
had read it many times, so many times that she had
nearly memorized it all.
Grinning happily at her achievement she started to pack a
bag for her tour to Icarus Peak. Grabbing paper, a camera,
her phone, a couple of large, warm jackets and finally the
first artefact she ever collected. It was an expensive jade
dating back to the eleventh century.
Chapter Seven
The next day Robert found Serena dozing on a rocking
chair she had in her study in the museum. He shook her
awake.
“What! Where! How, why, when?” Serena exclaimed,
suddenly bolting awake and stood up instantly, facing
towards Robert.
“You fell asleep in the museum last night.” He said. He
looked around suspiciously. “What is that?” he asked
pointing towards a mind map drawn in Serena’s
handwriting and then to her packed bag on the floor.
“Uhhhhhhhhh. That’s nothing! Yes, nothing you should
worry about” she quickly grabbed the mind map off the
table and the backpack off the floor and hid them behind
her back.
He walked over to her and looked into her eyes, “Tell me
you are not going to do what I think you’re planning.”
“What do you mean,” she batted her eyelashes at him and
asked him innocently, “I’m not going anywhere.”
“I hope so… My life would be back to being dull and
boring without you.”
“That’s sweet, but you have nothing to worry about.” She
answered briskly, “Now if you’ll excuse me I shall go and
have a shower.”
“Are you sure you’re not going any where?”
“Yes, okay?” she yelled, getting annoyed that he would
not leave her alone.
He nodded hesitantly, offended. That was quite rude, he
thought. He left quietly.
While walking home, Robert got lost in his thoughts. She
probably wouldn’t lie to me… we are friends, right?
Friends don’t lie to each other… do they? Oh well, Fetch is
probably waiting for me at the apartment… I wonder
what’s for dinner today.
He opened the door to see Fetch sleeping on the kitchen
bench. Fetch woke up when he closed the door and ran
over to him. The volcano is going to erupt in a few days, I
hope Serena listens to me and doesn’t do anything stupid.
Chapter Eight
As Serena walked up the mountain towards the volcano,
she thought about how badly she had treated Robert. She
had yelled at him and sent him away, and all he had done
was try to help her. He didn’t deserve that. But she had to
do this. She had to keep her museum. Selena tripped on
the gravel. She fell and grazed her knee. Biting her lip to
stop herself from crying out, she quickly put a Band-Aid
on the grazed knee and continued walking.
***
As Robert walked towards Serena’s house, he started to
get more worried. The curtains were closed and the lights
were off. She could be sleeping, he thought to himself. He
knocked on the door. There was no response. He knocked
louder. Still nothing. He then picked up the spare key he
knew she kept under the mat. He opened the door and
looked around to see nothing, he yelled out her name,
only to be met with silence. He quickly ran out, shutting
the door in the process and sprinted to the museum. The
doors were closed and the little sign that states that the
museum is open was flipped, showing the museum was
closed. He suddenly knew where Serena was and what he
had to do. He didn’t really want to go but he had to save
her, she was making a very bad decision.
Robert quickly jumped into his garbage truck and started
driving to the volcano. He ran through red lights, stop
signs and drove way faster than the speed limit, but he
didn’t care. As he got to the bottom of the volcano, he
realised he couldn’t drive up the mountain as it was a
protected area and to steep. He got out and started
running up the mountain even though he was very unfit
he kept running as hard as he could, he could not let
anything happen to Serena. As he got to the top, he saw
everything he didn’t want to see; Serena was leaning over
into the volcano, reaching for a rock.
***
“Just one step closer, just one step closer and I can save
the museum, save my museum…’ She reached over and
grabbed the rock with the tips of her fingers. She realised
that the rock was cracking and she would soon be falling
into the lava. Her jade fell into the volcano but she didn’t
care, as long as she didn’t fall. The rock cracked further
and she fell, then stopped. She looked back towards her
feet and saw Robert holding her by her foot, before
Serena even had the chance to assess the extremity of this
situation.
“Come on, we have to go” Robert yelled. Serena quickly
got up and they both started running down the volcano.
As they got in the car and started driving, they heard a
massive explosion behind them. Smoke and dust filled the
air quite quickly, making Serena and Robert choke on the
stench. Robert checked the rear view mirror watching the
explosion and driving as fast as he could.
“Step on it!” Serena yelled, extremely stressed.
“I am, I can’t go any faster!” Robert yelled back.
Chapter Nine
They drove away at full speed back towards the town. The
dribbles of lava were only small enough to reach the
forest. Serena grabbed out her camera and filmed the
incident while Robert kept on driving, looking back every
now and then to look at Serena’s happy face as she
filmed, and he was put at peace.
***
“You nearly died! Do you know how scared I was,”
shouted Robert
“The museum could have been shut down, and my life
would have broken apart.”
“Aren’t you still here? Would it still break apart if you
weren’t here?”
Serena went quiet silently replaying her rash actions in
her head.
“We are always here for you, Serena. You are not alone
anymore.”
“I know.” The man, the woman and the ferret then
embraced before sitting back down.
“So… how do we save the museum?”
Serena glanced around the room before answering “I
think I have an idea.”
***
*Flash Flash*
The cameras took millions of pictures while the reporters
continued to ask questions.
“So, Miss Green, what is it like to be known throughout
the country for your near-death experience video along
with photos?” The reporter asked.
“It’s lovely to be well known.”
“And what is happening with you museum?”
“Well thanks to some lovely people who donated money,
it is now up and running, and Robert and I have been
working on a section in the museum dedicated to the
volcano.”
The interview finished playing on the TV and Robert now
walked out of the office facing a new group of tourists.
EPILOGUE
Now, perhaps you are wondering what happened to our
odd little trio. They’re fine, of course, and everything
worked out in the end. Perhaps not the way you thought,
or they thought, but things straightened themselves out.
Now, when you look around Serena’s house it’s still neat,
but knick-knacks and weird ornaments line the shelves,
replacing the well-kept antiques. Looking at Roberts’s
house however, it’s an awful lot neater and far cleaner.
Also there is now a steadily increasing pile of books on
the coffee table. I leave the rest of the story to you.
Two different people with two completely
different lives and personalities. Between
them they only have one thing in common.
That “thing” is loneliness. What happens
when they meet?
Will their friendship work out?
Read along as they embark on a journey to
learn the importance of friendship and
embracing oddities.
This book is aimed at 10-13 year olds.
“This book is an exciting novel full of
artefacts and adventure” –Olivia Okely