How to Make Friends by Charlotte Barkla

Author:Charlotte Barkla [Barkla, Charlotte]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781760147273
Publisher: Penguin Random House Australia

As soon as the lunch bell rang, I sprinted out the door and bolted for the teacher on playground duty.

‘I’m ready for litter duty!’

He gave me a funny look as he held out the garbage bag and grabber stick, probably because I was smiling so widely my cheeks hurt.

‘Have fun,’ he said, but his good wishes didn’t extend to his eyes. I’ve noticed adults do that a lot – it’s like their mouths say things that their eyes don’t agree with. What’s with that?

Anyway, I didn’t have time to ponder the thought – I had a world record to set. I grabbed the equipment. ‘I will!’

The Guinness World Records didn’t specifically have a hand-picked litter collection record – but I was pretty sure they’d be open to the idea of creating a new category. All I had to do was impress them with how quickly I could collect rubbish, and the rest would be history.

I set my stopwatch, then raced around the playground, collecting as many pieces of rubbish as I could within one minute.

‘Seventeen,’ I said to myself as I finished counting the pieces of litter underneath the jacaranda tree. It wasn’t too bad, but it would have to be better if I was going to impress the Guinness World Records committee.

I did a couple of stretches to help me limber up, then set my stopwatch a second time, and ran around the playground again.

‘You can do it!’

‘Keep it up!’

‘Faster, faster, faster!’

A group of Prep kids had cottoned on to what I was doing, and started sprinting behind me, cheering.

Even though they were great motivation, I only managed to collect fifteen pieces in my second minute.

‘Bummer.’ I stamped my foot. ‘Even worse than before!’

‘You could try again?’ A little boy with curly red hair grinned up at me.

‘Yeah, you can do it!’ chimed in a girl with chubby cheeks.

I smiled. ‘Okay.’

I ran another three trials, but I still couldn’t beat seventeen pieces.

As I was doubled-over, catching my breath by the jacaranda tree, the teacher on duty strode over. ‘Everything okay?’ He looked from me to the group of Prep kids.

‘Y-yes, I’m okay,’ I panted.

‘She’s just setting a world record,’ the girl with chubby cheeks piped up.

The teacher’s brow furrowed. He opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment a tall boy sprinted past holding an empty juice bottle, his hat dripping wet.

‘Hey you, get back here!’ The teacher took off after him.

‘Sorry, guys,’ I said to the Prep kids. ‘I don’t think seventeen pieces is good enough.’

The records I’d looked up the night before were amazing. Things like doing seventy cartwheels in one minute, or drinking a bottle of mustard in fourteen seconds. Picking up seventeen pieces of litter in one minute didn’t sound too impressive in comparison.

‘You could try one more time?’

‘Try again! Try again!’

‘I believe in you!’

The kids were pretty supportive, but there wasn’t that much litter left in the playground.

‘I might try another time,’ I said. ‘I think I need to do some training first.

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