The Lie

By JJ Somers

Follow the journey of four young students in their final year of Primary School as they confront the consequences of a small lie told by one of them that grows even bigger.

They explore relationship issues that emerge from the lie and become immersed in a community project. On their journey they learn to confront and deal with bullying and harassment.

Read on to understand why they became heroes in their local community.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Nov 10, 2023
• ISBN: 9781035807765

JJ Somers

JJ Somers is an Australian retired school teacher and principal who originally trained as a primary school teacher but completed degrees in arts and education whilst teaching at secondary level. His career then went full circle when he became principal of two primary schools. Somers also worked extensively in the private sector in a training and project management role. Following retirement from full time work, Somers has worked in the vocational training sector as a trainer and instructional designer. He also delivers courses in financial literacy for The Smith Family to students about to leave secondary school. Somers is a passionate member of his local Rotary Club and is responsible for youth affairs. He also devotes time as a board member of his local golf club and Bendigo Community Bank. The Lie is Somers first foray into children’s literature.

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About the Author

JJ Somers is an Australian retired school teacher and principal who originally trained as a primary school teacher but completed degrees in arts and education whilst teaching at secondary level. His career then went full circle when he became principal of two primary schools. Somers also worked extensively in the private sector in a training and project management role.

Following retirement from full time work, Somers has worked in the vocational training sector as a trainer and instructional designer. He also delivers courses in financial literacy for The Smith Family to students about to leave secondary school. Somers is a passionate member of his local Rotary Club and is responsible for youth affairs. He also devotes time as a board member of his local golf club and Bendigo Community Bank.

The Lie is Somers first foray into children’s literature.

Copyright Information ©

JJ Somers 2023

The right of JJ Somers to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781035807758 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781035807765 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

I want to firstly thank Joyee who inspired me to enjoy writing very short stories that she would continue. She allowed me to re-acquaint myself with young children’s literature.

Carrie, thank you for providing the opportunity for me to work with Joyee and for encouraging me to continue writing.

Ann, with whom I had worked for many years, provided the careful eye that is required for any text that is to be circulated to a wider audience. I appreciate your scrutiny and helpful suggestions.

Additional proof reading by Tamara, Jodie and Simon helped identify some contextual, grammatical and spelling errors. Thank you.

Synopsis

Follow the journey of four young students in their final year of primary school as they confront the consequences of a small lie told by one of them that grows even bigger. Through their close relationship, they become immersed in a community environmental project and deal with bullying.

Chapter 1

Simon and Joshua had been friends at Pinehill Primary School since they started when they were five years old. They not only played together at school but also spent a lot of time together after school and at weekends. They both played in the same basketball and football teams. Joshua was a very good basketballer while Simon was better at football than basketball. Now they were in Year 6 and both of them would be going to Pinehill Secondary College next year.

Pinehill is a town of about 5000 people situated in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range north of Melbourne. From its establishment in 1856 to the early 1900s, it was a huge cattle hub with large saleyards and weekly auctions of cows and sheep. In the mid-1900s when farmers moved away from sheep and cattle to grow crops on the fertile soil in the area, the town continued to thrive because a large engineering firm and some government offices moved into the town.

Remnants of the old saleyards can be seen next to the community sports hub. In 1971, the original football ground was re-furbished. Five new netball courts and an indoor basketball and volleyball centre were built on the old saleyards site. This allowed the town’s sports teams to be located in a single venue instead of being scattered in four different locations.

Jessica Philip was new to Pinehill Primary School this year because her parents had moved to a new house in the local area. Previously, Jessica had attended a small school in the town of Tiana Springs located about 100 kilometres from Pinehill. Her dad, Stephen, owned the pharmacy in the town that provided medicine to the local people. However, Stephen and Jessica’s mother, Annabelle, decided to move to a larger town so that Jessica could attend a secondary college that would be able to offer her a greater variety of subjects to study.

Stephen purchased the Pinehill Pharmacy where he worked while Annabelle stayed at home to look after Paula and Josie who were Jessica’s younger sisters. She liked her sisters but at times was very annoyed when they wanted to be with her because she wanted to be alone to read one of her favourite books.

Jessica played netball in Tiana Springs, but she didn’t think she was a very good player. She joined the team because without her there would not be enough girls to have a complete team.

Jessica had always wanted a brother, but her mum and dad had only given her two younger sisters. Her parents told Jessica they would not have any more children because it costs a large amount of money to provide a home, clothes, food and education for children. They also told her they would like to have had a son but whether a boy or girl was born when a woman became pregnant was not something they could control.

Jessica was very nervous when she arrived at school on her first day of Year 6. There were only 150 students in the Tiana Springs Primary School, but over 500 students attended Pinehill. There were two Year 6 classes, and Jessica was placed in Year 6 Koala. All of the classes at Pinehill were named after Australian animals. Joshua and Simon were also in the same class as Jessica.

Miss Robson was their teacher and she was also new to the school. Joshua thought Miss Robson was very pretty because she had long blonde hair and was very tall. She also wore bright clothes and different coloured shoes every day. She had only started at Pinehill at the beginning of the year. When Jessica and her mum arrived at the school on the first day, Miss Robson met them at the front desk and showed both of them around the school. Jessica learnt from Miss Robson which room would be her classroom as well as the location of the toilets, art room and the playground areas where Year 6 students could be during recess and lunchtime.

Jessica said goodbye to her mum but felt very nervous as she entered the Year 6 Koala classroom with Miss Robson. She could feel the eyes of every student in the room focussed on the new girl at the school. Her cheeks turned red and she could feel tingling in the back of her neck. She looked around the room and noticed there were four large hexagonal tables and a few single ones in the room. There was a spare seat at the table where Joshua and Simon were sitting so Miss Robson suggested Jessica to sit at this table where Ariel, Joanna and Tran were also sitting.

Ariel Khin had arrived at the school two years ago when her family was accepted as refugees from Myanmar. Ariel was not her real name, but she had chosen it as her Australian name because she had seen a storybook called Ariel the Fairy when she was in the refugee camp in Bongara. She and her family were there for many months learning English and about life in Australia before they were placed in a house in Pinehill. Both her mum and dad worked at the engineering factory, but her mother had been a teacher in Myanmar.

Tran’s family were also refugees, but they came from Vietnam about 20 years ago. Tran’s grandparents had escaped from Vietnam by boat at the end of the war with their son Truang and landed in Darwin in the north of Australia. They too had been in a refugee camp and finished up moving closer to Melbourne. Truang married an Australian girl and Tran was their first child.

Simon whispered to Joshua that he thought Jessica was very pretty because she had long blonde hair. He loved her blue eyes that seemed to sparkle when she looked at him. During the first recess, Joshua and Simon were playing basketball on the outside court and Jessica was sitting with Ariel on a bench beside the court. Joshua was jumping and shooting goals from all angles. Nearly every one of his shots went through the ring while Simon had a few shots but missed the goals on some occasions. Every time Joshua scored a goal, he looked across towards Jessica to see if she was watching him. He admitted to himself that he too thought Jessica was a very interesting person.

When Simon missed a goal, Joshua would say, ‘Come on, Simon, you can do better than that.’

Simon felt embarrassed when Joshua said these words even though he knew he was not as good at basketball as him. He really wished Joshua would just play basketball with him and keep his words to himself.

Every time Joshua scored a goal, he would yell out Yippee to make sure Jessica would be distracted from her chat with Ariel. He was very disappointed when he looked across and saw that Jessica was just talking with Ariel and seemed to be not at all interested in what he was doing on the basketball court.

Next time Simon missed a goal, Joshua yelled out very loudly, ‘Oh, Simon, you are not very good at shooting goals!’

Joshua didn’t look at Simon when he said these words, but instead, he was looking at Jessica to see if she had heard what he said. Jessica had heard Joshua’s words because he saw that she seemed very sad and was looking at Simon who appeared to be upset by what Joshua had said.

The bell rang, so all of the students headed back to their classroom. Simon was feeling very upset and disappointed that his best friend had tried to embarrass him in front of the new girl at school. He regretted telling Joshua that he thought Jessica was pretty and had sparkling blue eyes.

Chapter 2

As the students walked back to their classroom, Joshua was ahead of both Simon and Jessica, so Simon was very surprised when Jessica walked up behind him, tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘Don’t worry about what Joshua said to you. He