Below are the criteria Mrs. Mayer's class decided upon to come up with this story.
Setting:
When? Future
Time of year? Fall
Where? New York
Characters:
Main-Mrs. Mayer
Personality: Evil and Weird
Static character (no change)
other characters: Jojo and Jisella
Problem: Jissella turned into a frog by Mrs. Mayer the witch.
sad ending
"Order in the court!" The judge slammed his gavel down on his desk a few times to get the people in the courtroom to be quiet. He was old, and his hand shook when he put the gavel down. "Now, without all the commotion, prosecutor, what is Mrs. Mayer on trial for?"
A young man carrying a black brief case stood from his chair. He cleared his throat. "The people intend to prove by way of several witnesses that Mrs. Mayer is an unusual witch that has performed a most evil act: turning one of her students into a frog."
More gasps and chatter erupted in the courtroom.
"Order!" yelled the judge. He banged his gavel on the table again.
The judge looked at Mrs. Mayer who was sitting at a table across from him. He smiled and said, "But this is what witches do. They've been doing this for more than 300 years now, ever since World War III back in the year 2140. A week doesn't go by where my own wife doesn't turn a few kids into frogs and other disgusting creatures."
"Your Honor," pleaded the prosecutor, "if I may be permitted to explain. Mrs. Mayer is on trial for behavior unbecoming of a witch. Yes, she turned a kid into a frog. We should all applaud her efforts, but it's the reasoning behind it is what's so disturbing."
"And that is?" asked the judge beginning to lose his patience.
"I'd like to call my first witness, Jojo."
"Very well," sighed the judge, "let's get this over with."
Jojo walked up to the bench and placed his hand on the Bible.
While he was being sworn in, Mrs. Mayer looked at him and started daydreaming back to 12 days ago, the day of the incident. She remembered how her favorite student, Jisella, had run into the classroom that day out of breath and scared to death.
***
"What's wrong, Jisella?"
"Jojo and the rest of his gang are after me. I know it's normal for the boys to pull our hair and throw us on the ground, but I'm getting tired of it. How did the world ever get like this?"
"Well, Jisella, you know the answer is in our history book," replied her teacher. "We've been studying this for a while now."
"It was a rhetorical question, Mrs. Mayer."
"Of course, it was."
Mrs. Mayer had been thinking for a long time now that things needed to be different. Teasing, fighting, casting spells on people . . . these things didn't make sense to her.
"Quick, hide in the closet!" shouted Mrs. Mayer.
Jisella ran to the closet door and swung it open. Hastily ducking inside, she closed the door behind her.
Jojo and three other boys darted into the room as soon as the door closed.
"Where is she?" asked Jojo to Mrs. Mayer.
"Where is who?"
Jojo walked up to Mrs. Mayer and kicked her in the leg. "Jisella, that's who, as if you didn't know. We saw her come in here."
Jojo knew Mrs. Mayer too well. He knew how weird and different she was from the rest of the wicked teachers. Even though she was a witch, he wasn't afraid of her. She never used her magic against the kids, which was practically against the law and could cost her her job if the principal were to observe her more closely.
Mrs. Mayer reached down and rubbed her leg to help ease the pain.
Seeing that Mrs. Mayer was not going to cast an evil spell on Jojo for kicking her, the other boys walked up to her to get ready and start kicking her too.
"Boys," warned Mrs. Mayer, "do not start kicking me too. "I'll tell your mothers."
One of the boys said, "My mom was turned into a horse last week so good luck talking to her."
"Yah," said another boy, "my mom would probably ask why you didn't punish us and then call the principal to get you fired."
Jisella couldn't take it anymore. She barged out of the closet and screamed, "You guys leave Mrs. Mayer alone! Just because she's a bit different from the rest of us doesn't give you the right to be mean to her."
"Well, look who we have here," said Jojo with a snarl, ignoring everything she had just said. "Now you're going to pay for what you said about me."
Jojo reached out and grabbed her hair, yanking her toward him.
"Ahhhhh!" yelled Jisella.
Mrs. Mayer reached into her pocket and pulled out her magic wand. She blew the dust off of it and pointed it at Jisella. Poof! Jisella disappeared. Well, she didn't really disappear. She shrank down to the ground in the form of a frog, and the boys didn't see her until she jumped outside and escaped.
"There she goes!" hollered Jojo. He crinkled his eyebrows toward Mrs. Mayer and said, "You're going to pay for this." He snatched the wand from her hand and snapped it over his knee, breaking it into two pieces. Throwing it on the ground, he said, "There, now you have an excuse for not using your magic."
***
"So you see, your Honor, Mrs. Mayer only used her magic to actually protect Jisella, not to turn her into anything or punish her," explained Jojo.
Again, the audience gasped in shock at what they were hearing. Not only was it an outrage to hear of a witch who wasn't wicked, but to hear she was protecting people, that was severely against the law.
The judge slammed his gavel on the table again. "Order in the court! I think I've heard enough. I do not need to hear from any more witnesses. What say you, jury?"
Members of the jury shook their heads in agreement.
"Mrs. Mayer, do you have any last words before I pass judgment on you?" asked the judge.
"Well, I just wanted to say ..."
"Never mind," interrupted the judge. "Your goodness disgusts me. You are to be burned at the stake immediately."
"But what will become of Jisella?" asked Mrs. Mayer. "I am the only one who can change her back."
"Many students have been turned into frogs in school. That is normal."
"Yes, but that was because they deserved it," replied Mrs. Mayer.
"Nevertheless, one more frog in the world is not going to change a thing."
Mrs. Mayer couldn't stand it any longer. For several years now she had held back from using her magic, mainly because she had discovered something that no one else seemed to know: the longer a witch went without using her powers, the more powerful her magic became. She raised her hands high in the air, her arms sprouting out of her black satin robe.
"Don't worry," said Jojo, "I broke her wand." He ran up to her to kick her in the leg again.
"Not this time," said Mrs. Mayer with a smile. She pointed a sharp fingernail at Jojo, and he raised in the air. Then she carefully lowered him back into his seat, making sure not to hurt him.
"There are going to be some changes around here," said Mrs. Mayer, "beginning with the people in this courtroom and then the entire city. This might hurt a bit." She made figure eights with her arms in the air. The room filled with smoke. People started gagging and choking on it. After everyone had inhaled the smoke, she spun one arm in the air like a cowboy does with a lasso. The smoke vanished.
Mrs. Mayer waved her arm and Jasilla turned back into a fifth grade girl. "That's better."
She walked up to the judge. "Now, what was it you were saying?"
"All charges have been dropped. Mrs. Mayer is good, and we should all try to be more like her."
The courtroom filled with a chorus of cheers.
Mrs. Mayer smiled and headed for the exit. She started thinking about how she was going to change the whole city to be good. She pushed open the doors ready to take on the world. On the other side waiting patiently for her were two witches with long dark hair. They were floating in the air effortlessly.
Mrs. Mayer lifted her arm and caused more smoke to cover the two ladies.
When the smoke cleared, Mrs. Mayer said, "You two can be my assistants. It's going to be a tough task changing the whole city."
One of the witches said, "You've got that right, lady." She raised her arms and Mrs. Mayer lifted off the ground.
Mrs. Mayer kicked and struggled but couldn't break free. "But how?"
"Did you really think you were the only one who knew about the secret? I waited 12 long years before I cast my first spell. My magic makes yours look like child's play." She blew on one of her fingers, and it lit like a candle. "Now let's go find that stake the judge was talking about earlier."