The Story of Pompeii

The World Changes So Fast

Ch1

‘It’s a nice day today isn’t it?’ I said. Oh, hello, I didn’t notice you there. I better introduce myself. My name is David. I live in Pompeii.

At the moment I’m playing with my friends, Scott, Holly, and William.

  ‘Yes it is,’ William agreed.

  ‘Let’s play catch,’ Holly suggested. ‘I’ve got a ball.’

  ‘OK.’

  ‘Scott, catch!’

She passed Scott the ball.

  ‘Wait.’ Scott said, catching the ball. ‘Why don’t we play Hot Volcano?’

  ‘Good idea.’ I exclaimed. ‘Pass me the ball, Scott.’

  ‘How do you play?’ William asked.

  ‘I’ll tell him.’ Holly said. ‘Pass me the ball and I’ll explain.’

You see, William comes from Poland and has never heard of Hot Potato or Fire Ball or whatever you call it. So we have to explain. If you haven’t heard of it either, Holly will now tell you how to play.

  ‘Right, to play Hot Volcano you have to stand in a circle like we’re doing. Then you have to throw a ball to each other, but you have to do it quickly.’

  ‘And you have to throw it anticlockwise or clockwise,’ I put in quickly.

  ‘Yes,’ Holly glared at me. ‘You do. If you drop it, you’ve got to run round the other players before they bounce the ball in the place where you were standing.’

  ‘I’ll take over from there,’ Scott interrupted.

Holly glared at him, but said nothing. 

  ‘If they do bounce the ball in your place before you get there, you get a H, and you go all the way through the words, “hot volcano’’. More than one person can be running at the same time. You got that?’

  ‘Yes,’ William answered.

  ‘Ok,’ I said. ‘Let’s start.’

  ‘Here, catch Scott!’ Holly said. She passed it to him. He gave it to me, but it slipped out of my hands. After I picked it up, I gave it to William.

  ‘David, you dropped it!’ William cried.

  ‘I know,’ I said, laughing.

  ‘Go on, then,’ Scott said. ‘Run!’