In December, the BFI class of the year 11 in Théophile-Gautier had 3 2-hour sessions, of creative writing about detective stories. It was about the theme we were working on at the moment: A Cat Among The Pigeons by Agatha Cristie.
During the first session, we learned about the use of the 5 senses in detective stories and how important it is and we made an exercise named “What does the picture make you feel?”: Emma presented us 2 pictures and we had to describe the noises and feelings. Then, we wrote some paragraphs with a lot of descriptions.
For the second session, we studied the setting and how to set it. We played a game: we had to smell something and say what it was. During the second hour, Emma gave us a case that we had to solve.
For the last session, Emma brought a hiking bag in which there were many things and we were supposed to find what type of person this bag belonged to. Then, during the second hour, we had to write the first chapter of a detective story and its synopsis. Then, Emma took them to read them and gave some rewards to the best of them. The rewards were:
-Best detective; Léane OBERHAUSER:
“A few hours later, detective George Lanster arrived at the crime scene. He was a good looking man with great long hair, it was not light that you can’t help but wonder if it’s real or not. He was extremely tall and was wearing a very expensive suit. »
-Best opening sentence; Pauline BUFFIN:
“Queen Victoria had never seen anything like it in her life. In all the balls she attended- and God knows she attended a lot- she never felt so humiliated.”
-Best use of the 5 senses; Tigerlilly GOLDING
« He got out and looked around, the gravel crunching under his feet. What he loved so much about being here was the sound of the birds singing in the trees, the leaves rustling in the wind and the pure countryside fresh air, which you could not get anywhere else apart from here. »
-Best original setting; Amelia SEMPASTOUS:
“Even if it was only qualifying, Dante and Ryan were fighting, as usual. As they approached a particularly sharp turn, they were wheel-to-wheel, the last one to brake would either end up in the tyre wall or would pass first. Dante brakes first, letting Ryan pass in front, this little dance continues for more laps, both passing in front of the other before going back behind after some turns.
The sound of roaring engines filled the air as the qualifying session reached its final moments. The cars kept turning around the track, pushing every limit of speed and precision. But among the noise, Amber could only focus on one thing-the flashing numbers on the timing screen. »
-Best adaptation for Netflix; Sandie FANOMEZANA:
“Lyra Moretti, a young criminal lawyer, never expected to get involved in a murder case until one night, Serena Knight, a famous influencer, is found dead. Clara Evans, Lyra’s high school classmate and someone with a complicated history with Lyra, is the prime suspect.
Though Lyra and Clara haven’t spoken in years, Clara begs for her help when no other lawyer will take her case. Serena’s life wasn’t as perfect as it seemed, and Lyra begins to discover messages from Serena herself.
As Lyra digs deeper, she discovers that Serena’s death might not have been the work of just one person, but the result of a twisted plan involving Serena’s old friend the very same friends who once bullied Lyra in high school.”
-Prize for willing to read Chap.2:
Chapter 1
Tania sat down, crushed. Camping with her brother, Simon, is more than fun, it’s amazing. They left the city and discovered a totally different world, and this boring vacation turns out to be more amusing then she thought it would be. It doesn’t stop her from appreciating some rest at the end of a day though. She didn’t even bother to find a chair and was on the floor, feeling the fresh grass tickle her skin as she watched the evening sun vanish behind the trees.
She let her attention stray, watching the few people around. The camping park they had found was rather small, but the lush forest surrounding them was a gigantic playground that she started to love more than she cared to admit.
There’s also a friendly couple, John and Gail, with a German shepherd that stay here. As their children got their own homes, they decided to go camping together. She finds the action rather sweet, but what warms her heart even more is how Sheila and Mark decided to spend three weeks here to entertain their children, Sasha and Tom. She couldn’t even imagine how time consuming it must be to have kids, and respects how good of a job they seem to be doing. The two kids are always romping around, filled with energy. The dog seems to have taken a liking to them and can often be seen around them, like a fluffy guardian angel. Tom is the elder sibling of around 11, and honestly, he had surprised her at first by his manners and kindness. But as soon as he’s playing with his sister, it’s as if a whole new side of his personality is revealed, he let’s his guard down and plays freely like any other imagination filled child would.
And you can’t forget the sweet elderly lady who’s a fan of hiking. Don’t let her age fool you though, Danielle is as healthy as a horse and always has some activity planned for her day. The group often meet in the evening around the fire and have dinner together, chatting away in a calm and soothing atmosphere.
But not everyone here are filled with joy, there’s also Ryan who spends his days either cooped up in his camping car or gone somewhere. He sometimes comes back drunk, and doesn’t seem to want to get to know anyone but he doesn’t seem dangerous, just wasted. Sheila still keeps an eye on him, just for good measure, when the kids are playing. Having a dog watching her children does make her less worried but one never knows.
As Tania stayed there, contemplating, she realised this happiness wouldn’t last forever, and she’d soon return to her flat, but for now, she may as well make the most of it. She glanced at the at the place where the sun had disappeared behind the horizon and decided to go find Simon and eat. She could almost smell the fumes of the barbecue and the crackling of the fire as she got up from the floor, wondering what stories Danielle had in store for them tonight. That’s when she felt a little tap on her shoulder. She turned around to find Sasha, trying to get her attention.
Not sure what to do, she turned to the girl and asked hesitantly:
“Hey there, what’s up?”
“I found something” the girl replied as she showed the object in her hand.
There was nothing unusual about the bat that’s in her possession, but the detail that made Tania curious is that at the end of the bat, there seemed to be dark red stains. Could it be blood?
“Where did you find this?” she asked
“In the woods, that way” replied the girl, concerned. “How will the owner find it again? He must be so worried…”
“Don’t worry about that, I’ll figure it out”, said Tania as she gently took the bat and let the girl go back to her parents.
She then thought for a while, she knew her curiosity would get the best of her eventually, so she may as well satisfy it now. She left the bat in her tent, send a message to her brother to say she’s going out, grabbed a torch and headed for the woods.
The sun was gone by the time Tania entered the forest. The warm summer air made her feel comfortable as the faint sound of her footsteps echoed in the night. The clear sky and bright stars surrounded a beautiful full moon whose light shined happily, lighting up the trees around her. The branches cast long shadows on the floor, but she wasn’t afraid.
She knew she might be on a wild goose hunt, searching for something that isn’t waiting to be found in the first place, but the stain looked so convincingly like blood, so she kept searching, using her torch to cast away the shadows.
A long time later, the burning curiosity that had first brought her into the forest had faded. She was still having fun though, the solitude was refreshing and walking helped calm her mind.
But she knew she’d have to be responsible and go back to get some rest before morning, so she turned towards the camping and sighed. That’s when she noticed some blue fabric hidden under the leaves.
She frowned and tried picking it up, but in doing so, she pulled out an arm from beneath the foliage. She jerked her hand away and took a moment to collect her thoughts. What on earth was that? It’s probably silly but she absolutely did not expect to discover something like this.
She calmed herself down and put her gloves on before pulling the body from the leaves, because as she smelt the decomposition all doubt vanished from her mind, this wasn’t some stupid prank, this is a dead human body.
It was really heavy and had a horrid smell, but that wasn’t what made her heart clench with a mix of terror and sadness. It was discovering, amongst the mud and debuting decomposition, a familiar face, Tom’s face.