SOME TIME IN SEPTEMBER

This is the first day at school after a long and very,very happy summer. All students meet one another and they feel really excited!!! It?s 8 o?clock. The bell rings, and after a warm ?Welcome? from all teachers in school, the students enter their classrooms. They sit on their chairs quietly, waiting for their teacher.

Suddenly, a girl gets into the classroom running. The students turn their heads and look at her. She?s a tall, thin girl with long, red, curly hair. Her face turns even more red than it was .She feels quite uncomfortable. The teacher, Mr. Stathis comes in and he introduces the new student to her classmates. Her name is Louloudenia (Loulou). Loulou takes a seat next to Alexandros.

The first hour is over very quickly , talking about the past summer holidays. When the bell rings for a break, Loulou is alone and she sits on a bench in the schoolyard. Her classmates are watching her from a distance. There?s something strange about this girl. It seems to them as if she is talking to that butterfly flying over her head. They are laughing at her.

Stop doing that! This is wrong! She?s feeling very lonely!? said Alexandros and went
towards her.

?Hi,Loulou! How are you?? says Alexandros.

?I?m O.K. Why are the children laughing? Are they laughing at me?? complained
Loulou.

?Well?.. you know??.O.K. Do you know what? Children think that you are talking
to this butterfly??.?

Loulou hesitated a little and then she said: ?Alexandros, your friends are right. I was
talking with the butterfly! I can communicate with all plants and animals!! But please
don?t tell anyone!?

?I can?t believe you! That?s impossible!? said Alexandros.

?That?s fine Alexandros. Now let?s go into the classroom . The teacher is waiting?.?

The two children meet again when school finishes at 2 o?clock in the afternoon.You
will never guess what happens then?

There is this dog waiting outside the school gate and when Alexandros with Loulou
go out it starts talking to Loulou. Loulou tells Alexandros that the dog?s name is
Robinhood and that the dog is asking for their help because the forest is in danger.
It also says something about a magic crystal .They have to find this magic crystal to
save the forest.

Alexandros is surprised with all that ,but he decides to help Loulou.

So the children follow Robinhood into the woods. They walk down a path for a few
hours ?.. But the path comes to a dead end. And now what? Where can they go
now?

An owl flies over their heads. It ?s Sofos, the wise owl. Can Sofos show them the way
through the woods?

…………………………………………………………………………………………

And now can you tell us how long the children stay at school?

Sofos ,the owl, says: ?This is the map you need. But can you help me solve this problem? One squirrel stores 20  acorns for the winter .If I have 65 squirrels, how many acorns will they store??

Alexandros:?We can help you with your problem. But this is only half of the map. Where is the rest of it??

Sofos: ?The map will guide you to the fairy?s house. She will give you the other half of the map.?

The children walk and walk, following the path on the map, until they finally reach the fairy?s house. It is like an oasis in the destroyed forest. The only beautiful thing they can see in the dirty, burnt woods. They knock on the door and the fairy appears.

She is very sad.?People? she says ?are not interested in the forest or the animals .Look at all that rubbish! And all those trees! Burnt or cut down by people! Animals ran away because they have no place to live or food to eat. Who can help us? Who??

Louloudenia : ?We can help you! That?s why we are here. We want everything to become as it was before.?

Alexandros: ?We can start with the rubbish. Come on! Let?s put them all in the bins!?

After many, many hours the forest is now nice and clean. They go back to the fairy. She thanks them and she gives them the rest of the map. ?This map will just help you see how great the disaster is in our forest ? she says.

?We must make this forest from scratch. Do you know what we need? The magic flower. It is the rarest and most colourful, most beautiful flower in the world! Please find it!!?

They keep  walking in the forest when  they meet a little blue monster with the magic flower on its head. The monster starts talking like a robot:

?Red ?and- yellow- and-blue
How ?many- colours -will -they -do?
Red ?and- yellow- make? ………..(1)
Blue-and-yellow-make?…………..(2)
Red-and-blue-make?……………..(3)
Count all the letters from (1),(2),(3), add three zeros
And guess what  you  get.?

The children solve the riddle , write the number on a piece of paper (have you done it too?)
And give it to the little blue monster.
-?That?s right!? it says
-?And what?s this number??
-?It?s the number of seeds you can get from the magic flower, that is the number of trees and flowers that will grow from it.?
-?Wow!!!!!So many trees and flowers??
-?Yes!So, hurry up!!You have so much work to do.?
The children leave but they start wondering how they can  plant so many seeds.It will take them days , months…. They must think of something…..
Robinhood  comes up with an idea. He says that he knows a giant butterfly  that can help them and that the only thing he has to do is to whistle and she will be right here.
The dog whistles and suddenly the butterfly is flying over their heads.
-?Shall I give you a ride? Come on! Get on.We?re leaving!?
The children get on the butterfly and take off.

-?OK!!!!That?s exciting!! We?re actually flying!!I can?t believe it!!!!? says Alexandros
-?Let?s start doing some work here. Where are the seeds?? says Louloudenia
The children throw the seeds and in a magic way the seeds grow into trees and flowers of all colours and sizes….
The view from the sky is breath-taking!!The forest becomes greener and greener and colourful!!!!!!!!!!!!

But you know what? It seems that something is missing….

Where are all the animals? the insects? the birds? Where have they all gone?
The butterfly lands and the children get off. They can hear a lovely sound. It?s a tweet of a bird. They go near it and they ask it:
-?Are you all alone here? Where are your friends??

-?My friends the animals left because they were very unhappy and they couldn?t live here anymore.?
-?What do you mean??
-?Humans didn?t love them at all. They hunted them , they destroyed their houses when they cut down the trees. And the river…
Did you see  the river flowing through the forest? Humans throw all their factory waste in that river. So, no water, no food, no home. How could  they live in this forest??
-?And where have they gone??
-?They are in a cave. They?ve been living there ever since the forest was destroyed.?

-?And how many are there in that cave??
-?There is one pair of each kind ?.All the other pairs have moved to other forests where things are much better.?
-?And how many different kinds of animals are there??
-?There are 260 different kinds of animals?.
-?So that?s……………animals in total?.
-?Yes, that?s right?.
-?But look at the forest now. It?s all green again. Animals can come out of the cave?.
-?Yes, but are you sure that humans will keep it this way? Can you promise us that they won?t do the same bad things to the forest??
-?I think you?re right. We must take action!?
(Suddenly they hear that noise)
-?Ehhhhh! Be careful! You?re stepping on me!?

Louloudenia looks down and she sees that she?s actually stepping on a little flower which looks very much like the magic flower. She draws back and asks.
-?Who are you??
-?My name is Floffy and I can hear what you are talking about. I think that I can propose something to you.? ………….
(to be continued)

-?Well, I think that the best way to make people THINK and IMPROVE  the way they treat plants and animals is to demonstrate……..?
Floffy says. ?We must let them know how we feel?
-?That?s a great idea! We should have thought of that earlier!!? says Loulou.
-?Listen to that: I am going to talk on behalf of all the plants, trees and flowers!? says Floffy.
-?And I ?m going to talk to people on behalf of all animals!? says the tweeting bird.

So, they start calling all the animals and plants. There must be a lot of them to show people that they are united .All for one and one for all!!! There was a little problem to be solved though?. How could people understand the language of animals and flowers?
Loulou gave them the solution: she would translate from their language…
They  soon all gathered somewhere outside the forest and headed for the town holding large signs with  slogans.
Lots of people gathered very quickly. There were twenty families of four members, ten families of three members and fifteen couples. How many were they in total?
They were really surprised to see all those trees, plants , flowers , animals demonstrating.

Floffy was the first one to speak:  ?You need to look after us .It would be better if you didn?t pick us or stepped on us! Do you know that it really hearts? Please don?t light a fire in the forest! There is great danger of a fire!!! We don?t want your waste in our forest! Please don?t litter our river! How can we drink water then? And why don?t you throw away your litter in the bins??? Why?????

The tweeting bird followed: ?We , animals ask you kindly not to pollute our natural environment with your litter and waste because in that way we are forced to leave . And you know that it?s hard to leave home and your friends to go somewhere else. So, please help us keep our forest clean. Help us and yourselves  live a better life and be happy!! Thank you for listening to us!?

People became very sceptical and felt embarrassed with what they heard. It was time for them to change their attitude…..
They turned their heads and saw a magical crystal!!!
And all of a sudden there were sparkles everywhere and colorful letters began popping out of it….

When they put the letters in the correct order it was clear to them what they should do from now
on……
S_ _ _      N_ _ _ _ _ !!!!!!!!!!!!

THE  END

We are sending you our best regards from Greece!!!!!!!!!!!! We were really happy to work with you on this project!!!!!!! Greetings from all of us: