Nach einer intensiven Beschäftigung mit dem Inhalt und der Struktur englischer 'short stories' erhielten die Schüler die Aufgabe, selbst Kurzgeschichten zu schreiben. Die inhaltliche Vorgabe lautete, in Anlehnung an Alan Silitoes Geschichte 'On Saturday Afternoon' die Themen Aggression und/oder Depression einzubauen. Es durften jedoch auch andere Schwerpunkte gewählt werden.
Die erste Hürde beim Schreiben einer 'short story' ist die Einleitung, in der der Leser in wenigen Sätzen darüber informiert werden soll, wer die Charaktere sind, wo die Handlung spielt und in welchem sozialen Umfeld die Geschichte ihren Lauf nimmt. Die nächste Schwierigkeit besteht darin, nicht nur Spannung zu erzeugen, sondern diese stetig anwachsen zu lassen bis zu einem Höhepunkt, ab dem die Spannung dann wieder langsam nachläßt. Die letzte Hürde ist der Schluß, welcher die Auflösung des Problems oder auch eine fundamentale Erkenntnis beinhalten kann. Es gelang vielen Schülern, eine komplette Geschichte abzugeben. Hier sind zwei gelungene Beispiele (zwei weitere sind in der neusten Ausgabe der Schülerzeitung abgedruckt):
Stephan Bröcher
She was just 16 and she had already enough of the world. It was a difficult time, when she, directed by her subconscious, went to the Golden Gate bridge every day. She hadn't been happy any more since her older brother had died in a car-crash three months ago. She had really loved him and missed his beautiful smile so much. His death had woken her. She saw the world much clearer now.
When she looked down into the dark depth of the water, she thought about her life. Why do we live? It's only pain! I know that isn't true, but although we have much fun in our lives, we'll die anyway. Isn't that strange? Why do we live if we have to die? Who is responsible for all that? What comes after our lives? Life seemed to her so senseless, she knew that dying could only be better than living in this world without any sense.
She was completely alone at those moments, her friends couldn't reach her, because she didn't want them to reach her mind, she knew they wouldn't understand her. Her parents were so sad as well that she didn't want to burden them.
It was on a sunny day in spring when she decided to go.
She had said goodbye to her parents very quietly: when coming home, they would find some flowers in her room and the cage of her beloved bird would be open and empty. When she approached the place at the bridge where she wanted to say goodbye to the world, she saw something red shining in the sun. It was a little red flower.
She sat down on the warm concrete, viewing the red flower – suddenly she didn't know any more if she really wanted to jump down. And while she was sitting there, she heard a calm voice behind her. When she turned round, she saw a girl with brown dreadlocks, holding a yellow flower in her hand. She said: "I was sitting at this place one year ago as well. I had to smell death to notice how wonderful life is. Look at these flowers, the love they spread, the softness, the powerful colour, aren't they alone miraculous enough to stay alive? I don't want you to go! The world needs people like you! Come on, take my hand"...
She woke up at six o'clock in the morning and looked out of the window. The night had brought snow all over the plants and houses. Now she was sixteen years old. "Will this year bring me back the happiness and strength I always had?" she asked herself. A bird near the window started to sing, as if it wanted to tell her how lovely her future would be. The clock in the hall had just struck a quarter past six. There was half an hour left till her parents would come in to sing 'Happy Birthday' to her. How wonderful everything seemed to be this morning. So many little things which had happened the last time were coming back into her mind, hours together with Mum and Dad. They always did their best to make their only child happy, even if they had to work hard and couldn't spend a lot of time with her.... Was life really as horrible as she had always thought? Wasn't she a happy child, although she had to suffer a lot last year?
While Emilie was thinking about all that, Emerald and Jenny Parker were quite busy in the living room to get all the presents packed. "Darling", said Jenny suddenly, "you know that we have to tell her today that ..." "I know", interrupted Emerald, "but if I knew how, I would feel so much better ...." "But why did it have to come out? Why couldn't it just be a secret forever?" "It is hard for us to accept it, to accept that something like this could happen and nobody realised anything! We have to be very careful with her, but we haven't got any time left to think about it, we have to help our little princess!" "But Emerald, let's talk to her tonight, after she has had a wonderful day."
With these words the parents went to their daughter's bedroom, so that she could have a great breakfast in bed. Everything had been perfectly organised, Emilie was laughing all the time and was able to forget the pain of the last months for the first time. And as she was so happy, she didn't realise her parents getting more and more worried when time progressed. But then the hour of truth had come. When Emilie was sitting next to the fireplace between Mum and Dad in the evening, Emerald tried to clear his throat before starting to speak. "Emmie, my princess", he said, looking anxiously at his wife, "Emmie, there is something really tragic we have to tell you, I'm sorry that it must be on your day, but there is no way to wait any longer because ...." "Darling", said Jenny, "try to be very strong now and, you know, whatever will happen, we are your parents and will always be with you, will help you with love and everything we can do for you, please don't forget that." "But Mum, Daddy, what happened? Do I have to die soon?" "Oh no, don't think anything like that Emmie!"
And then Emerald started to tell a long story: When he and Jenny had had a blood test a few days ago to find out if they could be donors for their daughter, because Emilie was suffering from bone marrow cancer and urgently needed to have this transplantation, they had found out that they weren't her real parents. After the first horrible shock Jenny remembered what had happened straight after Emilie's birth. They had had a car crash in front of the hospital. And by an unhappy coincidence the outcome of the crash was that there were four seriously hurt parents lying in the hospital with two newly born blond little girls. And when they were finally allowed to see their babies, nobody realised that they were holding the wrong children in their arms.
There was a long silence in the room. Emilie felt as if she couldn't breathe any more, but then, with the last bit of strength she had left, she went to her room and didn't want to hear anything. The pain inside her seemed to tear her to pieces but she wasn't able to cry at all.
Day by day passed without her speaking a word. In the end Emerald and Jenny were absolutely desperate and had no more ideas how to make Emilie talk about her inner pain, how to help her.
But then it was snowing again.
Emilie woke up from a nightmare, fell out of her bed and crept along the floor. She stood up for a second, found herself back in Mum's and Dad's arms and couldn't stop crying for a long time...