500 Words 2024: read a finalist's story from the 8-11 category

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This story was chosen as a top 50 finalist for 500 Words 2024/25.

Remember, spelling, punctuation and grammar are not taken into account for a 500 Words story, therefore all the top 50 stories have been published how they were submitted.

The Great Chocolate Factory Robbery by Lily D.

Hello there. My name is Rob. Robert Wesley Smith Junior, if you wanted to check my birth certificate. I'm ten years and two hundred and eight days old, as of tomorrow. Tonight is going to be the biggest night of my life.

You see, my friends and I are going to rob Hobkin's. The biggest (which obviously means the best) chocolate factory in the whole of England.

That's them. Dafty. That's his real name, by the way. James Dafty. He's the point man.

The other one, the large boy breathing through his mouth, is Giles 'Big Chin' Chinington. He's the muscle.

Our plan? Simple, really. We're going to walk through the front door.

You see, Hobkin's Factory run tours where you get to wander around, see people in those funny net hats pouring stuff into moulds, try the chocolate samples, hear about the history of the factory.

We've all done the tour before.

Lots of times.

There's not much else to do where we live. We know it by heart. Near the end, just before you get to the gift shop, you pass the storage room. It's full of all the best stuff. The limited-edition advent calendars. The flavours that you can only find in the shops a few weeks every year. The stuff money can't buy.

And tonight it's all going to be ours.

Dafty's Granddad works as a security guard. He's slow and doddery and keeps telling us the same old stories. He also takes his break at the same time every day. Dafty is going to keep him distracted with a packet of chocolate chip digestives while Big Chin pinches his keys. He'll then pass them on to me.

We'll keep walking til we're round the corner from the storage room. Then Big Chin is going to pretend to be sick. He's bought some of that plastic vomit from the joke shop. Dafty even added some extra mushed up carrots for effect.

While the tour guide is busy with him it will be my job to sneak around the corner. I'll slip in with the keys. I'll be wearing my school backpack and in that I'll have both Dafty and Big Chin's empty bags. I'll fill them all up with as much as they can hold then chuck them out the window, where Dafty will be waiting, his Granddad happy in the breakroom.

After that, Big Chin and I will walk out like nothing's happened. We'll walk round the back of the factory, meet Dafty, collect our bags then hop on the number 9 bus all the way home.

It's foolproof.

Tomorrow we'll take the bags to school, minus whatever Dafty and Big Chin want to keep for themselves, of course.

The only problem? I can't eat any of the stuff. Why, you ask? Because I'm lactose intolerant.

So then, why am I doing this?

Simple, really.

I'm going to be the absolute legend of the playground.

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