500 Words 2023: read a finalist's story from the 8 - 11 category

<500 Words< Finalists< 8-11

This story was chosen as a top 50 finalist for 500 Words 2023.

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.

Nira and the Sphinx adventures by Angelie B.

It was a normal Saturday and Nira was coding in her bedroom. However, today was going to be far from normal. Nira was finishing coding a game she had been working on for ages. It simulated Ada Lovelace's life. Ada was Nira's idol and the reason she loved coding. At school, Nira was the only girl in her coding club. She felt ignored by the boys in her club, and her male teacher forever disregarded her ideas and hard work. More often than she cared to admit, this made Nira feel worthless. With this game, she was determined to show them what she was capable of.

All of a sudden her room went black. A power cut. Now she was never going to finish her game.

Even worse, sparks were flying out of her computer! Nira ran, anticipating an explosion but nothing happened. Gathering her courage, Nira looked into her room and saw a mysterious figure. Nira was petrified but she put on her brave face and entered the room. She noticed the person seemed confused. The figure spoke. "Hello, my name is Augustine Ada Lovelace, but call me Ada. Can you tell me where I am and how I got here?" Nira was momentarily too stunned to speak. Eventually she said, "You're Ada Lovelace, the creator of code! You are my idol! You are in Cambridge, it's 2023, and as for how you got here, I'm not entirely sure but it might be to do with my code and the power cut."

Nira and Ada stood gazing at each other. Nira broke the silence, "How are we going to get you back?" "That's a good point," Ada replied. " We need extensive research to find the solution."

As the girls started working, an idea struck Nira. She must take Ada to the Charles Babbage theatre. Though as she was 11, and 11 year olds can't drive, Nira used the internet instead. Ada's face turned red with anger. She was furious to see her mentor was given credit for achievements built on Ada's code. She was even more disappointed with how women were still treated today. That coding wasn't a 'girl's subject'. Ada then realised that the solution to getting her home was fixing Nira's code.

After much hard work, laughter and conversation, they successfully completed the code. The girls named it 'Sphinx' and hoped it would be the solution they needed. Suddenly the power came back on. It was time. They entered the code.

Without warning the computer started shooting sparks, a message appeared on screen:' Press F11 to reset' So that's what Ada did and waved goodbye to Nira as she disappeared.

Nira stood quietly for a few minutes. She couldn't believe what had happened. Then a thought came to her. Maybe she could use the Sphinx code to send herself back in time? Excited, she loaded the code, took a deep breath and then pressed enter on her keyboard for more adventures.

Need more inspiration?