The Story: Forest's Tornado Brain

Forest was a girl who loved to talk. She didn’t mind if it was to her toys, her friends at recess, or even her cat Fritz. Forest would tell stories about climbing up the tallest mountains in the world, or even sailing the seven seas with a peg leg and a parrot. Forest would tell stories on just about anything, she just loved to talk.

In French class though, as soon as Forest would go to talk, she could not find any of her words! Forest had a case of the tornado brain. Even though Forest wanted nothing more than to speak French and continue to share her stories, anytime she tried, the winds were too strong for her to catch her words!

She tried, and she tried, but Forest’s tornado brain seemed to be just too strong. Forest started to get frustrated, and embarrassed. She did not like being wrong, and she most definitely hated not being able to speak.

One day, when Forest was asked to share a story in French to her class, her tornado brain was so windy and wild that Forest threw her hands up in the air and screamed: “I QUIT. I WILL NEVER TRY TO SPEAK FRENCH AGAIN!” Forest felt angry and sad, and even like a failure. When she got home from school that day, she realized that they had visitors. It was Forest’s family from France! They could only come to visit once a year because they lived far far away, so Forest was so excited to see them. This was just the thing she needed to give her a great big smile after such a hard day at school. Normally it was only her aunts who came to visit, but this time they brought someone special, Forest’s cousin Noé!

Noé was a lot like Forest. He loved to talk and talk… and talk. Forest was excited to have a new friend to talk and play with, but there was only one problem…
Noé could not speak any English! This made Forest mad. She finally had a new friend her age in the house, but he could not understand one word from any of her stories!

Forest would try to speak slowly to help Noé understand, she would try and act out what she meant to help Noé understand, and she even tried to draw pictures to help Noé understand, but nothing was working! And then it hit her! BAM! Forest needed to speak French! So she closed her eyes, and focused really hard. She said: “Bonjour, Noé!” The tornado started swirling and swirling, and she quickly started losing her words to it. Before the tornado sucked them up all up she blurted out: “jouer?”

Noé started to smile from ear to ear, and as he smiled he screamed “OUI! OUI! OUI!” The two started to play together, and as they played Forest tried her best to fight her tornado brain. She imagined herself getting the world’s strongest butterfly net and catching as many words as she could. As she caught them she shared them with Noé, but then Forest noticed a weird look on Noé’s face. His eyebrows were bunched up, and his nose was crinkled, then he pointed to the door and said: “play?”

Noé wanted to play outside, and Forest could not have been happier. Forest realized that Noé wanted to speak English, but lost his words to his tornado brain too.
So off they went outside, pointing to things and sharing their names.
“Tree” “Arbre”
“Sun” “Soleil”
“Dog” “Chien”
And slowly, their tornado brains swirled less and less, and they started to catch more and more words.

Days passed, and it was soon time for Noé and his parents to leave. Forest had the biggest frown. Forest did not want Noé to leave, they had so much fun together, and they were finally starting to be able to talk to each other. But off they went, back to their homes, leaving Forest all by herself to practice her French. Forest went back to her regular life. She went back to school, back to French class, and back to feeling like her tornado brain controlled her. But then one night at home, she remembered something. Noé would be back again next year, and they could talk to each other more then!

So right then and there, Forest made a promise to herself. She stood up and said “I, Forest, will not give up. I will try no matter what!” Forest picked up her French work her teacher gave out to the class, and she repeated: “I, Forest, will not give up. I will try no matter what!”

She repeated and repeated, and she started to notice that the winds in her brain swirled weaker and weaker.
“I, Forest, will not give up. I will try no matter what!”

Forest turned it into a chant, and said her promise again and again, until INCROYABLE! For the first time ever, Forest’s brain felt calm, and she had finished her work! Before she knew it, Noé and his family were back again for their yearly vacation. Forest was so excited to see her cousin, and show him all the French that she had learned.

Forest ran home as fast as she could after school on the day that they were to arrive. When Noé and his parents drove up, Forest was the first one to run to their car and say: “Bienvenue, famille! Vous nous avez manqué!” Which means “Welcome, family! We miss you!” To which Noé said back “Thank-you, Forest! We missed you too!”

Forest and Noé had a wonderful vacation together. Forest spoke in French, Noé in English, and together they laughed and laughed.

THE END.
FIN.