Flash Fiction: 399 Word Story Dare

My 399 word story dare – had to get the following words into the story:

• ·         Template
• ·         Genuine
• ·         Policy
• ·         Pitied
• ·         Autophagy

‘Whatever you do, make sure you do not lose template, it’s the only one we have, and without it we’ll never be able to replicate that experiment again”

“No problem, you can trust me, will bring it back once I have finished with it”

“Make sure you do now”

“I will, don’t worry Mr Fusspot”!!

Readers, in case you think I am bring rude to my teacher here, he really is called Mr Fusspot. A great name for a science teacher, always fussing over the next big thing in the science world, wishing he had been behind the brains behind each invention, experiment etc.

Despite his idiosyncrasies Mr Fusspot was a genuine great teacher, he knew his science and his enthusiasm for the subject rubbed off on all his students, including me.

He made it a policy at the start of each year to engage his students in the crazy world of science. If someone actually did not like science or thought it was no a worthwhile subject he gave a forty minute lesson over to them, so they could state why it wasn’t important, interesting or relevant. These lessons were actually quite fun and usually ended up with a goo debate which Mr Fusspot always seemed to win.  I pitied the poor person up against him, as he was such a good debater, he could argue and black crow white!!

I loved finding out how the human body worked, not the outside of it, but the inside. It was amazing to learn about all he biology – how the organisms, cells, tissues, organs and organ symptoms all worked. I was so taken with all this that I recently entered and won a science essay competition with my piece on autophagy (a physiological process in the body that deals with the destruction of cells in the body).

Mr Fusspot was so proud that one of his students won first prize that he science part for everyone.

The fact that Mr Fusspot made science fun, made those Friday afternoons where we had double science last thing more bearable. In fact, some of us even stayed late to go to science club – not sure what made them think Friday was a good idea for clubs, but some schools are strange.  Usually only nerdy boys go to the school science club, but us girls also liked to go, because Mr Fusspot was fit!