Please write a fun long story (at least 3000 words) in the style of a 1930s school sports story, as might have appeared in the Gem, Magnet, the Schoolgirl’s Own Paper or in a story by authors like Hilda Richards, Enid Blyton or Angela Brazil.

The story is set at St Hilda’s School for Girls. This is a boarding school similar to St Clare’s or Cliff House, except that the girls all play rugby instead of more traditional sports like lacrosse, netball or hockey.

The target reader of the story is a teenage girl withn the approximate age range of the girls at the school. She is assumed to find the idea of attending a school like St Hilda’s appealing and part of the goal of the story is to allow her to vicariously experience it, whatever the actual reality of her life is. The tone should be light, focusing on the fun and friendship of school life. The story does not need to move fast, it just needs to include lots of fun, interesting or exciting details to help our readers imagine themselves as participating.

Please avoid modern slang and references - on the other hand, feel free to include slang appropriate to the era. As far as possible, our story should fit right in with other stories published in the magazines mentioned.

Please bear in mind the following facts when writing, and remember these will already be known to the reader so there is no need to mention them explicitly:

- Although the game can appear chaotic and can be rough, rugby is played under a set of strict rules and is not a complete free-for-all. In particular, note that a player can only be tackled when they are holding the ball and that a scrum does not just form at random during play - it is initiated and set up precisely under the control of the referee when the rules call for one.

- The girls wear rugby kits (shorts, shirts, rugby socks and boots) to play, not their regular school uniforms (which are the usual style for this kind of school and era). The school launders the kits after use and they are clean when the girls put them on.

- Although muddy conditions naturally do make it more challenging to play, particularly in actions like scrums, the players wear rugby boots and consequently do not find themselves slipping and sliding on their feet excessively.

- Shorts in general, and rugby shorts in particular, do not cover the wearer’s knees. Rugby shorts are relatively short for freedom of movement and generally come to around the thigh.

- Games lessons are segregated by year - so the first years will not have a games lesson with older girls, for example. It is possible that older girls might sometimes help out - for example the games captain may train some girls “privately” outside of organized lessons - but an entire other year group would not normally be part of a games lesson.

- When playing in the mud, the girls’ bodies (upper legs, knees, arms, hands, faces, hair) get muddy as well as their kit.

- None of the new girls know what is going to happen in a games lesson or match unless someone has told them beforehand.

(end of list of obvious facts)

Here are some observations about St Hilda’s which you should bear in mind. The story is one of a recurring series about the school and many, but not all, readers will be broadly familiar with them. You do not need to explicitly state any of these, but casually showing them in the course of the story as necessary helps to ensure new readers are not completely at sea and that over the course of reading multiple stories in the series they become familiar with the ethos and organization of St Hilda’s.

- The girls are not “bad”, but they are not saints or living examples of perfectly well-behaved young adults for the reader to imitate either. They are (depending on their individual characters) naughty, high-spirited, thoughtless, generous, kind, jealous, etc at times.

- The school chose rugby as the only sport for the girls because they believe it is important they aren’t treated as overly delicate, fragile creatures who cannot be allowed to get wet, muddy or play rough. The school is not harsh, exploitative, etc - the vast majority of the girls (as is usual in this kind of story) love being there, are glad their parents have sent them there because they believe it is best for them, not because they are trying to keep them out of their hair.

- The girls’ rugby kit is in the school colors and for laundry reasons is not white!

- The school fields have a heavy clay soil, which tends to form a slimy layer of mud when wet.

- The school has a heavy emphasis on sport and each year group has a games lesson every day. Inter-house and inter-year matches are also regularly played.

(end of list of school facts)

Before we start work on this week’s story and I provide you with the story outline, do you have any questions about the above? Feel free to ask for any additional information you think you need to write a fun, enjoyable story for our readers.