Made To Be Broken

What was the point of life if you didn't live it to the fullest? Emily stuck out her tongue at Frank, then dashed past him and leapt back onto the slide. If everything went to plan, she'd be back into her shirt in no time!

She zipped down the slide at top speed, slippery as if she'd been oiled. She got another humiliating round of applause as she zoomed into the landing zone, reminding her that she was still making a public spectacle of herself by running around the park with no clothes on. But not for very much longer! She picked herself up and ran back inside the tower, covering herself, ignoring the giggles and cheers, looking around for her shirt. It was so yellow she knew it would be hard to miss.

She saw a box full of shoes. People were coming up to it, picking shoes out and going away again. Seemed to her like a weird system, but she didn't make the rules.

She didn't see a shirt.

There was no yellow T-shirt anywhere to be seen.

She looked up.

She could see a yellow T-shirt. It was in the hand of a red-headed man, on the staircase, almost at the top of the tower.

Emily's brilliant brain processed very quickly what had happened. The box marked MATS had been empty. So somebody had picked up her shirt and realised they could use it as a mat, instead of waiting for another one to come down the slide.

If she'd gone back down the staircase like Frank had told her, she would have run into the red-headed man right away. He'd definitely have given her shirt back.

But now she had to run all the way back up. That, or stand around the bottom waiting for him to come back down. Which might be quicker. But she'd be doing all her standing around naked.