Thomas Crum and his Drum

Thomas Crum was a boy made from blue and orange plasticine, and he lived in a school. Even though he had many good qualities, he had started to lack respect for others. When his Aunt Agatha, a big multi-coloured ball of plasticine, gave him a drum for his birthday, he was a nightmare. It didn't matter to him if everyone asked him to play the drum a little quieter, or to go and play somewhere else: Thomas went all round the classroom beating his drum, and the fact that he was annoying others didn't affect him in the least.

His classmates stopped wanting to play with him. They suffered so much from his noisy drum that even Coco Wiseman, a very intelligent figure made of lego, invented some special earplugs which allowed you to hear normal sounds, but blocked out the annoying ones. On seeing that the others were ignoring him, and not even being annoyed any more, Thomas got very angry with Coco Wiseman. After a big fight, the inventor ended up falling to the floor all the way from the height of the table. On impact, the blocks he was made of broke up and separated.

Even though it was an accident, everyone was angry with Thomas. No one wanted anything more to do with him, although that didn't bother him a great deal. Everything would have stayed like that if it hadn't have been for the fact that a few days later, a lovely cuckoo clock was put in the classroom, just next to the shelf Thomas slept on. The cuckoo clock was constantly making noise.

-"Tick tock, tick tock,"

and to top it all, every hour the cuckoo came out to do its

-"cuckoo cuckoo!"

Thomas couldn't get any rest at all. However, the others, with their special earplugs, were fine.

Then Thomas started to realise just how much he had annoyed everyone with his drum, and how stupid it had been to fight with Coco Wiseman. Coco was the only one who would be able to help him now. Determined to rectify the situation, and so everyone would eventually see he was becoming the best-behaved, most respectful boy, he spent all his time reconstructing Coco Wiseman in secret. He spent many days and nights working on him, and he finally finished the job just when he could hardly have gone on any longer, what with hardly getting any sleep because of the cuckoo clock.

When Coco was built and came back to life, everyone got a huge surprise, and they enthusiastically congratulated and thanked Thomas for all his work. Thomas, in return, asked them to forgive him for his lack of consideration. And so, although Coco Wiseman was a bit angry at him, Thomas managed to convince him to make a pair of earplugs for him too.

Finally Thomas could get some sleep, and never again was he as inconsiderate as he had been before.

Respect and consideration for others are fundamental for living in groups, because there will always be something which annoys people.