Loren Stanton brought back rain.

It was a beautiful late afternoon in Kersey, England. Loren Stanton and her family were indulging in a picnic in the middle of a field they owned. The field was full of cattle. The grass was fresh and the flowers were gorgeous, they leaked a sweet pungent smell that filled everyone's nostrils. Evergreen grass blades were bowing to the wind that blew East. Every Sunday, the Stantons would have a picnic as it was the only quiet day but also because Mr Stanton, Loren’s father, was home the whole day so it was a full family. Mrs Stanton, Loren’s mother, made a delicious apple pie that the family would eat last. 

Many Sundays had past and during that time, Loren’s brother, Felix, had moved away to study. It wasn’t the only thing that had changed however, Kersey hadn’t rained in days, it normally always rains in England, more so than anywhere else, or so it feels. Loren woke up one morning and went downstairs to make breakfast. She had a simple bowl of cereal and assumed mother was going to ask her to wash the dishes, as she did most mornings. As Loren approached the sink and took the rubber gloves out of the cupboard underneath the sink, her mother stopped her. “Darling, I’m rather concerned about the crops we are growing and the field with the cows, I’m going out so can you check everything is alright.” Whilst Loren had better things to do, such as going back to bed, she sighed and made her way into the garden. Taking a quick glance at all the crops, it appeared that there wasn’t much growing. The most Loren saw in the vegetable patch was a few small beans and mint. 

Unsatisfied with the condition the vegetable patch was in, she proceeded to the field. Not much luck there either. The grass was a tawny brown and the few green grass blades were drowned in the vile colour of the field. The cows refused to eat the grass and began to seek shade under the trees, they too, weren’t in the best condition for spring. The leaves were caramel and walnut colours. Loren felt a sudden spell of shame as she watched the cows struggle to cool off due to the blazing sun. she had to do something. With acrasia, she opened the barn her parents said strictly not too open and called the cows over to the gate. Making a horrendously loud stomping noise, all thirty came to the gate. She opened it and they all stomped into the barn. The barn was deserted and all that was inside was one wooden shelf with what seemed to be empty jars balancing precariously on the edge of it, a hole in the roof that let the sunshine beam in on one spot of the dusty concrete floor was avoided by all the cows as they crowded around it. Loren shrugged and walked back to the house, feeling happier now she’d found shade for the cows. As she placed her hand on the broken door handle and wiped her forehead that was dripping in sweat, she felt something sharp hit the back of her neck. Whatever the sharp thing was, unfazed her until it made a noise. “Hey, HEY, listen to me!” The thing squeaked, now tangled up in Loren’s damp brown hair. Loren moved her hand and pulled the strange thing out to meet eye to eye with it. It was a baby carrot!. “Will you listen to me?” The carrot muttered. “It's talking, no, this can’t be right, the sun is getting to me” Loren said to herself, trying to place the carrot down on the gate. It gripped onto her finger, trying not to fall off but it was more challenging with water running down Loren’s finger. After a few more attempts to break away from the talking carrot, Loren gave up and continued to walk inside and into the kitchen. She placed the carrot down gently on a tea towel and took out a teacup from the glass cabinet that was the only clean thing in the house and wasn’t encased in dust. “You need to save England!” The carrot shrieked. “Funny joke carrot, I’m not doing that anytime soon” Loren replied. “Take the rainbow rollercoaster and talk to the weather counsel” the carrot explained. “Where’s the rainbow rollercoaster?” she continued to ask. “Wherever you imagine it to be. When you want to return back here say ‘Ginger and Spice’.” “Why?” “My name is Ginger and my friend's name is Spice” said Ginger. “It's an easy password to remember.” Feeling puzzled about the whole situation, Loren dashed upstairs, took out her old backpack and began filling it with essentials in case she didn’t return back from the clouds. She packed a water bottle, clothes and soft toys (despite being fourteen years old). She ran back downstairs and stumbled over to the cupboard and took out a tin of biscuits and poured them all into the backpack as well. “Woah, what’s all that for?” Ginger cried, glimpsing over to see Loren prancing around the kitchen, throwing whatever she could find into her backpack. 

“If I’m gone long, I'll become hungry” Loren explained to Ginger. “The weather counsel don’t like long conversations, especially Helly, head of the rain department.” Ginger continued to say. “There are departments now?” Loren said, feeling her head about to explode. “You’ll need a map” Ginger instructed. “What map?” Asked Loren. “The weather map. Stand outside, hold your hand out towards the sun and say ‘map weather’. It's deliberately backwards so the council isn’t bombarded with complaints all the time.” 

Shrugging, and picking up the carrot, Loren made her way back outside into the painfully hot heat. 

She placed Ginger back in the garden and positioned herself in the middle of the cow's field. With a tingling feeling in her stomach, she hesitantly held out her palm towards the sun and muttered “map weather”. Nothing happened the first time, and with her hope deflating, she shouted it. “MAP WEATHER!”. A gust of wind almost blew her over and placed on the end of her hand, a rolled-up piece of parchment. Being extremely careful, she opened it up. The map showed four areas. In the top left corner, a drawing of a sun labelled 'sun department'. On the other top side of the map showed a drawing of a cloud with rain falling and labelled ‘rain department'. On the bottom of the right side of the map was a drawing of another cloud with snow falling from it and labelled ‘snow department’ and on the bottom of the left side of the map was a drawing of a white swirl that was labelled ‘wind department’. In the centre of the map was a drawing of a rainbow rollercoaster and underneath it, a blue button with the words ‘PRESS’ written in gold on it. Feeling slightly uneasy, Loren pressed the button. For a short moment, everything was silent, the wind was non-existent and not a leaf was moving. Suddenly, there was the loud sound of weals moving on a track. “INCOMING” shouted a voice of what appeared to be a boy slightly older than Loren. A bright rainbow rollercoaster came charging down and landed right in front of Loren. “Sorry, my father is sick so told me to drive this thing instead, as you can see, I haven’t driven it all that many times” the boy explained. He had jet black dust sprinkled all over his face and clothes. His clothes were shredded, his white top had a picture of a rainbow on it. He also wore tartan green trousers that had stitches and patches everywhere. “I’m Quent Valentine, and I’ll be driving you to the weather headquarters.” 

Quent, like a gentleman, opened a door and allowed Loren to take a seat on the rollercoaster. She buckled herself in and gripped the sides of her seat. Without warning, the rainbow rollercoaster went soaring into the sky. As the rollercoaster continued up to the weather headquarters, purple tracks magically formed in front of it, and a rainbow dust trail was left behind. At first, the force of taking off caused Loren to close her eyes in fear but as she became more comfortable, she opened one eye at a time. It was like being on a plane, all she could see were fluffy clouds, only the difference from being on a plane was she could touch the clouds. She lent down slightly and allowed her hand to flow In the wind. Cloud dolphins were swimming alongside the rollercoaster and were performing tricks by spinning in the air and then splashing in the clouds. 

Loren was fascinated but unfortunately, the small show was over, she was in the weather headquarters. Suddenly everything was serious, even Quent’s suspicious smile had vanished. He waved goodbye to Loren and then she was greeted by a small old lady who looked like a judge. “Who are you here to see?” The old lady croaked. “The rain department-“ just before Loren could explain her presence, she was interrupted by two people arguing. “The snow department is far better than the wind!” Shouted a Japanese girl to another girl with curly blond hair. “Is not!” The blond girl shouted back. “Girls, quit it” the old lady shouted. “Allow me to introduce Chen Valentine and Gemini Storm.” Chen was the Japanese girl and was first to walk over and pleasantly greet Loren. “I’m head of the snow department” said Chen joyfully. “I’m head of the wind department” Gemini said full up in herself and shoving Chen out the way. “Pleased to meet you, but I’m looking for Helly” Loren said timidly. “Oh no not her” Chen and Gemini whined. “She’s so boring and strict” the pair continued to say at the same time. “HELLY” Chen shouted down. A tall brown-haired girl with glasses showed up. “Easter, we don’t need you” Gemini sighed. “Shush airhead!” The brown-haired girl shouted at Gemini. “What's wrong, your supposed to be nice?” Said Chen. “I’m exhausted, I haven’t had a break in weeks.” “That’ll be because Helly can’t be bothered to consult with her useless workers” said the old lady still standing in front of Loren who was extremely confused about the whole situation. “workers?” Loren managed to mutter out. “The machine that sucks up the seawater is currently broken and no one will fix it” Chen explained to a still very puzzled Loren. “I’m good at fixing things!” Loren said, gaining more confidence. “It would take a genius to fix it” said Helly, joining the drama. “Then how come you haven’t fixed it yet” Gemini cleverly stated. “Yeah yeah, very funny” Helly scoffed. “What does this little girl want!” She proceeded to ask. “I want to know why England hasn’t rained in so very long!” Loren said, raising her voice with anger. “Why do you want rain? most people are happy there’s no rain?” “I live on a farm, I need rain to keep the field alive.” The look on Helly’s face told everyone else that she felt guilty. “It can’t be fixed” Helly said sorrowfully. “Let me have a look” Loren suggested. Helly didn’t stop her, instead, she held out her hand and allowed Loren to walk through a portal and into a glass room. 

A giant metal pipe overlooked a vast amount of ocean. “It won’t collect any water” Helly complained, placing her hand on Loren’s shoulder. “Do you have any idea what could be wrong with it?” Loren asked, walking over to the glass window. “No idea” Helly scoffed again. Loren scanned the beautiful water and then gazed at the pipe, she could see something orange trying to move in the pipe. “How do people fix the pipe?.” “My workers can tell you that.” Helly directed Loren over to the rain worker pod and they all greeted the pair with friendly handshakes. The workers were small people with cloud hats that showed how they feel. “Can you fix the pipe?” Loren asked desperately. All the workers let out the laughter of nervousness and rubbed the back of their small necks. “See, we work on the bottom of the pipe but the problem appears to be with the top” one of the workers stepped forward to explain. Loren had a feeling of confidence inside and raised her voice. “Do you have the right equipment?” She asked with determination. “We’ll…uh, yes” one of the other workers stuttered. “GOOD, I’ll fix it!.” All the workers gasped and some chuckled. 

“I WILL!” Loren protested. One of the workers went over and took out the equipment from a glass case that had clearly never been touched before. “Now, I’m not going to stop you, but I will say, you're taking a big risk.” Loren began to shake, as the worker fastened the climbing like equipment to her. Once it was all on, three of the other workers proceeded to open a glass door that wasn’t visible to anyone other than them. Helly detected Loren sweating and shaking. “This really isn't a wise child” Helly calmly said. “I need rain, my cows need their felid, and it won’t be long before my mother is home” Loren replied, taking yet another gulp. The workers had never worked on the top of the pipe and Loren was only young, she tied the rope to a handle on the pipe and stepped outside the door. There were multiple handles on the bottom and top of the pipe and she used those to grip on. What made it even more terrifying was the shards of rock sticking out right next to her. After a few moments of gripping on for dear life, Loren allowed herself to trust in the rope. She let go completely. Just before she could go anywhere, one of the workers placed a box of tools on top of the pipe and then slammed the door with such a force it caused Loren to swing violently. Stabling herself, she heard a small voice. “Hey, hello?” the voice said. 

It was a familiar voice. Loren looked over to see a baby carrot?. “What on earth?” Loren said voicelessly. “I’m Spice, Ginger's friend” said the carrot. “Unbelievable!, a carrot is the cause of this!” Loren shrieked into the cool air. Just as she was about to say something else, she became unstable and suddenly SNAP, the rope broken away and Loren began falling. As if time had stopped, she couldn’t think. 

A few seconds had passed and she had life back inside her, quickly thinking on the spot, she threw the remains of the rope up in an attempt to have it latch on to something. She tried countless times but failed, what made everything worse was sharks began to swarm underneath. She let out a scream and threw the rope out. As the rope flew high up, the sharks began to splash around and she could feel the freezing water droplets on her back. Just in time, came the sound of a loud, familiar voice. It was the rainbow rollercoaster and Quent. “COMING THROUGH!” He shouted. The rope latched on the side of the rollercoaster, dragging Loren back up just in time. As she was dragged up, she heard the snap of multiple jaws. 

During the process of being pulled back up, she let herself relax. Every muscle ached, mainly from terror, but also the force of being dragged up. Just as she reached the top of the pipe, Spice jumped on her shoulder and water began to get sucked up through the pipe again. The workers opened the door and Loren crashed back in, Spice flying off her shoulder. “It's fixed!” Cried Helly. Helly, Loren and the workers were all overjoyed. Helly shook Loren’s hand aggressively but with happiness. Happy tears were brewing in everyone's eyes and Loren felt a sense of gratification. Just before she was going to leave, there was one thing she wanted to know. “You workers said you only work on the bottom of the pipe, but it's in the water, why?.” “We get on well with the sea life” they all replied at the same time. Both Helly and Loren laughed it off and then proceeded to the entrance. 

At the entrance, Quent, Chen and what appeared to be their father, were all smiling and chatting with each other. Loren walked to the edge of the entrance looked back and shouted, “GINGER AND SPICE” and with a sudden thud, she was standing outside her house with her mother looking worried. “Where have you been!?” She cried, hugging Loren tightly. “And why were the cows in the barn?” Before Mrs Santon could complain anymore, a gentle rain began to sprinkle from the clouds. The sight of it put a smile on both Loren and her mothers face. “So, the cows can go back out now?” Loren asked joyfully. “Cows don’t like rain but it won’t take long for the grass to grow back, I’m sure” Mrs Stanton reassured. “But they can’t stay in the barn?.” “Yes they can, I have a hay bale they can have, for the time being, the only reason they weren’t allowed in is that father wanted to put his tractor in there, but that can wait.” The pair stood in the rain, admiring the field that was already growing fresh green grass. Mrs Stanton went indoors leaving Loren still outside. Just as she was about to go inside, she saw the rainbow rollercoaster spinning in the air with Quent, he greeted her with an enthusiastic hand wave and then disappeared into clouds, leaving Loren by herself.