Dinner without dishes

Text C: an original fiction extract.

When Gran asked to join our cooking game, I gave her the easiest job. She was to stand beside the virtual sink and wash plates. My cousin Amira would chop vegetables, and I would carry the finished meals through the serving hatch. I explained the buttons quickly because the timer had already begun counting down.

Gran's character walked into a cupboard. She turned, picked up an empty pan and carried it solemnly around the kitchen. I laughed. On the screen, a customer became less patient. Amira shouted for a clean plate, and Gran asked which of the several small buttons I meant. I reached across to do it for her. She put the controller on her lap.

“Will I be playing,” she asked, “or holding this for you?”

We restarted. This time I let her practise before we opened the kitchen. She moved between the sink and the counter, deliberately returning the plate to where she had found it. I showed her that the controls changed their effect according to what she stood beside. Her eyebrows rose. She said real cupboards were not usually operated by the same gesture as chopping onions.

The first order went well. Then the floor divided. A section carrying our cooker slid to the other side of the screen. I had played this level before, but I had forgotten to mention that our kitchen was about to rearrange itself. Gran remained on the sink side with three clean plates and no food. Amira had a chopped tomato, which she began offering with increasing urgency to an empty space.

“Pass it here,” I said.

“Here is not a place,” said Gran.

She was right. We had all been describing locations from our own characters' positions. My left was Amira's right. Gran suggested calling the counters by their colours. We practised sending a plate to the blue counter and vegetables to the red one. The next shift of the floor still caught us, but at least we knew where we had meant to leave things.

I wanted to send every order at once. Gran asked which meal was nearly ready. We finished that one before beginning another. Our score rose more slowly at first, but fewer half-prepared dishes filled the counters. She did not suddenly become quick with the buttons. Twice, she carried a plate past the hatch and into a wall. We waited while she turned around.

By the last round, I was washing dishes. Gran had the serving hatch because she liked knowing that an order was actually finished. Amira called the colours, and I asked before moving something she was still using. We earned two stars out of three. I immediately suggested another attempt.

Gran stretched her fingers and said dinner was ready. In the real kitchen, I began telling her where the bowls should go, then stopped. I asked which job she wanted me to do. She gave me the plates. This time, when she said the blue cupboard, we both knew exactly what she meant.

You are the narrator. You have been invited to speak at a youth-club family games evening.

In your response:

• describe how you initially organised the game and what went wrong
• explain how Gran contributed to changes in the way you played together
• reflect on what the experience taught you and suggest an approach for other families

Base your response on Text C, developing its ideas in your own words. Write about 250 to 300 words. Up to 10 marks are available for reading and up to 10 marks for writing.