The Surprise
Note: This past April several middle school students took part in a creative writing workshop. Here is the first in a series of short stories written by the students.
“The Surprise” by Jackie Preston
Grade 6: Southwestern
Madison woke up to the sound of her alarm clock blaring the 7 a.m. news. “Oh man, I forgot to turn off my alarm. Stop it, you stinkin’ alarm,” she groaned. When she flipped over to turn it off, she got a big surprise.
“Hi Madison,” said Freckles her pet hamster.
“You… you… you talked. Hamsters aren’t supposed to talk. Were you some magician’s pet or something?” Madison asked, staring at Freckles.
He was running around in his wheel shouting, “This wheel isn’t fun cuz you don’t go anywhere, but I just can’t stop.”
“OK, I’m going over to Miranda’s. And you’re coming with me.”
As they walked to Miranda’s, Madison was thinking. Is this a dream? Or am I going crazy? I don’t know.
When they got there, Madison rang the doorbell. Miranda answered the door.
“Hey Miranda,” said Madison. “I’ve got a question. Has Flipper been acting really weird today?”
“Yea. He’s been talking to me, saying how much he hates his fishbowl and that he needs his own aquarium.”
“Freckles has been talking too.”
“Well, I’m gonna go see what else Flipper thinks he needs. Bye.”
As Madison walked home, Freckles said, “I know how we can talk. You wanna know?”
“Duh,” she said and put Freckles on her shoulder to hear better.
“Well, one time, some witch put a spell on all animals, so now every year, on May 4, we can talk. Well every other year I’ve kept my mouth shut. But this year, I decided not to.”
“So that’s it? A spell? What a relief. I thought that the world was going crazy.”
Madison and Freckles spent the remainder of the day having fun.
5 Comments
Whatup Dawg!!! The story rox Jackie! Did u write this while u were hyper???? what e it still rox!!!
— Danielle Grady ROCKS!!!!! U BETTER BELIEVE IT!!! Jul 6, 01:37 PM #
No, Danielle, I wasn’t hyper. It was a school writing project. The topic was what if animals could talk.
— Jackie Nov 25, 05:42 PM #
i wish there were istep promps like that it would rock
— Kyle Sauley (king of cheese poems) Jan 15, 05:50 PM #