So I'm part of an online community of crafters and creative people. I recently signed up for a writing swap which requires us to all get a notebook with at least 80 pages, start a story (about 5 pages) with the sentence "once upon a time" and end it with a portion of a sentence for the next person to play off of. I was so excited to get my first one sent off, I forgot to type it up (so I really hope I get it back in the future) and hope that my partner will type it up and send it to me as I've asked of future writers in my notebook via the front page.
Below is the story started by my partner and my addition to it.
CHAPTER ONE
"Once upon a time," Ellie started, "there was a little old woman who lived in a pumpkin."
Thunder clapped and there was a flash of lightening. Marky cuddled closer to Ellie.
Ellie continued, "She had a donut tree growing in the back and a cotton candy tree."
"And when it wained, it wained Nerds candy, wight?" Marky asked.
"Ellie chuckled and said "of course."
But before Ellie could continue, Kimberly stood in the door and shouted, "That's not how the story goes!"
Marky looked up at Kimberly and said "You mean wady, get out!"
Ellie laughed and agreed with Marky. She finished telling the tyke the story, kissed him goodnight and tucked him into bed with his stuffed zebra. Before she turned off the light she told him not to worry about Kimberly, she would take care of it.
When Ellie got downstairs, Kimberly was sitting on the couch looking bitter.
"You shouldn't have agreed with him - he's never going to respect me."
"Kim, shove it. No one in this house respects you, not even the hamster! You're a mean 'wady' and how ever you convinced my father that you were a good catch is beyond me. He obviously wasn't thinking with the right head!"
Ellie grabbed her keys and sweat shirt and left.
She walked across the road to her boyfriend's house. It was raining, but the rain felt good - it brought her peach. She opened the door and walked into the garage.
"Hey."
"Hey baby," Cory said as he peaked his head out from under the hood of the car he was working on.
Ellie turned on the tv and put on a channel that was monitoring Marky's room.
Ellie was 17 and about to be a senior in high school. Marky was five and her half brother. Her parents divorced when she was younger and her mom remarried.
Tragically when Marky was four, their parents were in an accident and ddin't make it. Upon hearing the news, Ellie's dad moved her and Marky in to care for them. He treated Marky like he was his own child, Ellie admired that.
Cory kept messing with the car and Ellie just sat on the old couch staring into space.
Ellie and Cory had always been friends and were just recently trying to take it to the next level.
About an hour pased and Ellie kissed Cory goodnight and went back to her house. When she got home, she checked on Marky and went to bed. Kimberly was in her room and their dad would be home in a few hours.
As she layed in bed listening to the rain fall outside her window, she couldn't help but think of happier times. How she wished she could go back to her grandparents farm and play with her cousins.
Suddenly, she felt a wet nose on her cheek, she opened her eyes and it was her kitty, Pudding.
Pudding was a silly cat. Beautiful long-haired orange cat, who hissed everytime she was around Kimberly.
Pudding loved to have her tail twirled, and Ellie nestled closer to Pudding and curled her tail as she fell asleep.
When suddenly...
Now, I get to continue the story. Shannon wrote pretty big and I have a tendency to write more squished together, so my portion is longer. At first reading, I wanted to continue the story by blowing up her boyfriend's car, but I thought that was too much, too soon. So instead, here is my continuation.
When suddenly Ellie jolted out of bed. Her heart was pounding and her breath was speedy. She stared at the wall in front of her, mindfully coaching her breathing back to normal while trying to figure out what woke her so violently.
While this was a common reaction to some nightmares she had, she was not covered in sweat (which always accompanied the nightmares) nor could she recall the night's images.
She stood at the edge of her bed. Finding no answers internally, she decided to check on Marky.
Ellied slowly creaked down the hallway, hearing low-growling snores from her father from behind the door on the right, continuing to slowly open Marky's door on the left.
She peaked her head in to the tyke's room to discover nothing out of the ordinary, and became entranced in the doorway watching the subtle rhythm of his chest taking in small, sleepy breaths.
Ellie's eyes widened with initial fear as she felt something foriegn and sudden upon her calf, but relaxed when she decided how silly that was. She looked down to see Pudding begging for attention.
Ellie scooped up Pudding, closed Marky's door and went back to her room. Petting the furry purr-machine, she went to her window to find that it was no longer raining, but that it hadn't stopped too long ago, made obvious by the still glistening blacktop under the watch of the streetlights.
Just then, she noticed a figure make it's way out from Cory's front door. The figure was making it's way down the driveway steadily when Cory whisked out the door as well.
Ellie's face contorted with confusion as Cory stalked up to the figure whom she now noticed was unbalanced due to alcohol or injury. Cory's mouth was moving, his fists in massive clenched balls.
Pudding jumped from Ellie's non-petting, nervious-gripping hold, but no attention was paid to that as Ellie reached out to open her window. Curiosity had got the best of her. Who was this stranger, what were they fighting about, and why at this hour?
The window slid open slowly, a burst of freshly-rained air filling Ellie's nostrils. Her ears were less satisfied with the results. While she could make out Cory's voice, she couldn't decipher the words. The tone of his voice confirmed his body language - Anger.
Ellie had not seen Cory angry too many times besides in sport competition and bad mess-ups when working on his car, but Ellie was used to seeing this explosion of emotion quelched as soon as he set eyes on her. In the current situation, this would not be his saving grace.
Fear had built up inside of her, but curiosity cemented her feet where they were. The stranger had been shaking his or her sweatshirt-hooded head periodically, but even with the window inviting the stranger to be identified by voice, Ellie heard none.
Ellie heard a mew behind her but paid no mind. Cory took another step toward the figure, unraveled his knotted fist and before the stranger or Ellie could react, Cory's hand had clasped to the neck in front of it.
Ellie gasped. What would drive Cory to do this to a person? What is he going to do to this person? Maybe Ellie should yell out for him to stop? All these questions flooded her head, her mind trying hard to find answers.
"Ewwie?"
"Ellie spun around fast, horror and confusion still plastered on her face as her eyes focused on Marky rubbing his sleepy eyes. Ellie bagged her facial expression and put on her smile as Marky walked toward her with his arms out.
"Oh what is it sweetie? What are you doing up at this hour?"
"I had a bad dweam." Marky buried his head in the crook of Ellie's neck as she made her way from the open window and toward Marky's room.
"Me too, buddy." Ellie's curiosity was upset with the break of intensity going on across the street but she let out a heavy sigh, her heart thankful for the interruption.
Ellie lay Marky in bed and sat in the chair at his bedside.
"Now, you get to sleep. I'll stay right here," Ellie assured.
Marky smiled, yawned and put his head on the pillow. He watched Ellie, slowing his blinking, eyes opening at half-mast, until moments later, Mr. Sandman won the battle and Ellie watched the rhythm of his chest as it lulled her to sleep.
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