Poor, Unlucky Brian
Photo by Matese Fields on Unsplash
Background
For Christmas, my sweet husband gifted me with a book of writing prompts, which I’ve begun editing, expanding, and sharing here. If you try this prompt along with me, link it in the comments so I can give it a read! (This was probably my favorite to write.)
The premise of these prompts is simple. There are a story concept and a list of words that must be included in the story. Heads up, I definitely embellish the ones I put online simply because the page in the book isn’t big enough for me to tell an adequate story.
Prompt
Write the Story: Business as UNusual
Include the following in your story: housewife, moonwalk, dog, basement, conclude, alien, ignore, lightning, embrace, time
The Story
Miss Rixman tapped her foot as she waited to hear what story Brian would come up with this time. As if teaching the quadratic equation to a room full of rambunctious 8th graders wasn’t hard enough, there had to be students like this one. Brian was often late on his homework assignments, and he always seemed to have an excuse for it—though sometimes his excuses seemed far-fetched.
Miss Rixman let out a sigh and thought, “Why didn’t I just stay a housewife? As if my own kids aren’t enough, I’ve got Brian to deal with. Wonder what he’ll have to say this time…”
Meanwhile, Brian bit his lip as he considered where to begin his story. He thought back to Friday evening and remembered peering around his bedroom door to see if his mother had returned from the grocery store. When the coast looked clear, he turned back into his room to see a lumpy, slimy creature squatting by his desk with shreds of drool-soaked paper dangling from its mouth. Miss Rixman would never believe this one. An alien ate his math assignment.
Why do these things always seem to happen to me? Brian thought to himself. Last month it was an unexpected visit from a foreign diplomat who stole all his homework. The month before was the mysterious group of college students who would moonwalk outside his bedroom window every night at 11:30 PM. Though they sounded like crazy occurrences, they were business as usual for Brian. But this—aliens? No, Miss Rixman would never believe this one.
“Okay, so it all happened like this,” Brian began. “I came home from school on Friday to an empty house. Dad was at work, and mom took my sister Chrissy to the grocery store. It was just me and my good ol’ dog Jasper. Well, that’s what I thought, anyway.”
Brian kicked at the floor, hesitant to continue his tale.
“Anyway, I got upstairs, and as soon as I opened my bedroom door, I saw this crazy looking creature by my closet. It was big and green and oozing something slimy all over. So I ran like lightning back downstairs, and I might have thrown my backpack in the room when I did.
With no sign of mom or dad, I figured that it was up to me to get this alien thing somewhere safe. The basement seemed as good a place as any, so I—”
“Hold on,” Miss Rixman interrupted. “You want me to believe that you couldn’t finish the homework because of an alien?”
“Oh no! Not that at all,” Brian replied. “I finished the homework on the bus. It’s just that…well, when I threw my backpack into the room, all my papers went flying everywhere.”
“And your homework flew out the window?”
“No, you see…”
“The alien stole it just like that diplomat?”
“It ate it, Miss Rixman! The alien ate my homework!”
“Uh-huh, I see. Listen, Brian, if you keep making up excuses like this all the time, you’ll be lucky to graduate from high school. You’ve got to start taking ownership of your life.”
Brian groaned. “You’ll see, Miss Rixman. Just turn on the 4 o’clock news tonight, channel 25. They interviewed me and everything. Then you won’t be able to keep ignoring my excuses.”
Miss Rixman leaned back and raised her eyebrows at Brian as he turned and marched out of the classroom. Maybe she would watch the 4 o’clock news, but for now, she had to get back to grading. Miss Rixman returned to her grading, but she shuddered when she suddenly saw a glob of green slime on the desk.