Katie's "Short" Story

I was talking to a friend one day, and I can barely remember the conversation, but it ended with me writing this. I meant to develop it, but life rushed ahead of me.

Written 2006-2007, (grade 11 year)

 

Katie’s “Short” Story

 

One day, Katie woke up and decided that she wanted cereal for breakfast. She padded barefoot down the stairs, pitter patter pitter patter and reached the kitchen. Once there, she proceeded to look for some Froot Loops. She couldn’t see any, so she grudgingly decided that she would accept her sister’s Cocoa Puffs. She opened the lower cupboard where she knew they were and reached in to pull them out… except they weren’t there. Cursing and growling murderous thoughts in her head, she tore apart every cupboard, drawer and pantry she could reach, but Katie was only about 5’4, so there weren’t that many. Finally giving up on cereal, Katie decided to skip breakfast and go to school, where she knew her friends and other people awaited her arrival.

 

Now I don’t have to tell you that Katie is a really cute girl. Not the normal sigh and “awwww” cute, the stop-you-in-your-tracks-and-cause-enormous-wrecks-memoirs-of-a-geisha cute. The sad part is, she doesn’t even try, and so un-showered, with her teeth un-brushed and no other hygienic actions taken, she still turned heads when she got on the bus, when she got through the school doors, and when she finally sat down in class. (Admittedly, some of them were wondering what “that smell” was, others “what that “brown fuzzy thundercloud” was, and others still wondering “what the hell is wrong with Katie today”.) However, she got through this and both her other morning classes without incident. Then at lunch hour, Helen presided over the entire group, (as usual). First she took attendance, wondered why Tasha went to sit alone in a corner again, commented on everything that happened to her that day and everyone she knew who had even the most remote connection to any issue, and then she asked Katie what was up. Katie said “Well, you know those good days where everything goes your way and it’s like there’s some G-D watching over you? Today was like the opposite of one of those.”

 

She started to go on but Jonathan, a sometime sarcastic rival of hers interrupted and said, “That was my day today, we switched remember?”

 

Helen glared her sneering-kind of glare at him and Katie said “SHUT UP, I’m complaining here.” (He was undeterred by these actions, and smiled at Katie but NOT Helen.) “Anyways I got up this morning and I wanted cereal for breakfast but I checked and there wasn’t any and then I thought I would settle for my sister’s cereal but it wasn’t where it was supposed to be either and so I got so depressed about it that I came to school without showering or anything and so here we are.”

 

“That’s quite lame,” said Jonathan as he stretched out onto the floor.

 

“Shut up,” Helen replied, and then she turned to Katie. “You shouldn’t really go without breakfast you know. One of these days it’ll catch up to you and you won’t be able to do school.”

 

“Meh,” Katie replied, “school and I have hated each other since before I saw these walls, and I’ll probably hate it for the rest of your life, or mine, whichever is longer.”

 

Another guy, Tyler, perked up at those words. “Maybe you’d like to kill the school Katie? I’m sure that’s a good idea, why don’t you try it?” In case it slipped by, Tyler and Jonathan have known each other for a while, and when the sarcastic mood struck them, they could literally be considered twins. (They could be Identical, not fraternal twins.)

 

Katie narrowed her eyes and growled at him for a second, and then got up and went to the vending machine to get her daily chip doses. The rest of the lunch hour proceeded normally. Bullaro made jokes and was loud, Peter and Danielle said little, Tiffany sat there and tried to look like she belonged in the group, Tyler, Helen and Katie made do with each others company and Jonathan randomly joined into people’s conversations when he felt like it, and all of them ate lunch.

 

Then they all had to get up eventually to go to their lockers. Jonathan and Tyler had spares, but they nevertheless accompanied the group to Katie’s locker, where she went to get her bag and other power mechanics stuff. Katie was the only girl in power mechanics, and it was easy to see she belonged there. Anyways, Katie was escorted to the industrial arts room, where she promptly gave Helen a hug and refused to give Jonathan one. During about the middle of the class, somebody called for a set of pliers. Mr. Ray, the teacher, appointed Katie to go find them, “On the top shelf” he said, gesturing vaguely. Katie went, dutifully tried to reach the top shelf, and failing that, got three chairs to stack together and stood on them, where she finally got the wrench and handed it to the boy whose name she didn’t know. She loftily ignored the titters of amusement from some of her classmates, and she got through the rest of the class without incident.

 

After class, Katie had her end-of-the-day spare, which Jonathan faithfully made sure to tell her he was jealous of every day he could. She put it out of her mind, as usual, and went home. Once there she asked her mother why she was home, and where the f**k was the G-D damned cereal.

 

And her mother answered, “The cereals are in the top cupboard, really it’s a short story…”

 

THE END

Reviews

[Katie]

I thought this was when you were in grade 12. Shows how much I pay attention to time. Although I suppose me not giving you a hug would give that away. This still makes me laugh everytime I read it. It's great. ^-^