Cassiel
Administrator
By night, one way. By day, another.
Posts: 2,501
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Post by Cassiel on Feb 11, 2006 5:19:06 GMT -5
I wrote this story as part of an assignment for my creative writing class. We had a list of words we had to include, so if some things seem slightly random, that is why. Feel free to comment, this story is only one post long.
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Cassiel
Administrator
By night, one way. By day, another.
Posts: 2,501
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Post by Cassiel on Feb 11, 2006 5:19:23 GMT -5
Alex opened the door to her new Victorian style house and tiptoed inside as not to wake her new puppy. She kicked off her shoes at the front door and all but collapsed on the couch, the one piece of furniture that didn’t have boxes all over it. She had only been living in the house one week before she started her new job teaching 5th grade. Alex had bought the house, sight unseen, and when she got there she had discovered that the previous occupants, just like everyone before them, had left rooms full of belongings. In her free time Alex was cleaning out the rooms one by one before she painted them.
Just as Alex closed her eyes to take a quick rest before getting to work, she heard a whining sound, followed by frantic scratching in her kitchen. With a sigh she opened her eyes and sat up. “An ordinary ending to an ordinary day,” she muttered. Walking around a labyrinth of boxes, Alex made her way to the kitchen door where the puppy was making a noise like a small whooping gray and rust raptor. “Leo, you make the strangest noises sometimes,” she laughed.
As much work at the small puppy was, she fell in love with him every time she saw him, starting what she saw him at the shelter. Stepping over the baby gate and picking up the small puppy, Alex thought about the day she got him. It was the day Alex moved into the house that she decided she needed a companion so that she wasn’t so lonely at night. She looked up the number to the local shelter and went right over. As soon as she saw the gray and rust puppy she knew she had to have him. He was the most easy-going in the litter content with playing in his water bowl even though one of his brothers kept biting his ears, trying to antagonize the tiny puppy to fight.
Leo nipped at Alex’s nose, reminding her that she was supposed to be paying attention to him, not daydreaming. She sat down on the floor and threw his ball for him to fetch while she went over her lesson plans for the next day. At a loss for what to do for her English lesson, Alex started tossing out ideas out loud. “Alright mister Leo,” she said as she picked him up and carried him to the couch, “how am I going to get my class to learn what a gerund is? If I just tell them, they will never remember. I have to do something fun.”
As Alex thought, she drifted off. She had only been sleeping for a minute or two when she felt Leo jump off her lap. Alex groaned as she heard him scramble down the hall. She wasted no time in running up after him. “You better not get into anything or I am going to be mad,” she yelled as she ran a dark corridor lined with greenish dirty doors.
The last door in the hallway was open, just a crack. Alex could hear the happy barks of a puppy that was into a lot of things that he shouldn’t be. When she opened the door she was astonished at the mess that Leo had managed to make in such a short time. The room Leo found was one she hadn’t gotten to yet. He was happily chewing on one blue satin shoe, size 6 ½ when Alex walked inside the room. Alex remembered seeing it’s mate in another room and knew it was too small for her, so she let him have it. “Well, now that I’m in here, I might as well start cleaning in here,” she sighed.
After getting a few garbage bags Alex started working. Into one bag she put the handle of an umbrella, a sock with a large hole in it, and other items for the trash. An old paperback book called Malady of Magicks, went into another bag along with some clothes and other items she was planning to sell. The last bag she reserved for things that might interest her students, like a folded envelope with part of the return address torn away that looked like it came from the original owners of the house, and some old photographs. She was planning on using the last items as part of a writing assignment with her students.
A sharp bark pulled Alex out of her daydreaming. She looked at her watch and realized that it was past time to take Leo for a walk. “Alright master Leo, we will go now,” she said to the impatient puppy. At the word go, Leo was out the door like a shot and already had his leash in his mouth when Alex got to the front door, after making sure the door to the room was closed securely.
Alex locked the door behind her and was already deep in her own thoughts by the time she got to the end of the driveway. Turning left, instead of her usual right, Alex had barely taken two steps when Leo ran in circles around her, causing her to stumble on his leash. “Leo, if you are going to do that this whole walk, we are only going once around the block.”
“Do you always talk to your puppy?” A decidedly masculine voice asked her.
Alex looked up and saw the only single male teacher at her school smiling at her. She had never met him before, but recognized him from the description she had gotten from the other female teachers. Tall, curly brown hair, chocolate brown eyes a woman could get lost in. Yes, that was definitely him. And those eyes were currently focused on her, crinkled at the edges from the amused grin he had on his face. Alex suddenly realized she was staring and blushed. “Scott Hall, right?” When he nodded his concurrence she said, “Yes, I always talk to my puppy. You get into the habit of it when you live alone.”
“Good,” he said, “so do I.” Scott’s puppy barked his assent and he and Alex both laughed. “You seem to know me, but I’m afraid I am terrible with names.” Scott looked embarrassed by his admission.
“I’m Alex Black.” Alex answered as they started to walk together. “I teach 5th grade at Elm East, you have a few of my students for math.”
Scott nodded, “That’s right, I do remember now. You know, I’m glad I ran into you tonight. I’ve been meaning to talk to you.”
“I have some free time during my lunch tomorrow. My students aren’t giving you any trouble, are they?”
“Oh no, not at all. This isn’t school related; it’s more of a personal question. What do you say later tonight, say around 7, we go out and grab a cup of coffee at that little place down the street? I’ve been meaning to ask you but I was embarrassed that I couldn’t remember your name.”
Scott looked so much like Leo when he was in trouble that Alex had to laugh. “Don’t worry about it, of course I will have a cup of coffee with you.” When she looked up she realized that she they had stopped in front of her house. “Well, here’s my stop,” she said.
“I’ll see you at 7 then,” Scott said, walking away.
“Wait, where do you live?” Alex called to him. He pointed across the street and one house down.
As Alex walked inside her house she turned and watched Scott disappear into his. “Well Leo,” she said with a grin, “I guess today turned out to be not so ordinary after all.”
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Post by ~Star~ on Feb 11, 2006 5:42:20 GMT -5
wow that is grate! i wish my life was that simple! ;D
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