Her pencil tapped furiously against the table right next to her soda. She had the most delicious lunch. Macaroni and cheese, soda, a brownie, and a big fat F in English next period if she didn’t find what to write about. Her face was disgruntled as she leaned on her hand. Thoughts passing through her mind of how foolish she felt for putting the assignment off. She could be enjoying lunch with her friends, but no.
The assignment had been given to write a short story about anything. It could have been about plans for the future. It could have been about the game last week. But with all that, there had to be a catch. And there was. It had to fit a theme they choose. She had tried to pick an easy theme, something completely easy. She was now mentally scolding herself for choosing everyday life. How boring.
Stupid paper, write yourself, she thought. She had the most unpleasant look on her face as she stared down at the lines, no pencil markings to accompany them. The rhythm of her pencil tapping got faster and faster as she forced her self to look away.
Another thought popped into her mind, look around the cafeteria for subjects. Everyday life included lunch, right? She started scanning the tables for an idea.
First group her eyes hit, the “nerds” and “geeks”. They had the best grades and we’re basically the most behaved. Then the idea hit her as hard as a brick. A story about a rebellious nerd who wishes to have a new title. So in order to do so, they start a food fight to try and start breaking the chain of their labels.
As she put her pencil to the paper, her hand froze. What if her teacher, after reading the story, decided to give them a lecture on how we shouldn’t label people. Her class wouldn’t thank her for that. She sighed and put the pencil back to work at tapping.
Her vision started shooting across the cafeteria again. Her eyes focused in on a group of kids that were laughing away. Something they all had in common, they were all wearing Hollister. To her, the “populars”. She couldn’t call them popular or else it would end up just like the Rebellious Nerd idea.
She thought of peril, disaster, and a dinosaur attacking Hollister stores around the globe. That was it! Again the tapping stopped as she began to write the title. She started erasing it right after scolding herself before reality checking. Dinosaurs aren’t part of everyday life; they aren’t even around any more!
The tapping didn’t continue, she started biting her pencil from stress. Eyes flickering at the clock on the wall every few second to reassure herself of the time. Half an hour, that’s all the time she had. She then groaned and slumped in her chair. Every idea she had, there was a problem with.
Jocks in space, the label and totally unrealistic. Pigs flying, take to long. Cat eating ladybug, not a favorite. A story about her and her friend on a magical adventure. Yeah, that’s real original.
Truth be told, she was having a terrible writer’s block. All good ideas we’re already checked out and probably weren’t due till after her story was. She only had twenty minutes left now. She thought, what’s the use? And while staring at the ceiling now, she started coming up with excuses. But even then she couldn’t think of one. Was that it? No excuse for no story? She just couldn’t think of…
That was it! Her head popped up from its position with a smile as big as Texas itself. A story about someone who couldn’t think of what to write about for his or her own English assignment. In the end they wouldn’t be able to think of anything to write about. They would torture themselves over what to write about until the idea crossed to write about someone who doesn’t know what to write about. And their story would end the same way hers did. It would just go on from there and keep going. It was perfect.
Thank goodness for writer’s block.
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