I Won't Let You Wilt

I've been dealt a bad hand

"Sunny, would you like some sunflower tea?"

"Thanks. Just give it to me plain, no milk or sugar."

Sunny had started writing a draft of the story he planned to submit to the state writing contest.

The whole story he'd planned could easily fit the length of a novel, but the writing competition limited him to five thousand words. He realized he wouldn't be able to tell an interesting story if he had to condense all those events in the story down to five thousand words, and decided he'd instead write about one pivotal event in the story.

But which event should I write about?

Basil placed a steaming cup of hot sunflower tea onto his table. Sunny tapped a pencil against his head, pondering what event from that long dream inside his head would make the most interesting five thousand word story.

"Thank you," Sunny said.

Sunflower tea had a cool and refreshing taste, a good drink to have to clear his mind.

"No problem. Need any help from me, Sunny?"

Sunny wasn't sure if he ought to tell Basil about his dreams. It was a little embarrassing to admit that he spent so many days dreaming about going on an adventure with his friends for the purpose of finding him.

He would use different names for all the characters once he started writing the story, but maybe it wouldn't be hard for Basil to tell that each character was based on his friends and himself.

Conflicted, Sunny decided to ask Basil for his advice on which event to write about.

"If your friend was missing and you went out to search for them, which one of these places sounds like it'd make the most interesting adventure?" Sunny asked. "Outer space, a spooky spider-filled forest, a castle ruled by a crazy, self-absorbed queen, an underwater resort, or inside the belly of a whale?"

"Oh, wow...all those places sound so interesting!" Basil replied. "I don't know which one to choose..."

"What if you had to pick one of them?"

A cute, thoughtful look grew over Basil's expression.

"Well...I don't find spiders scary, so the forest wouldn't be that spooky for me. Outer space sounds like a big place...there'd be so many planets to check, I wouldn't know where to start! I'm not sure why my friend would go missing at an underwater resort...that sounds more like a place to take a vacation in. Unless the resort sank underwater? Haha...I guess that leaves the castle and the whale. Both sound pretty interesting and scary to me!"

Mmmm...

"Thanks, Basil," Sunny replied. "I'll pick one of those two."

"Need help with anything else?"

"It's okay."

"I'll get things ready for the party."

A few days ago, they'd bought gifts for Kel, Hero, and Aubrey even though it wasn't necessary. Sunny wanted to do something nice for his friends, and he'd chosen a thoughtful gift for each one of them.

For Kel, they bought a pair of new basketball shoes.

Basil told him that the last time he saw Aubrey playing baseball with her friends at the park, her glove looked old and rather damaged. For Aubrey, they bought a new baseball glove.

Picking a present for Hero had been difficult because he was the farthest from them in age, and he probably held the most resentment towards them for Mari's death. After some brainstorming, they finally settled on getting Hero a brand new cookbook with a notable basil tomato soup recipe, in case he wanted to angrily boil some basil...