Short Stories

Short Story No.1

English homework: Write a story beginning with 'This was going to be a terrible day, one of those days that is best to stay in bed because everything is going to turn out bad.'

Word Count - 1107

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This was going to be a terrible day, one of those days that is best to stay in bed because everything is going to turn out bad. And you just have that deep unsettling feeling embedded in the deep pit of your stomach, I know it's not just me that gets that feeling. All people must get that feeling in their stomach at some point. Whether it's at the start of a job interview, before their GCSE's or A-levels or even starting a new school. Just a bubbling pit hidden within, making you jump even at the slightest of movements, like that one movement could activate those fight or flight instincts. Flight instincts. That one permanent instinct created to ensure the survival of every creature.

Why does the day have to start so early?

I cannot complain about my life too much, others have it worse than me. Without the things to complain about we wouldn't know the good things to talk about. I should stop procrastinating and start this terrible day, rather than staring at the musty white ceiling from the warm depths of my purple duvet cover.

What's the point in getting up if the day is going to be terrible?

The sudden thought springing to mind of why? and what's the point? Well there is no really point to this. It is just a requirement that is enforced by law. I have no option but to obey, being too young to make a difference but when I reach the right age what can I really do then, when I reach the age when I can supposedly do what I want to. However there is always that one thing stopping you from doing what you want when you want, that thing being the law because not everything some people want to do is legal, but for me that one small thing that could potentially stop me is the decisions I make from this point onward. I can name many examples of this. Picking the what school you go to, choosing the right people to befriend, the right options for my GCSE's, scoring the right grade, choosing the right sixth-form college, then the right university, then choosing the correct job for you. And that small list there is only an eighth of the decisions that have to be made in a person's life time.

Why do these thoughts go around my head in the morning?

Who knows why, anything can be going around my head at any point in the day. All I hope for is that no one talks to me that much, I just want a peaceful silence. Not the type where if you feel like if you make even the slightest of move then it could ruin all you've ever wanted, but the type where you're just in a moment of serenity and calm, away from the bustling students, away from the shouting of teachers and away from the noise of everything.

A sigh of content rang through the silent bedroom; eye sight slipping in and out of consciousness. Maybe just a few seconds won't hurt. To just lie here and hope that maybe this isn't real. But to hope that this is a dream, a fragment of my boring imagination.  It's not though. Nothing in my imagination is really as much as I want it to be. Wanting to be free from restrictions, free from laws, free to decide what I want when I want. But that's not reality. It's no one's reality. No one can truly do what they want to whether they have the most money or the least.

Don't go, missing a day won't kill you. Why not stay with me and avoid the terror?

I cannot keep postponing the inevitable, it will happen anyway. The warm shell that once surrounded me left me shivering, goose bumps ran up my body, cold air fighting its way to make me feel frozen. Last minute thoughts to return to the purple covers slowly dissipate from my mind. This deep, dark, terrible feeling won't leave like clouds from the sky. I need to stop allowing myself to wait, I cannot end the day until I have completed my 6 hours and 20 minutes in a stuffy building with more snotty teenagers.

Time feels like it's sped up, no longer being 7 o'clock but now 7.30, why does this always happen. Probably my lack of motivation to comply to this five-day task. After about a minute of falling over belongings spread across the old beige carpet do, I finally complete the journey to the small bathroom, with the minuscule achievement of only falling over two piles of clean clothes and only walking into one door frame. That for me as an achievement. My lack of agility and speed is something that is clearly noticeable in PE, consecutively. Just like my lack of reflexes after being hit in the face with a rugby ball only 17 hours ago. With my skill full attempt to reach the bathroom I take my morning medication, brush my teeth, and wash my face.

The radio flickers to life. This can mean only one thing, that it's 7.45. I have all of five minutes to eat something and be dressed in my pristine uniform. Panic seeped through me. Sprinting out the bathroom to my bedroom to find my uniform, which was thrown across the room like it had been in a hurricane. Dragging a brush through my matted hair while trying to find my once pristine uniform and tying it into its usual ponytail, lumps spread across the top with wisps of hair surrounding my pale face.

35 minutes that's all the time I have until I arrive at the centre created for education for teenagers age 11 to 16. That's when the boredom would normally set in, but that won't happen today, something much worse will. A sickening feeling of dread and despair settled within me, the feeling securing to my bones.

Uneasiness. That's the feeling that swooped in the moment I left the soft blue, ancient, wooden door. The bright sun only just began to wake as a scampered along the worn concrete. Mist hung to the air. Twisted trees began to reach for me, stretching through the damp air. Black silhouettes began to appear. Scattering themselves across the small country road and cracked pavement. A dark, eerie aura could be sensed from the dark silhouettes. This was why the voice wanted me to stay. I said there was a reason for this, a decision made that brought me to this moment.

And that was my decision.