Week Six of my Short Story Challenge

 The Grey Butterly             By: Everly

Once, there was a butterfly. But, unlike all the other butterflies, it was grey. All the others were brightly colored; red, orange, pink, purple, and blue butterflies surrounded the grey. They were all fluttering around a clump of trees, any human looking at them would’ve thought they were magic.

They grey butterfly was depressed. And because of its mood, its color changed from its previous bright color to a deep, deep grey.

The colorful butterflies tried their best to make him happy, but it was to no purpose. The grey butterfly would stay the same, despite how many smiles the colored butterflies gave him.

Eventually, the butterflies bright colors faded also to grey. They had lost courage, hope, faith, everything, all because they had tried and failed to make the grey butterfly happy again.

So now, there was no color in their clump of trees, only grey. 

Until one day, the grey butterfly was flying around the clump of trees, and he heard something calling to him, “Come, please.”

The butterfly looked down and it saw a flower, a flower of great beauty. It glowed in the sun, and it glittered. 

The butterfly swooped down, and landed on the flower. The flower whispered in its ear, “I have seen what has happened to you. You have lost a friend, and your heart cries out in longing. But it is time to move on, my friend. You are not alone.” And with that, the flower kissed the butterfly.

That kiss, and those words, changed the world forever. The butterfly glowed into color. But it wasn’t the same as it had been before, now it was a rainbow butterfly. The most majestic ever. 

Seeing the rainbow of colors shining on the butterfly’s back, the rest of the butterflies became themselves again. And all the butterflies kissed the flower for its kindness.

And now, the butterflies shine like a rainbow, the once grey butterfly shining the brightest.

Diy Fluff

 

I’ve always wanted to make my own stuffed animals, but I never had the money for stuffing. But now, I don’t need the money! I only figured out that you can make this because I had a LOT of random pieces of yarn that were to small for anything else, so I was just cutting them over and over….. Until, I realized it was making a sort of fluff! So now, I present to you, diy fluff.

Supplies:

Yarn

Scissors

Directions:

1. Grab your yarn and cut a longish piece of string into small strings  OR  if you already have yarn scraps you can just use those

NOTE: The more you cut, the more fluff you will have!

2. Put all of it in a big pile

3. Now use your scissors and cut the top of the pile; now toss it like it’s a salad, and cut again

4. Continue this process until you start to see lots of fluff (thin, slightly curly yarn)

5. Now that you are satisfied with how it looks, you can use it to stuff stuffed animals, pillows, etc

6. Enjoy!

Week Five of my Short Story Challenge

 A Dangerous Mess       By: Everly

In a house not so far away from you, there was a boy. His name was Jedidiah.

Jedidiah lived in a family of three, him being the third. His parents were nice to him, and he obeyed almost everything they said. But pay attention to the fact that I said almost…

Jedidiah sat on the couch in the living room, staring out the window. It was very windy outside, the trees were swaying just about as much as a person waving their hand. It was very entertaining to watch how the wind affected different things. Jedidiah’s mom was in the living room as well, also sitting at the couch, and also staring out the window.

“Look at how the wind blows the leaves,” she said to Jedidiah, “they move in circles with it… Around and around….” Jedidiah’s mom spaced out staring out the window.

“Oh!” She suddenly exclaimed, making Jedidiah jump.

“Jeez, you scared me mom. What is it?” Said Jedidiah.

“Oh, sorry Jed (that was Jedidiah’s nickname). It’s just that I suddenly realized, while the leaves were going in circles like that, that I need to do the laundry.” Jed’s mom answered.

Jed rolled his eyes with a smile, classic mom, he thought, making me think that something crazy happened, when really she just needs to do the laundry.

Jed’s mom left the room to pick up the laundry from everyones’ rooms.

Jed had just started to stare out the window and think of nothing else again when…

“Jed!” His mom yelped from another room, “Get over here. Now!”

Jed recognized the tone in his mom’s voice, and it meant that he did not want to be late to get ove there.

Jed searched the rooms until he found his mom standing just outside of his bedroom door, “What?”

“This!” His mom gestured to his room.

Jed was just about to say ‘What do you mean ‘this’?’, when he looked towards where his mom was gesturing.

There were books, clothing, papers, and blankets scattered throughout his room. They were flooding out the door.

“Oh….” Jed said, not knowing what else to say.

“You need to clean it. Today.” His mom commanded.

Jed entered his room, and his mom took it as a sign that he was going to clean it. Jed looked around the room and sighed. 

He picked up some clothing and papers and held them in his hands wondering where to stick them.

“Ugh. This is going to take forever.” He complained to himself.

He kept holding the clothing, and then he just plopped it on the floor. Instead he paved a walkway on the floor with his hands. 

“There! I’m sure mom won’t mind the mess, so long as she can walk through the room.” He remarked to himself.

A couple days later…..

“Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!”

That sound was Jedidiah screaming in pain. He had tripped on a sneaker that had been sitting on the floor randomly, and he had twisted his ankle.

“What is it????” His mom cried entering the room with an anxious look on her face.

“I twisted my ankle…Ow!….Ugh…” That was Jed’s response.

“How in the world did you…. I know! You twisted it because you tripped on this shoe!” Jed’s mom only realizes this because she saw the shoe near Jed and his room was a mess.

“Yeah…. No idea—Ow!—how that got there.” Jed answered.

“Because you didn’t clean your room!”  His mom said with an angry tone.

“Oops. It’s just so annoying, mom.” Jed replied with a whine because of his leg.

“Well, better to take the time to clean it, then to not obey your parents and get injured.” His mom stated.

“I guess….. I’ll clean it then—Ow!—.” 

“No. I will, you need to put that leg up and ice it.” His mom argued seeing his pained face.

“Thanks mom.”  Jed said with huge amounts of gratitude.

“Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.” 

“It won’t.” Jed answered.

His mom was sitting on the ground so Jed moved a little and side-hugged his mom.

“Ow!” He yelped because he moved his leg.

And from then on, Jedidiah tried to always obey his parents. Tried.

Week Four of my Short Story Challenge

 Two Plants and a Gardener            By: Everly

Picture two plants. Both are beautiful, with many petals. Each petal is colorful and soft. 

Now picture a gardener. He has clean clothing; not a speck of dirt on him. And he looks with wise and kind eyes towards the plants.

The flowers have the choice to rely on the gardener or rely on their own strength. One choices its own strength, and the other chooses to rely on the gardener.

The one that chose itself does not get water, and is wrapped in darkness; it withers and moans in pain.

The one that chose the gardener, is covered in a blanket of light. It grows with joy, and is given as much water as it pleases.

God is the gardener, and is covered with no sin. Us however, the plants, live in sin as a plant lives in dirt. We have the choice to choose God and drink the water of eternal life, or rely on ourselves and wither with pain and sorrow.

We are the plants, and God is the light. We need Him to survive.

Without God, we will never live up to out true beauty. We will only say we are strong, when in reality, we are weak. Don't choose to shrivel in the dark, choose the light and thrive in the glory of God.

Diy Pom Poms

I’ve always loved Pom Poms. They’re so fluffy and soft…. 

Anyway, I tried making them myself a while ago, but it didn’t work for me. Since doing what other people did didn’t work, I decided to come up with my own way of making them! And I’m here to share it with you!

Supplies:

Yarn cut into little strips (cut the strips the same lengths as each other, and cut them a little longer than you want your Pom Pom to be. And remember, the more strips of yarn you have, the fluffier the Pom Pom!)

Note: If you get different colored strings it will be a really cool Pom Pom!

Scissors

Directions:

1. Take your strips of yarn and line them up together

2. Cut a larger strip of yarn, and put it horizontally under your the smaller strips

3. Take the two ends of the large string in your hands (keep it under the smaller strips) and tie a tight knot over the smaller strips

 4. Now turn your yarn clump sideways and pull the yarn away from the center

5. Turn it again (without ruining your gap) and put a large piece of yarn under the yarn

6. Keeping the yarn under, tie another tight knot

7. Fluff it out with your fingers (don’t pull the string or they’ll come out of the knot) and grab your scissors

8. Using your scissors, cut around it to make it even 

9. There you go! Your own Pom Pom!

If you didn’t understand my directions, here is a video:

And if you want you can make your Pom Pom fluffier by using a brush/comb to run through the yarn

 

Week Three of my Short Story Challenge

 The Mirror of Personality       By: Everly

Ayanna stared around her school classroom, looking for her friends, but she didn’t recognize anyone. Though she could easily just guess who her friends were, based on the seating arrangements. Joe was sitting ahead of her, and Rebecca sat behind Ayanna to the left. 

They didn’t look like they had the day before. Yesterday, Joe was medium height, blonde, and had blue eyes. But today Joe was short, red-headed with brown eyes and a lot of freckles. And Rebeca had been tall with brown hair and bangs, but today she had fluffy pink hair (which surprised Ayanna, because Rebeca hated the color pink) and no bangs. Ayanna sighed and shook her head. Her friends did not appreciate their original looks, AT ALL. Well, they hadn’t thought much about their looks until the mirror arrived. 

Before the mirror they had been happy and content, but now, they changed their looks every day. The mirror had arrived a month ago. Nobody knew where it came from, it had just appeared. The person who had found it was a boy named Lucas. He had been exploring his attic one day, and he had seen a big object covered with a dusty cobweb-covered sheet. Lucas removed the sheet and saw the mirror, it was a normal mirror, nothing special about it. But when Lucas looked inside the mirror at himself, he didn’t like what he saw; himself. And that was when things got weird (or, in Lucas’ opinion, amazing). 

He was looking in the mirror wishing he didn’t have short blond hair and brown eyes, he wished he had a brown flat hairstyle and eyes that would make the girls go crazy. 

He blinked.

And, through the split second of his blink, the mirror had changed him. He was now the boy he had wanted to be, tall, brown hair, and deep eyes. All his friends at school wondered how he had done it, and he told them about the mirror. Everyone wanted a look inside the mirror, no longer content with their looks. Everyone except Ayanna. 

Ayanna was fine with her long black hair and green eyes; she didn’t need to change herself to know she was just fine the way she was. Ayanna just wanted things to go back the way they were, she didn’t want her friends changing their looks everyday. She had to quiz them every time they came to her house to see if they were her friends or strangers. They never looked the same. 

Class ended and Ayanna walked out into the school hallway. Joe appeared behind her, her now red hair sitting on her shoulders, “How do you like my new look?” This was the question Joe asked every day. And, same as every day that this question was asked, Ayanna said, “It’s ok…. I guess.” 

“Just ok?! Do you know how long it took me to come up with this look??” Joe exclaimed

“I just wish you would go back to how you actually look.” Replied Ayanna

“This IS how I actually look. Or are you talking about my ‘original’ look? Said Joe with an eye roll 

“Yes. That look, the one that I actually liked. I mean come on, I didn’t pick you guys as my friends because I liked how you looked. So just stick with one look.” Said Ayanna

“Well, if you didn’t pick us for our looks, why should you care if we change our looks? I don’t know why you don’t change yours, I mean, you might as well.” Said Joe

“I like my looks just fine, and you should too.” And with that Ayanna stormed off

This was how their conversations always went, they would argue about the fact that changing looks was useless, and how it wasn’t, and then one of them would storm off in the direction off their next class. The changing looks thing was really putting a strain on their relationship. 

The next day, Ayanna was walking to school, and she heard some girls giggling behind her, “Look at her. She’s such an outcast. Sticking to her ‘original’ looks. How lame.”

“Yeah. She looks hideous.” 

They laughed again staring in Ayanna’s direction. The next few days continued like this, and Ayanna began to like herself less and less. Old Ayanna wouldn’t have cared what others thought, but new Ayanna did. She would hide her face in hoodies, and didn’t talk to her friends. 

“Hey, Ayanna!” Called one of her friends while Ayanna was walking to her locker one morning.

It was Rebecca, “Hey, how come you’re hiding from me?”

“Because. I don’t want ANYONE seeing me.” Ayanna answered pulling her hoodie strings so that they completely hid her face.

“I know! If you’re tired of your looks, change them. Use the mirror.” Rebecca suggested with a grin, her best friend who always argued that the mirror was useless was finally gonna use it.

This idea appealed to Ayanna, and after school she headed over to where it was kept; Lucas’s house. Lucas didn’t make anyone pay to use the mirror, he just wanted to be popular so he made it free so more people would come around.

Ayanna stared at the mirror, and wished to be tall, with brown hair and red highlights, and bangs. She blinked, and the mirror changed her. She was just as she had wished for. She went home and slept peacefully, knowing that she looked good. But her thoughts were not the same the next morning. 

She did not remember what she had done, and so, when she looked in a mirror, she cried. Old Ayanna was back, the one who didn’t care what she looked like. Ayanna wanted to change herself back to the way she was, she wanted to be the girl she had taken for granted and called ugly. Ayanna now knew that looks aren’t important, it’s the inside that counts. Ayanna knew that she was unique, and her own kind of pretty. Later that day, she used the mirror, and became who she had once been. Kind and loving Ayanna was back, vain and ungrateful Ayanna was gone. 

Her friends saw what Ayanna had done, and they themselves tried going back to their old selves, and when they did, they knew that being yourself is the best kind of style.