Storymakers: Nighttime Frenzy

Storymakers: Nighttime Frenzy

By Rafael
Eighth Grade
McClure Middle School
Seattle, WA

Darkness seemed to devour the only source of light, a small night-light coming from below. The feeble light illuminated the stacked weights inches away, the only thing I could see from my bed. Nine o'clock is pretty boring, especially when I have to go to sleep at nine o'clock everyday.

After a few minutes, my eyes made the light seem to overpower the darkness, and I was still wide-awake. I tried to position myself into a more comfortable fit. The bed creaked and squeaked as I moved, waking me up even more. I couldn't take the horror of boredom, and I had to check if my brother was awake so we could talk and insult each other. "I can't sleep." My voice was a cry in this void of a room.

I heard movement from below. I thought I'd woken him up and I prepared myself for his verbally abusing curses. Instead, Miguel merely said, "I can't either; I'm not tired at all." I would normally laugh for over-thinking, but I was aloof with excitement. "And, I'm hungry." Miguel moaned.

The word hungry triggered the creature within me to growl back. My stomach. I sighed. "Me, too..." I sat up, and stared at the blank door leading to the living room and kitchen. Yellow light was leaking into the room from tiny gaps from underneath the door. The light only told me my brother was still awake. I certainly could not ransack the fridge without him being enraged and waking up my parents to tell on us.

"Carlo's still awake," I said looking down and over to Miguel's bed. He already had his glasses on and sat up on his bed. He shrugged and walked out of the room. I leaped out of bed and followed him. I was close behind when he opened the door, and the streaming light blinded me. I blinked furiously, trying to protect my eyes while letting them adapt.

I followed Miguel, only using glimpses of the floor to know where I was. The dirty dung-colored carpet ended and white grimy tiles replaced them. Before long, my eyes adjusted again and I could see where I was going. Miguel was already digging in the refrigerator when Carlo took off his headphones, turned back, and glared at us. "What do you think you're doing? Go back to sleep!"

Miguel moaned back. "I'm hungry, we're just gonna eat some ice cream."

Carlo growled in his deep voice. "Fine, it's not my fault if mom and dad wake up." I knew the statement was a lie, he would purposely wake up our parents soon enough. I took out two bowls from a cupboard in front of me as Miguel fetched the cold hard Dreyer's Vanilla Ice Cream from the refrigerator.

I slid open a drawer below the counter, and my hand dived in, coming back out with a large metal scoop. I dug into the frosted ice cream as Miguel set the cold dessert down next to me. Shortly after, both of us had full bowls and we exited the small kitchen and sat at the table.

We were slouched, still sleepy. Five minutes later, our bowls were empty. Miguel and I had wide smiles on and laughed at everything we talked about. My brother was enraged by our loud outbursts. "Shut up!" he yelled. We laughed more and he groaned. I watched him stretch to reach the speakers of his computer, and imminently, loud slow music rang into my ears.

"Carlo! You're gonna wake em' up!" He stared me down and soon we were on the verbal warpath. We threw every curse we knew in three languages. Miguel watched us, until finally, he ended the argument.

"Shut. Up. Carlo!" You poop colored monkey!" he yelled And all fell quiet except for the loud radio. When I realized what he said, I started to laugh hysterically. Miguel joined in.

Carlo shrugged and ignore us. "I don't care." He changed his tone to match an immature boy. Miguel and I laughed even more. Then we heard moaning in the other room. We bolted out of our seats and raced to our beds. I found my way easily, being used to pretending to be asleep with no trouble as I heard my eldest brother being lectured by our cranky parents.

The night was a perfect crime...until they found the empty bowls...

Storymakers: A Creative Challenge for Young Writers, is a program inviting students in sixth, seventh, and eighth grades living in Washington State and British Columbia, Canada, to submit their own original creative writing pieces.