Story Prompt #2

Hey everyone! Kinda feeling no inspiration at this time, so I’m leaning back on the second part of a series that I wanted to start. I’ve always wanted to improve my writing with story prompts but I never got the chance to (well, more like I didn’t make the time to).

Hopefully this will help some people out!

Also, this was supposed to go up yesterday, but for some reason WordPress was being stupid and glitchy and nothing was working… AND THE WHOLE POST DELETED I’M SO MAD. It took so. long. to right and now I have to write it all again… well, at least it’s up now. Yay.

Want to hear the story behind this? In my writing camp last week, taught by Hannah Jayne, author of Truly, Madly, Deadly and The Underworld Detection Agency, (who I interviewed, by the way!), she gave us a prompt. We were told to write it in any story format we wanted.

This is the part where you high-tail it outta here and write your version- yes, you, get out now! go to docs or word or whatever you use- then come back and read my version.

Oh, and like and comment, of course. 😉

My actual story that I wrote in the camp quickly turned out to have nothing to do with Humpty Dumpty at. all. So I’m writing a completely different one!

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Yes, my grandfather was the Humphrey Simpson the First. Yes, I had none of his spy-ish, secret agent, traitorous personality at all. No, I wasn’t adopted. 

It definitely didn’t help that my parents had to name me after him.

Lesson number one: When you dad had been a double agent for the enemy country, you don’t move to the enemy country and name your kid after him. In the other country, he was regarded as a hero, but in my country, he was a disgusting name that no one respected. People were glad that he was pushed off the wall.

At least now I was a grown man- eighteen, out of the house, changing my name. It was paradise. 

It took several weeks of paperwork and long, grueling hours at the court, but I came home satisfied and as a new person. No longer would the world know me as Humphrey Simpson- I was now Humphrey Simmons.

Fresh and exciting. Now I could start all over and wouldn’t be avoided, or given weird looks.

Or so I thought. It all began to unravel when I met Roshni.

One fine summer evening, when the wind wasn’t harsh or sparse, I took a trip to the local fro-yo store, RED’S ICE CREAM AND FROZEN YOGHURT. It was a tradition with my best friend, Antonio, back home. Even though he wasn’t here, and this store didn’t have the same modern atmosphere as our favorite fro-yo shop, when I stepped up to the counter to order my usual, a content smile flitted across my face.

“Blue raspberry yoghurt with chocolate covered pretzels, freeze dried strawberries, sea salt honey maple syrup, and candy corn.” I said, looking around the room. It was cozy, with beige walls and accented art.

The girl at the counter’s dark eyes widened and she stared at me. “Excuse me?”

I repeated my order with a hint of frustration.

She shook her head and pointed to the menu that I had completely ignored behind her. “Please order from the menu. We don’t rasberry yoghurt or chocolate pretzels or maple syrup or- or whatever you said. We do have blueberry fro-yo with chocolate raisins, fresh strawberries, caramel syrup, and gummy worms, if you’d like.”

With a sigh, I met her eyes. She had curly black hair that rested on her shoulders and slightly shining brown skin contrasting with her bright red uniform. “Fine. To-go.”

I watched her make my yogurt and once I paid, she stopped me. “Uh, excuse me?”

I turned around. 

“I’m doing a fundraiser block party this Friday so I was wondering if you’d like to come? It would mean a lot to me and my organization.” She handed me a bright yellow flyer.

With a shrug, I took it. “Sure.” It wasn’t like I had anywhere else to be- I’d just moved, school was starting in a few weeks, and all I had been doing the past few days was gaming and checking out insta. There wasn’t any point in not going.

Once I reached my small apartment and started my fro-yo, I checked out the flyer. A block party, in two days. $2 for kids under 13, $5 for adults. 20% student discount, which meant I only had to pay $4. How wonderful. I was being invited to a kids block party that apparently would have “fun and games!”.

What a great start to my freedom. 

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This is definitely not how it was when I first wrote it (Curse you, WordPress!) but it will have to do. Roshni is supposed to have a POV as well and, well, she’s Red Riding Hood’s granddaughter.

So.

I’m not tagging anyone, but feel free to do it and link back to my post!