12:25 am
My alarm clock goes off, signaling that the time is near. My heart races as I rush to hit the snooze button. The loud, incessant beeping is driving me crazy, and it will drive my parents and sister crazy if they wake up! I hit the silver button and flip the switch to the off position. My parents and sister are still asleep, fortunately, so I can move without disturbing them.
The plants in the hallway guide me gently to the steep, rug-covered staircase with their romantic scents of jasmine and lilies. Looking around cautiously for any obstacles, such as plastic or paper bags I can step on, I carefully make my way down the stairs. There are fourteen steps on the staircase, and I carefully skip over the especially squeaky ones. I have the pattern memorized – until I accidentally step on number five.
Suddenly a jingling sound emits from my parents’ room. My dog is walking towards my spot a third of the way down the staircase. Oh, crap! I start thinking as I break out in a cold sweat. Our dog is a female black Labrador mix, about five years old, and she is very protective of her people. If she thinks I’m an intruder, she’ll start barking!
“Onyx, shh!” I hiss, hoping she’ll calm down. I feel her soft, black fur and her cold, wet nose rub against my hand as she sniffs me. Finally, she becomes satisfied with my identity and turns and walks back into my parents’ room. Wiping the beads of sweat off my upper lip, I resume walking down the stairs.
Eleven…twelve…thirteen…
Finally I am downstairs. Nimbly jumping over a creaky floorboard, I walk into the living room. My white cat, Snowbelle, meows at me, but other than that I am not noticed. I run over to the television. My fingers glide over the set of buttons lining the bottom of the screen until I find the power button. As soon as I hit the power button, I immediately change the TV setting to DVD/VCR. The power for the DVD player and VCR is off, so all I see is a black screen. There is no sound when this occurs, so I am free to adjust the volume as I please. My little sister, Emily, always leaves the volume at 35/50, so I have to turn the volume down to about 11/50 or 12/50.
Finally, it is safe to set the TV back to the DishNetwork setting. As I search for the remote, I notice that my father has left it set on the Speed Racing Channel. An old documentary for Model-Ts is playing – until I change it to CartoonNetwork. One of my favorite anime shows is playing.
For the next half-hour, I will be entertained by Ichigo and Orohime struggling to save Rukia from execution.
Author notes
I had to write a prompt about a five minute space that seemed to last forever.
A Creative Writing Class project. What grade would you give me?
Comments
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So this is some sort of diary entry? Its a nicely written descriptive piece, light humour from your sister turning up the volume. Nice description such as your cat being the only one watching you. The topic isn't amazing, but this is only a short piece on real life, so I wouldn't expect it to be. Grammar and spelling seems good, easy to read. It's hard to grade, as I do not know the full description of the assignment. I think I would give you either a B plus, or an A minus, depending on the the quality of others work. What did I want that wasn't there? Perhaps a little more action-I think maybe someone should've woken up-a bit of dialogue maybe. Overall though this is a high quality piece.
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