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Preperation For Celebration! | Shook Chapter 27
At last New Year's Eve had arrived. The family had a big snowball fight outside! Dyan had missed nearly every snowball she threw, but that just made the snowballs that hit feel even better!
Then the whole family went inside and watched movies all day. Each movie had been picked out by a different division of the family. The parents, the teens (Royal, Navy and Maya) , the kiddos (Wild Yonder, Azure and Dyan) and the yougin’s (True and Teal, but really just True). They laughed, cheered, and ate pumpkin pie late into the night.
Then when the countdown began in Times Square in New York City, the family watched a live stream of it, right in their own home.
Everyone was snuggled together in the dark either on the couch or on the blanket in front of it, waiting for new year’s to arrive. True and Teal had fallen asleep by now, and even though Dyan’s eyelids felt heavy, she wouldn’t go to sleep just yet. She couldn’t miss the new year.
The family counted down with the timer at five, and when one hit, all the children cheered and yelled all the way to the other side of the living room, but the fireplace and the two mountains of presents.
When the presents were opened, a little piece of notebook paper would fly out too, stating the name of whoever had given the present.
“An artist’s suitcase! It’s even got a mini easel included! Thanks Dyan!” Maya ran and knocked Dyan with a big hug, almost making them fall into the fireplace.
“Woah, you’re welcome.” Dyan told Maya, then turned back to her own present. “And thanks so much for these pajamas Mr. Blue!” Dyan smiled at Mr. Blue who gave her a nod while pretending to smoke one of the new cigars he had received.
Dyan had gotten two big presents, yes, but there was still the small gift left. The envelope. Dyan’s smile shrunk back into a straight line as she picked up the envelope that had her name written in uneven, stick-straight handwriting. Dad’s handwriting.
Dyan briefly imagined it saying you’re going back to Maine and nearly shivered. She tore it open and saw a letter written on dim white plane paper. She spread her fingers to further open the envelope, but there was no notebook paper that had a name written on it.
She read the letter quietly in her head while everyone else yelled or was hugging each other with their own new presents.
In Mom’s curvy handwriting the letter stated:
Dear Dyan, you are a successful and busy writer! And successful and busy writers need time to write their hearts out! This is a ticket valid to use the family computer for one hour a day to write your stories with quiet!
From
Mom, Dad, Maya, Royal, Navy, Azure, True, Wild Yonder, Teal.
Dyan gasped. She immediately skipped over to Mom, who was busy tearing up over a box of tea packets and shoved the letter in her face.
“Is this real!? Is this really valid!?” Dyan asked, her voice so unusually high-pitched everyone turned to her.
Mom smiled. “Yep. I doubt you’re done with writing after your big success, and we figured we you would need time to type those stories down.”
“You all signed this… for me?” Dyan looked around the room to see a bunch of smiling faces.
“Yep. I knew you’d like this one.” Maya smiled at Dyan.
She had known all along! Dyan squealed.
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you all!”
And for once, she went around hugging everyone. She truly meant what she said. And to think that she had assumed that no one would put thought into her gift. This small envelope had turned out to be the best gift she had gotten all night! The feeling of knowing that people were thinking of her was such a good feeling, Dyan felt like she would…explode into confetti or something crazy!
Dyan felt it. She felt that crazed yet energized feeling she had felt when she first restarted writing Spirit’s story back at the bookstore!
“Mom, can I use one of my computer hours right now?”
“Girl, it’s late at night.” Mom said, lifting a sleeping True off the floor.
“Just for a few minutes then, please? I just know I’m on to something!” Dyan pleaded.
Mrs. Blue’s eyes slanted up as she thought about it.
“Everyone come outside, there’s fireworks!” Dad yelled, leaning inside the house. Bear’s barking could be heard in the background.
Everyone headed for the backyard. Everyone but Dyan and Mrs. Blue.
“Well, write down the idea quickly, before the fireworks end,” Mrs. Blue said, and rushed upstairs with True.
Dyan ran to the computer.
She was thinking crazy thoughts. Wild thoughts. And the more crazy and different thoughts she had, the more her story pierced together.
She opened a new document. Before her sat a blank white page, the black writing line blinking.
A moth fluttered in front of the computer's bright light. Dyan gasped, and quickly clapped the bug between her hands. Disgustingly enough the dead bug fell flat onto the computer.
As she threw the bug away, she had a thought that made her look up and stare off. A few months ago she would have never been brave enough to do that.
Then she shrugged it off. It was time to get back to her passion: writing!
And after this, the Blue Family will be waiting for me, she thought.
My family will be waiting for me.
Find out what happens next in the next part!
Hey there! I’m Shila! I’ve loved books since I could read, and decided I would write books I wanted to see written for others! Check my children’s book Imagination on Amazon!
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I also write on Tumblr!
(Image made with ai)
