On A Dark, Stormy Night: A Collection of Short Stories

by The Fabulous Fourth Graders

  FOREWARD

  GIRL POWER

  THE SEARCH

  THE ESCAPED CONVICT

  THE LIFE OF PEGASUS

  THE STONE

  THE KID AND THE BEAST

  HOW STOMPY BECAME STOMPY: A MINECRAFT STORY

  BAD LUCK

  THE CREATURE

  THE RED DRESS

  THE BOX

  THE ALIENS

  THE MYSTERY DING-DONG

  RED EYES VS. BLUE EYES

  THE GHOST

  ONE PUMPKIN NIGHT

  THE HUGE TORNADO

  JAKE AND THE STORM

  MY SLEEPOVER

  THE TITANSAUR

  ONLY AT NIGHT

  THE MIRROR

  THE BEAST

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2016 JKB Publishing, LLC

  All Rights Reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher or author constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from this book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at kbrombergwrites@gmail.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  FBI Anti-Piracy Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, in investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Cover art created by: Pink Ink Designs

  Formatting done by: Pink Ink Designs

  Except for the original material written by the author, all songs, song titles, and lyrics mentioned in the novel Fueled are the property of the respective songwriters and copyright holders.

  The fourth grade students of Ms. Greer have been working for the last eight months on the following short stories. It’s a daunting task for most students to be given a blank sheet of paper, tell them to come up with an idea, and to write. For most of their elementary school life, teachers have them topics when asked to write.

  Not this time.

  This time, they were told to let their imaginations run wild. We focused on creativity, not on grammar. On painting a vivid picture on the page for a reader, not on being perfect. On adding description, not cutting words. Their hard work is reflected in the pages of this anthology.

  Not only did these students learn about creative writing, but we also discussed behind the scenes of what it takes to write a book: editing, the publishing industry, cover art, ideas, outlining, story ARCs, etcetera.

  I’m proud of this group of fourth graders. I hope they will remember this time fondly when they are no longer forced to write as an assignment.

  Congratulations, Room 6 – You can now OFFICIALLY call yourself PUBLISHED authors!

  -K. Bromberg

  NY Times Bestselling Author

  September 1st, 2000- School Recess

  IT WAS A DARK, STORMY NIGHT and as I lay in bed, I wondered what the first day of school would bring.

  “Josie, c’mon,” Reese calls.

  “No,” I mutter. “You never know until you try.” I yell back to the group.

  Reese, Maya, Mackenzie, and the McMillan twins stand there staring at me through their glasses like I’m going nuts as I continue towards the group of boys playing football. At lunch we had been discussing about how it’s unfair that boys are generally treated better than girls. Girls are weak and boys are strong. Girls are all about rainbows and sunshine while boys are tough. Girls only care about their looks and boys are super-athletic. But none of this is really true.

  I do wrestling and I’m a GIRL.

  I mean even the emojis. All of the girl emojis are doing their make-up or hair while all the boys are playing real sports.

  So I thought I should show everyone (including myself) that girls could be like boys. Anyways, once I got up to them I just asked, “Hey, can we play football with you guys?”

  “Uh… sure,” Teagan said.

  “C’mon girls,” I called with pride.

  April 14th, 2008 – Superbowl Sunday at home with family

  IT WAS THE 49ERS versus the Steelers and Dad, Grandpa, my brothers, and cousins were all over for the big game. I was helping Mom make homemade corndogs in the kitchen while they were watching the game. I decided to go out and see who wanted a corndog.

  “Does anybo—”

  “SCORE! TOUCHDOWN!” Grandpa screams.

  “TOUCHDOWN!” I repeat.

  “Do you even know what a touchdown is?” My cousin, Brad, asked.

  I stuttered.

  “Josie, come help me in the kitchen,” Mom calls.

  I trudged back into the kitchen, shoulders slumped, head hanging.

  February 3rd, 2016 – Superbowl Sunday

  NOW THAT I’M SIXTEEN, I think I’ve learned enough about football that maybe I could hang out with the boys today. Brad came over to me during halftime and said, “Hey cous, do you know what a two point conversion is?”

  “Yeah, actually I do. It’s after a team scores a touchdown, instead of kicking the ball for one point, the team runs for two points. Do you know how to make a corndog?” I ask with a smirk.

  “I don’t believe I do,” he replies.

  “Do you want me to show you?”

  “Sure.”

  So I went from a little girl trying to play with the boys to a teen sacking my dad in the front yard during a family football game.

  It just goes to show that no matter who or what you are, you can be whatever you want to be.

  ON ONE DARK, STORMY NIGHT, Riley was the only person in the town. The town was filled with water. No boats. No homes. No place to go. Great white sharks and other sharks were in the water with Riley. She was swimming for four hours, but the other boats were still trying to find land.

  Riley was swimming for her life, and she kept on swimming until she reached land. The other boats that had been looking for her were there. She was so happy to see her family.

  ONE DARK, STORMY NIGHT when I was walking home from school, I saw a bright green light glowing in the distant bushes. I stood there silently watching. Then I saw movement and took a large step forward. As I got closer, the light started to flash slowly. As I crept quickly toward the light, it started to go faster and faster and faster. But as I got an arms length away, it stopped.

  I glanced into the scraggly bush and saw a red-tailed deer dead with its antlers pried off. I thought I was having an exaggerated dream, but then I saw a black mask with a green jacket and gloves beside it. I had seen some that looked just like them in a hunting shop named Cabela’s.

  I called out, “Is there anyone out there?” I heard a soft whisper carried along the silent wind. “Who are you and why are you trying to find me?”

  Was it the escaped convicted who got away from the police last year?

  I turned around and ran home as fast as I could! Then I saw a truck in front of my driveway. I suspected it was the crook. But then I remembered that my dad was going to get a new truck. I peeked through the window for clues. My dad’s phone was sitting on the seat so I knew it was him.

  I ran up the steps and charged the door. I got on the phone and called my friends Troy, Tyler, Lane, Carter, and Nate, and told them to com
e over. Once they got there, I told them everything that had happened. Then I took them to the crime scene.

  When we got there, all that was left was a glove, but then I remembered the detective kit that I got last Christmas. I ran home to get it.

  When I ran back, my friends were looking in the bushes. I went over to look too and saw a glove glowing green. I looked into the glove and saw a green glowing bone stick. After I pulled it out of the bush, I saw a line of wire with it. I started to follow the wire and it led to a strange house.

  I called the cops to come and identify the fingerprints. They said his name was Justin Schmidt. He was the person who pried off the antlers. The next morning I knocked at his door and said, “You go to jail now.”

  After I put Justin in the cop car, they drove away and put him in the most secured prison in the world.

  ONE DARK, STORMY NIGHt in a big hospital, there was a girl who was really sick but had a wonderful imagination. While she was in the hospital, she dreamt a good dream she had never had before. In her opinion she had the time of her life in it and never wanted to leave it. The dream was about her swimming in the ocean with dolphins.

  Then the time of her life in the dream turned into the worst time of her life! She was stung by the deadliest jellyfish. She wanted to get out of the dream but she couldn’t. The dream felt like it was real life.

  She had another dream. This dream was a good one where she was a girl named Olivia and had a Pegasus that was hurt. The Pegasus had snowflakes in her hair, a rainbow horn, ice blue eyes, and big snow-white wings. She also had wavy hair and her hooves were as black as coal. Olivia wanted to help the Pegasus named Snowflake but she didn’t know what to do.

  It only took about an hour for the Pegasus to heal because its unicorn had special powers. Olivia had seen the hospital that she was in, in her other dream and she saw a teenager that looked just like her. She was thinking she had seen the future because outside the window there was a hurt Pegasus. Then she heard something outside.

  She looked and there lying on the ground was the Pegasus from her dream. She knew to wait an hour. The hour went by but the Pegasus was still hurt. So Olivia took some medicine she found and snuck outside to help the Pegasus. She put the medicine on the snowflakes and the Pegasus healed.

  She thought that might be her in the hospital room so she had the Pegasus fly her up to the window to see if it was her. So she did and it was her! She stayed low so herself wouldn’t see her.

  She flew down to the wet, grassy field right next to the hospital. Olivia woke up and started drawing Snowflake the Pegasus on a piece of paper. Olivia didn’t know that Snowflake healed her with her magic. So now both Olivia and Snowflake can go back home to their family and live the life a normal girl and Pegasus should.

  TEN THOUSAND YEARS AGO, there was a stone that could let you control an ancient army. The person or thing that held it would control the army. This individual had the power to destroy the world. However, if they broke the stone, the universe would explode.

  Now, we are ten thousand years into the future. This is a quick story so these people broke the stone and the universe was going to explode. These people broke the laws of physics but that did not stop the universe from exploding so they had to wait to let the city rot. Then they could get all the tools they needed to destroy the stone that could destroy the world.

  They were successful and they lived happily ever after.

  ONE, DARK STORMY night in a castle far away there live a prince named Gage. When he was trying to sleep, he had a dream about a monster. The next day when Gage woke up, he turned into the monster in his dream. When he went to get breakfast, everyone screamed and ran away from him. Next he went to the town and all of the villagers yelled and ran.

  Later, he was all alone in the castle when he saw footprints from his room to the witch’s cave. That’s when he found out the witch had turned him into a monster. So the next day he told the witch that she better turn him back into a person or else! She felt threatened so she turned him back into a person.

  The next day the villagers found out the monster was really Prince Gage. Relieved, all of the villagers started moving back home and all was normal.

  But, the prince knows the witch is still out there…

  ONE DARK, STORMY NIGHT a little orange kitten named Stompy snuck into a little girl’s birthday party and ate all of the chocolate cake. Then suddenly someone picked him up from behind and force-fed him fifty pieces of chocolate cake for no reason. Then he started to grow and grow until he was half the size of a human. He could even say any word in the English language.

  But his stomach started to hurt him so he closed his eyes. When they opened he was a human! He was in a room with a microphone and an XBOX360 but had no idea why. Everything was confusing to him – how could it not? He went from an alley cat to a human in one day. It was very weird but the weirdest thing was he suddenly knew everything about people and how they lived.

  One year later, he has decided to start his own YouTube channel. Then all of a sudden he found the perfect game, better than all others: MineCraft

  Stampy, whose human name was Joseph, decided to name his MineCraft person, Stampy. He was searching for a skin and it happened, he found it! It was a cat skin and it was orange and white.

  “Yay!” said Stampy excitedly.

  From that day on, he decided to do YouTube videos for the rest of his life.

  Although he was getting lonely, he wouldn’t let it get in the way of recording. Millions and millions of fans were so intrigued by his videos. About a week after he thought about this he had to go to the store to get more food. He also wanted to find a friend.

  So he went to the store with the bright sun smiling down on him. As he arrived, he saw a man holding a camera. He asked the man what he was doing.

  “A vlog,” he said.

  Stampy suddenly realized that the man was also a famous MineCraft YouTuber too. His name was really David Spencer. His name when he was playing MineCraft is iBalisticSquid.

  At the same time, David realized that the person talking to him was Stampy. In perfect synchronization, they said, “Wanna play MineCraft?”

  The both said YES!

  For the rest of their lives, they would be friends and play MineCraft.

  ONE DARK, STORMY NIGHT it was raining and thundering. I was trying to go to bed but it was so loud. All of a sudden it stopped and I got to quietly go to sleep without loud noises annoying me.

  In the morning, I woke up and it was silent. Instantly I ran and crawled under my bed. If only it was not raining I would be outside playing with my friends, not bored.

  When I can out from under my bed, it was not raining so I went outside. It started raining again. Every time I went outside to play, it rained. It was like a curse.

  Then I turned on the news and it said the rain and thunder was going to stop tomorrow. I was as happy as a person who found one million dollars.

  Later the next day, I went outside and it was one hundred thousand degrees. I was so hot I did not want to play so I said to myself, “Why did you do this to me?” in an angry voice.

  ON A DARK, STORMY NIGHT, Emma was laying in bed at midnight. It was still pouring rain outside and everyone was asleep but her. She heard a mysterious noise from downstairs so she got out of her comfy bed and quietly went down the stairs. Once she got down the steps, she turned on the bright lights to see it was only her pet dog, Fluffy, running around the big kitchen table. Then Emma walked back upstairs and went to bed.

  Morning came quickly and Emma woke to the sounds of birds tweeting from the window. She went down stairs to find her mom. “Mom, can I go to the park?” she asked.

  “Yes,” her mom replied.

  So she headed off to the beautiful park. Once she got there, she saw her amazing friend, Maya. They were playing tag when they heard a terrifying noise so the two girls went to find out what it was. Then they stopped to look behind them and they saw something huge staring at th
em.

  “It’s like a big monster thing,” Maya whispered.

  Then the two girls quickly ran to Emma’s house. Once the girls got there, they went inside. Emma called out for her parents but could not find them in the house. Both of the girls saw a note on the kitchen table that said, “Sorry, we went shopping and left the door unlocked. Love, Mom.”

  Then Emma said, “Well, maybe you should stay a little while, Maya.”

  One hour passed by and her family was back. Then Emma said, “Can Maya stay for a sleepover?”

  “Yes,” her mom replied.

  The girls walked over to Maya’s house to get her things. Once they got to Maya’s house she got her things and returned to Emma’s house. It was already time to eat dinner when they go back. Once they were finished with dinner they went upstairs and went to sleep.

  In the middle of the night they both woke up and heard a noise downstairs. Emma thought it was her dog Fluffy making the noise again. But when they went downstairs and saw the big green thing they saw in the park. It was very tall and ugly. The two girls ran so fast to their room. Once they got to the room they could not go to sleep. Two hours later they finally fell asleep.

  The girls woke up in the morning and went downstairs for breakfast. When they were eating, Emma said to her mom that Maya and her saw the big green monster last night. But her mom didn’t believe them. Maya’s parents went out of town and Maya got to stay with Emma’s family even longer.

  Later that day, Emma and Maya went to the store to get dinner. Once they got to the store, it said on the door, “Sorry, closed. Come back later.” So the two girls passed though the park and went to Emma’s house. All of a sudden, they open the door and see the monster. When Emma was looking at it she saw a thread so she saw that you could take the head off of it. So she took the head off and it was her mom.