In my Creative Writing class we had to write down 10 nouns on an index card and the teacher mixed them up and handed them back out randomly. We then had to write a story using the 10 nouns on the index card we received. Here is my story, let me know what you think! The nouns will be underlined when I used them for the first time.

Johnny was a 16 year old boy in his junior year of high school. He was smart and he had lots of friends in school, though he never really spent any time with them outside of school. He was also very shy around girls. There was one girl in specific, Sarah, that he really liked, but he didn’t know how to talk to her. An average day for Johnny goes like this: He wakes up for school at 5:30 in the morning. He pays attention in school, but also likes to talk with his friends. When he gets home from school he spends a lot of time on the computer or playing video games. He does his homework and then he goes to bed. Just a normal, boring life.

One day after school Johnny got bored. He had already beaten all of his video games, did all of his homework, and had nothing else to do. He decided to wander around in the woods behind his house. He wasn’t really an outdoorsy type of guy, but he had never really been in the woods before and he was curious about what was there. There were a lot of trees, bushes, leaves, all of the normal things you would expect to see in the woods. After some exploring he came across a treehouse. Interested, he climbed up the slightly decayed ladder. The treehouse wasn’t anything special. It was made entirely of wood and the floor felt a bit unsafe to walk on. Johnny thought it was cool though, and decided to hang out there for a little while. It was nice to get out of his house and go somewhere else for a change.

The following day at school, while pretending to pay attention during math class, Johnny had an idea. “What if I renovate the treehouse and make it really modern and cool?” he thought. He pondered it for a bit and decided it would be a good idea, and when he got home he decided to do just that.

Johnny gathered all the materials he would need to fix up the treehouse: a yardstick, a hammer, a screwdriver, some screws and nails, a pen and pencil to mark measurements, among other things. Then he got to work on making the treehouse his own. While working he heard a soft cracking sound. “What is that?” he thought, and then all of a sudden the floor under his left foot gave way. Fortunately his right foot, and the rest of his body, stayed in the treehouse so he didn’t fall, but he realized he might just have to tear down the treehouse and make a new one for safety reasons if nothing else.

Johnny would go to the treehouse and work every day after school for a month until his masterpiece was complete. Not only did he use newer (and safer) wood, but he made his treehouse bigger and better than the one that was there before. He could stand in the treehouse without having to duck and 6-8 people could probably fit in there comfortably. (Yes, the tree was able to support something this big. It was a huge tree.) Johnny also built a table and a few chairs and put them in there as well.

Johnny went to school the next day feeling proud of himself. He told his friend Joe about the treehouse and Joe decided that he would come over after school to see it. Johnny couldn’t wait to show off his work.

“It’s just a little further up.” Johnny said to Joe while they were walking through the woods on their way to the treehouse. A few minutes later they arrived at the ladder, which Johnny had also re-done. “I’ll go up first.” Johnny said. “I want to see your reaction when you see the inside.” He climbed up the ladder and Joe followed just behind him. He got to the top and moved over to give Joe room to climb in. “Wow.” Joe said. “Not bad. There’s a lot of room up here.” “Yeah,” replied Johnny. “This tree is huge, so I might as well take advantage of it, right? Now more people can fit in here at once.” “We should totally throw as party in here” Joe said. “We could bring some food and soda up here, a speaker for your phone so we can play some music, it will be fun!” Johnny thought about that for a few seconds, and ultimately decided that he liked the idea. The treehouse would be an awesome hangout spot and it would be fun. “Ok sure.” Johnny replied. “Let’s invite Josh and Steven, but that’s it. Just the four of us.” “Sounds good.” Joe stated. “Friday after school?” “Sure, see you then!” Answered Johnny. Today was Wednesday, so that would give him 2 days to get ready.

Friday came around and Johnny was prepared. He filled the treehouse with chips, popcorn, soda, and a bunch of other snacks. He brought his speaker up and attached it to his phone so he could play some music. He also bought a battery powered light so that when it got dark they could still see.

When Joe, Josh, and Steven came that afternoon they were even more impressed. “Wow, impressive.” said Steven. “It looks even better than it did the other day.” Stated Joe. Josh muttered something incomprehensible. He isn’t much of a talker. “Hey let’s get some music playing!” Suggested Joe. He plugged his Samsung Galaxy S5 into Johnny’s speakers and started playing some music. “I challenge you to a karaoke contest!” said Joe to Johnny. Johnny turned down the challenge. “Chicken!” yelled Joe “It’s not that hard, watch!” He put on “Get Low” by Lil Jon and started singing. “To the window! To the wall! To the sweat drop down my-” and then the music shut off. “What an odd time for the music to shut off.” Said Steven. “I wonder why that happened.” Further investigation revealed that the batteries in the speakers had died.

Overall the treehouse party was a success. The four boys talked (well, all of them but Josh, he kind of just mumbled), played games, and just had a great time. “We have to do this again!” exclaimed Joe at the end of the party. “I’ll think about it” replied Johnny.

Johnny was at his locker at school Monday morning when he was approached by William Williamson. William was the captain of the football team and had never spoken a word to Johnny in his life, unless it was to ask for homework. “Hey, I heard you threw a party in a treehouse last Friday.” Said William. “How does he know about that?” thought Johnny “Joe must have told him. He never shuts up.” “Yeah.” Johnny replied. Johnny didn’t really want anything to do with William. He was sure William was going to slam him with insults about having a treehouse, so he wanted to get it over with a soon as possible. “Do you think I can come to the next one?” William asked. That threw Johnny way off guard. “Uhh… sure I guess” he replied. “Awesome, thanks. When is it?” asked William. Johnny hadn’t really thought about it. He didn’t even know if he was going to have another one, but he didn’t have much of a choice now. “Next Friday at 4.” He said. “Cool, see you there!” William said as he walked away. “Huh. That was interesting.” Johnny thought to himself as he walked to class.

Next Friday came pretty quickly. Johnny invited Joe and Steven as well as William, but decided not to invite Josh. His presence was basically unnoticeable at the last party, and quite frankly he just took up space. Joe and Steven arrived right around 4. By 4:30 William still wasn’t there. “I wonder where he is.” Said Johnny. Just then he heard some screaming from outside. He looked outside to see William, along with six other guys, walking toward the treehouse. “Uh… guys?” Johnny said “William’s here… but it looks like he brought half of the football team with him.” “What?!” Joe exclaimed. He looked outside, then turned back towards Johnny and Steven and said “There’s no way all of them are going to fit in here!” Johnny agreed. There was definitely not enough room in the treehouse for ten people. “What are we going to do?” asked Steven. “We can’t tell William Williamson to leave.” Answered Johnny “We’re just going to have to make it work.”

The treehouse was very cramped, but somehow they managed to stay in the tree without breaking the branches and falling. Johnny didn’t particularly enjoy the party, but William and the other football players seemed to have fun.

Johnny continued to have parties every Friday. His parties became so popular at school that he had to rotate who came to the parties each week. People of all social groups came – the athletes, the video game players, the honors students, etc. The parties were all male at first but eventually some girls started to come. The only person who didn’t show any interest was Sarah. Johnny wished she would ask to come so that he had an excuse to spend some time with her, but she never did. After about 6 weeks Johnny finally developed the courage to ask her to come to the next party. “Hey Sarah!” he said. “Oh hey Johnny!” Sarah replied. “What’s up?” “I was wondering if you wanted to come to my treehouse party next Friday.” Johnny said. “Umm… I don’t know…” Sarah replied nervously. “Come on, it will be fun!” Johnny insisted. “Ok look, I have to be completely honest with you.” Sarah said “I’m embarrassed to admit it but I’m afraid of heights.” Johnny giggled a little and replied “Really? That’s not something to be embarrassed of, I know a lot of people that are afraid of heights. You should still come though, it’s not that high up.” “I don’t know…” Sarah answered. “Come on, you’ll be fine I promise.” Replied Johnny. “Well okay. But I can’t go next Friday because I’m supposed to go to the beach with my cousins. How about the Friday after that?” Sarah said. “Sounds good to me!” Johnny answered. “I’ll see you then!”

For Johnny, it couldn’t be the second Friday soon enough. He thought about the day non-stop. Even during the party that Sarah couldn’t attend Johnny spent the entire time thinking about her, and not really focusing at all on the party. Finally, the big day came. Johnny was nervous, but excited at the same time. This was his chance. He waited at the bottom of the ladder for Sarah to arrive. Joe was the first to show up. Then came Steven. Then Rob, then Maria, then Sam. Johnny waited and waited but no one else came. Just as he was about to give up and join the party in the treehouse, he saw her. She smiled as she walking through the woods towards him. “Hey Johnny.” She said. “Sorry I’m late, I lost track of time.” “No worries.” Johnny replied “Come on, let’s go up into the treehouse.” Johnny went up first and Sarah followed. Johnny could see the fear on Sarah’s face so he grabbed her hand as they went up the ladder. They made it to the treehouse and had a great time.

As the party came to a close, people started leaving one by one. First Maria left, then Sam, and then everyone else followed shortly after. Finally the only people left in the treehouse were Sarah and Johnny. As Sarah was getting ready to leave, Johnny stopped her and said “Hey, you want to come back tomorrow?” “Oh, you’re having another party tomorrow?” Sarah asked “I thought the parties were only on Fridays.” “They are,” Johnny replied “it would just be me and you.” Sarah pondered this for a moment. “Sure” she replied with a smile. “I’ll see you then.”

Sarah came to the treehouse the following day. Again, Johnny held her hand as they walked up the ladder. They spent hours in the treehouse, talking and laughing and enjoying each other’s company. Finally Sarah looked at her watch. “Crap!” she exclaimed “It’s 1 AM! My parents are going to kill me!” “Sorry about that” Johnny said. “Don’t worry about it. Sarah replied “I had a great time, you are well worth whatever punishment my parents will give me.” “I love you.” Johnny blurted out. He had no idea where it had come from, and his face immediately turned beet red. He had messed up and he knew it. But instead of slapping him, Sarah leaned in and kissed him. “I love you too.” She said, then she left the treehouse.

Let’s fast-forward 25 years. Johnny bought his parent’s old house, the one he grew up in, from them when they moved to Florida, and that is where he now lives with Sarah and their son JJ, or Johnny Jr. JJ is a 16 year old boy in his junior year of high school. He is smart and he has lots of friends in school, though he never really spends any time with them outside of school. One day after school JJ got bored. He had already beaten all of his video games, did all of his homework, and had nothing else to do. He decided to wander around in the woods behind his house. He wasn’t really an outdoorsy type of guy, but he had never really been in the woods before and he was curious about what was there. There were a lot of trees, bushes, leaves, all of the normal things you would expect to see in the woods. He explored a little bit, and you’ll never guess what he came across.

Hey, I just read the whole thing, nice short story. I kind of stopped paying attention to the nouns after a while, and just focused on the story though. XD

   That's a really cool idea, I might want to try something like that with my friends. Keep it up.

   No real relevance, this story just made me remember a short story I had once written before. It was about 5 pages or so, about a massive Beyblade battle between two people, and was full of cliff hangers, plot twists, and action. I ended up getting an A on it, but at the very end, in bold red letters, my teacher had written, "Great story, but what the hell is a Beyblade?" XD

F. Starr : Thanks I'm glad you stopped paying attention to the nouns. The whole point of the activity/challenge was to make the story flow and fit the nouns into the story in a way that makes sense.

Lol nice xD

I one hand, I feel this story could have been overall better, but on the other, I know that you spend maybe an hour to write this as it was just for school. Either way, it was rather good and enjoyable, just could use some more details and be a bit more engaging (I don't feel the sparks flying). For a romantic story, I must say you spent more time developing the tree house than the relationship

"Sarah came to the treehouse the following day. Again, Johnny held her hand as they walked up the ladder. " I would question this, but I played enough Halo 1 to know how that works.

Also, I never paid attention to those nouns, if you care to know.