Short Story: The Cheesecake

Genre: slice of life

Savor: taste (good food or drink) and enjoy it to the full.

 

~The Cheesecake~

Deep, red strawberries. Pure white cream. Beautifully golden body. The cheesecake was picture worthy just as it was.

The fork dug easily into the cake all the way through the biscuit base. One bite, and it was gone. The cheese melted easily on the tongue, refreshingly sour from the lemon but also light from the cream, topped with the crunch from the delightfully creamy base.

The next mouthful had the strawberry. Its sweet-sourness mingled with the rest of the cake for a flavour party in the mouth.

A third scoop picked up the rest of the little piece of heaven. It disappeared way too quickly, like frost in the sun, leaving only its sweet-sour memory behind.

The now empty plate joined the stack of three others.

“One more!”

~End~

Short Story: Family Time Capsule

Genre: slice of life

 

She found her youngest son patting the ground at the corner of the garden.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m burying my family time capsule.”

“Family time capsule?” Her two older ones had created their own time capsules a few years back, but she hadn’t heard of a family version before.

“Teacher told us to write a letter to future us and put our favourite things inside. My favourite things are us, so I put us inside too.”

Aww. How precious. “How?”

“I put our blankies and your favourite watch inside. I wanted to put Daddy’s car in but it was too heavy, so I put the car keys.”

Her son smiled. She really didn’t want to be the one to take that smile away, but the family time capsule couldn’t stay buried.

“Honey, that sounds great. Can you dig it up again so I can see it?”

~End~

Drabble: Sweet Division

Genre: family, slice of life

 

Three people.

Two cakes.

One problem.

As one, the two brothers stabbed the same cake with their fork. The sister quietly reached for the other cake and cut it with her fork.

“Mine,” the brothers snarled. Invisible sparks flew between their eyes, both unwilling to back down.

Unnoticed, the sister pulled their forks out of the poor, mangled cake and dug in with her own. Once done, she distributed the cakes, each sliced into three portions, evenly among them.

“Let’s eat,” she said.

The brothers snapped out of their wordless fight. Only then did they notice what had happened to the cakes.

“That’s why I like you best,” the older brother said.

“Hey! That’s my line.”

The sister ignored them and ate her cake.

It was just another day with her brothers.

~End~

Drabble: A Simple Dream

Genre: slice of life

 

He had a simple dream.

Be the school’s arm wrestling champion.

For that dream, he trained everyday. His techniques sharpened, his strength grew, his muscles bulked up.

In one arm.

Looking at his arms in the mirror, one buff, one skinny, he wondered if he should have done things differently.

~End~

Drabble: Misattributed

Genre: slice of life

 

I, a notorious prankster, had just been pranked.

And no one will believe me.

“I didn’t do it.”

“‘Course you didn’t.”

It was the first of many. Salt in the sugar jar, cling wrap across the doorway. People got angry.

At me.

“I didn’t do it.”

“Stop lying.”

In private, I looked for the real prankster, but I didn’t find him. He found me.

“Stop stealing my thunder.”

“You can have it.”

But no one listened. I didn’t dare to make people angrier, he lost his motivation for mischief.

Monotony returned.

Until the itch to prank struck again.

~End~

Drabble: A Little Pink

Genre: slice of life

 

“Does it look a little pink to you?”

“Looks perfectly fine to me.”

“Then you eat it.”

“No way! I mean… she made it for you. You eat it.”

“You can have it.”

“I don’t want to die.”

A third voice cut in. “What’s wrong?”

They looked at the chef.

“N… nothing’s wrong.”

“Is it because there’s only one? I’ll fix that.”

She cut the steak in half with one slice.

“Problem solved.” She sent them a deadly smile. “Anything else?”

Fearing for their lives, they frantically dug into the practically raw meat.

~End~

Drabble: One Week

Genre: family, slice of life

 

It would only be there for one week, but one week was a long time time to endure crawling through their own house just to get to the front door.

‘It’ was an obstacle course made out of strings, modelled after the web of laser sensors in spy movies. The course was great, but there was one problem.

They allowed her little brother the living room. He had taken most of the ground floor instead.

Fortunately for him, he had a wonderful, understanding family.

But once his birthday party was over, those strings were going down.

~End~

Prompt: temporary

Drabble: Overreaction

Genre: slice of life

 

She hummed as she hung the clothes up to dry. He crept up behind her, light as a feather, silent like a ninja. Without warning, he struck!

A scream cut through the air. The rest of the group rushed over.

What they found was damp clothing thrown everywhere, as if a clothes bomb had exploded where the only female in their group stood. Across from her sprawled their youngest member, half buried under a hill of clothes. A soft drink can rolled on the floor, the shiny surface wet with condensation.

“What happened?”

The girl sent them a rueful look.

“I panicked.”

~End~

Drabble: Secret Hand Signs

Genre: slice of life, humour

 

He finally pressed his fingers into place.

“How about that?”

His friend laughed.

“You just insulted me.” She presented her own hand. “This is how you do it.”

They were both the same!

“You’re pretty close. It’s just this finger.” She tucked his little finger halfway behind his ring ringer. “There you go.”

He looked at his hand and the pretzel his fingers had twisted into. “What part of this is subtle?”

“You only say that because you know what to look for. I started two years ago. Did you notice?”

“… No.”

“There you go. Don’t worry. With practice you can make it look natural.”

Her hand flowed from one sign to the next as she talked. She was trying to be encouraging, but seeing all the little nuances he still had to learn just stressed himself out even more.

“You can always give up if it’s too hard.” Her fingers twisted into a sign he definitely recognised. He scowled and pulled his fingers into the sign for ‘determined’.

“I can keep going.”

“You just called yourself a mum.”

He growled and threw his hands into the air. One day, he would learn the stupid signs, and it would be his turn to laugh.

~End~

 

Nuance reminded me of a fanfiction I read ages ago that featured fan language. Writing about fan language felt too much like copying, so I tried to come up with something else. The characters aren’t really signing. They’re just making their own hand gestures, like how we sometimes make our own secret languages.

Drowsy Days

Genre: fantasy, slice of life

 

He was always tired. No matter how much he slept, he couldn’t replenish his energy fast enough to replace what his superpower sucked out of him.

Because he was a minor when the ability first appeared, his parents were notified when he participated in the government’s secret super census. He hadn’t been too happy then, but now he was thankful.

They might be nosy and naggy, but they also cared enough to make sure all his teachers didn’t bother him when he slept in class, explaining his constant exhaustion away as a medical condition.

A light touch on his shoulder stirred him from his doze.

“Don, we’re moving,” Patricia said.

“Thanks.” He slid his book into his bag and followed the group out of the classroom. As he turned the corner, his phone buzzed three times in quick succession. He tapped Patricia’s back to get her attention.

“I’m not feeling very well. I’m going to go back early.”

“Ok. Take care.”

“Thanks.”

Once out of sight, he pulled out his phone. Thundude’s message was a short call for backup from the rest of the team. He changed into his gear and stashed his personal items. All the energy he had been hoarding was for this moment.

Enhancer, on the way.

~End~