TGIS! (Thank Goodness It's Summer!)

Ella flew up the stairs, taking them two, three, sometimes even four at a time. She was running away from her older brother, come home for a summer vacation after his first year of college. Her breathing was heavy from sprinting through the house, but she wore a huge grin on her face. Kyle had been gone for six months this time! She had missed him so much, even though most people thought she was crazy, she was a sixteen year old girl after all, shouldn’t she fight with her brother all the time? Well, yeah, the two of them had had their share of arguments when Kyle and Ella were little, but once Ella got passed elementary school the two became best friends. Kyle’s freshman year of college had been difficult for Ella to get through, it was such a drastic change, but now he was home for three months!
Ella looked behind her once she reached the top of the stairs, giggling as she saw that her brother was so far behind that he wasn’t even in view. She ran into her bedroom, and shut the door. When she turned around Ella found Kyle sitting on the edge of her bed, in the dark, and she let out a half mock, half real scream. Kyle jumped off of the bed and picked Ella up, swinging her over his shoulder. She laughed, and playfully punched his back, telling him to put her down, but of course he didn’t.
Kyle walked all the way down the stairs and into the back yard with Ella, and when the two reached their pool, he climbed up onto the diving board, and through his sister in.
“Kyle!” Ella squealed after resurfacing, “You are so lucky my phone wasn’t in my pocket!”
“How could it be? It’s in mine!” Kyle laughed, pulling her phone out of his own pant pocket and placing it on the patio table.
“Wait. Do you have your phone on you right now?”
“Nope, it died on the way here, so I just put it in my suitcase. Why?”
“Good.” Ella climbed out of the pool and ran over to her brother, giving him a big hug, “I missed you so much!”
“No, no!” Kyle protested, not wanting to get wet. When it was too late he laughed and said “I’ve missed you too, El-El.” After a few moments Ella let go of Kyle, and turned to go back inside, but before she got very far, she spun around and ran back towards her big brother, shoving him into the pool. As he was falling in, Kyle grabbed Ella’s wrist, and she came in too.
“Gotcha!” She shouted when they had both come back up.
“You’re so in for it now!” Kyle laughed, and sent a huge splash of water in Ella’s direction. The two siblings spent all afternoon in the pool, splashing each other and having a good time. It had been a long school year.

Real or Costume?

They had nothing more to say to each other. Nothing at all. Emma and Elizabeth stood glaring at one another for a few more moments before each girl turned on their heal and marched in opposite directions. Emma couldn’t believe that Elizabeth would stab her in the back like that. Elizabeth didn’t understand why Emma was so angry about something so trivial. What was going on here?

“And then she had the nerve to ask me why I was so angry!” Emma said into the phone receiver a few hours later, talking to one of her other friends. “Like, seriously? That was the locket from my mom, from before, you know, the accident! And Elizabeth lost it! She knew how important that was to me. That girl didn’t even have the nerve to ask to borrow it, and then she just loses it! Ridiculous!”

“Mom! I don’t even know why she’s so mad!” Elizabeth cries to her mother, trying to hold back her tears. “She just started yelling at me! I only borrowed her show necklace, it wasn’t like it was expensive or anything! I could go to the costume store and buy a brand new one to replace it. I didn’t lose anything like the one that her mom gave her before she died! How could she do this to me?”

These two fourteen year old girls were in the middle of a Junior High School crisis. Maybe I’ll revisit their story later, maybe not. This idea came off of http://www.creativewritingprompts.com, number 161.