We are sharing the next story in our series, Featured Short Stories, written by students in the Creative Writing Club.
Every week, the students in the club work on writing stories, sometimes from their own ideas, and sometimes from story prompts. This week’s story prompt was: Write a story about a girl that could control the weather.
This story was written by Chinwendu, aged 10. Enjoy!
The Sun and Rain Weaver
It was a Saturday morning, and I was sleeping peacefully in bed until
BANG!
I opened my eyes, and my irritating brother Aaron burst into my room, my door slamming against the wall.
“Do you mind?” I shouted, pushing him off my bed, where he had been jumping frantically.
“But it’s my birthday,” he said, climbing back on and sitting on my legs.
“I don’t care,” I said sharply. “Get off me!”
I shoved him, and he fell off my bed with a thud. The sunny sky I could see from my bedroom window had turned into an angry grey.
Aaron started screaming in pain, and I grabbed my pillow and swung it at him. It hit him directly in his face.
“Shut up,” I hissed.
Just then, Mum burst into the room. Aaron was still on the floor, fake-crying, while I was sitting in bed, feeling rather distressed.
“What are you doing, Rainey?” She said, picking up Aaron from the floor.
“You should be asking Aaron,” I said. “He’s the one who thinks it’s ok to barge into my room while I’m trying to sleep!”
“It doesn’t mean you should hurt him! It’s his birthday, for goodness’ sake!”
“But it’s not fair!” I moaned. “You always tell me off but never Aaron!”
“He’s only five.”
“I’m six now!” screamed Aaron.
“Right, six. Now quit acting like a baby and behave like a proper fourteen-year-old, Rainey. You’re too old for this and I don’t have time. I need to go set up for Aaron’s party and you’re going to help. Understand?”
I grumbled.
“Rainey-”
“Okay!”
All of a sudden, there was a loud clap of thunder and a flash of lightning as it started raining heavily. We all looked out of the window. Mum shook her head, sighed, and left my room, taking Aaron with her.
**
When I was finally brave enough to show up downstairs, after showering and getting dressed, I walked into the kitchen to make myself some cereal. There were banners up everywhere saying: HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY AARON.
There were balloons everywhere too, including on the kitchen floor. I waded through the mass of balloons to the fridge, where pictures of Aaron were stuck all over it. I didn’t think anyone would notice me at all that day. All the focus was on Aaron. Tiny, immature Aaron. The rain had stopped and started again every time I thought of something negative.
What’s going on? I thought.
Soon enough, guests started arriving. After helping Mum to set things up and organise the snacks, I dodged between the crowds of excited kids and their parents and managed to escape to my room. I hadn’t been mad in a while so it was sunny outside. As I approached my room, I realised that my door was open and there was a faint sound of talking coming from the room.
Surprise, surprise, it was Aaron and his friend James. Not being able to take it anymore, I lost it.
“What is wrong with you?” I screamed. “First you storm into my room this morning and get me into trouble, and now you think it’s okay to hold a conversation with your friend in my room!”
This seemed to shock him, and his friend too. Surprisingly, he didn’t start crying. Instead, he walked over to my window and stared out at the dark, gloomy sky, raindrops falling heavily on the window pane, lightning flashing violently.
“Are you making it rain?” Aaron asked suddenly.
“What?”
“Every time you get angry it rains, but when you’re happy, it’s sunny.”
“I don’t know,” I said, throwing myself onto my bed.
“Think happy thoughts,” said James. I had forgotten he was still in the room. I was quite annoyed that he was telling me what to do, but I figured that there was no point getting angry now, as everyone had probably had enough of the on and off rain.
I closed my eyes and imagined I was on the beach, with Dad. He’s humming a tune, while I bury him in mounds of sand. He laughs while I do it, not caring at all, while Mum is in the background shouting, “Stop that Rainey!”
I don’t care, and neither does Dad. I carry on piling sand on top of him until his whole body but his head is gone. “Try getting up,” I laugh. Dad struggles and doesn’t move so I laugh even harder.
My trail of thought was suddenly lost and I opened my eyes to sunlight beaming through my window.
“I told you,” said James proudly. I shot him a look and he instantly looked away.
“So you can control the weather?” said Aaron, shielding his eyes from the sunlight.
“I guess,” I shrugged.
“What were you thinking of?”
I smiled.
“You’ll get it someday.”
**
“I’m so glad you came to your senses,” said Mum, as we cleared the tables. Aaron’s party had long ago ended, and I was helping Mum tidy up.
“Me too,” I said, smiling. “But Mum?”
“Mhm?”
“I think I can control the weather. Did you know this?”
Mum froze for a second, then carried on clearing up, pretending she hadn’t heard me.
“Mum!”
She jumped, clearly startled.
“Alright,” she began, “Uhh… yes. Yes I did.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t think you’d be able to handle it.”
“Well thanks to me not knowing, I spoiled Aaron’s party earlier today! Do you not trust me?”
Mum shook her head.
I sighed.
“I’m gonna go.”
I left the kitchen and ran up to my room.
A while later, I heard footsteps coming up to my room and there was a knock on the door.
Without me answering, Mum entered and sat herself down on my bed.
“Hey,” she said.
I looked up from my phone for one second then back down.
“I want to talk to you.”
“Well I don’t want to talk to you,” I said, turning away from her. “Go away.”
She ignored me and sat on my bed.
“We knew you’d have a hard time processing it, so we decided to keep it a secret. We planned to tell you once you turned thirteen but…”
She didn’t need to remind me. The day I turned thirteen was the day Dad passed.
“I thought you wouldn’t be able to handle it. You would have been crying so much, the weather would have been terrible.”
I kept silent. I didn’t know if I should have been mad at her or not. I finally turned to face her. She had tears running down her face. I got up and hugged her.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. She hugged me back and we sat there crying for a while until Mum said, “How about you help tidy up the garden?”
While tidying up, I was thinking of ways to control my emotions. I came up with the idea that the best thing to do when I feel angry or upset is control my breathing. But the only problem would be Aaron. He’s the only thing that will stop me from being calm. I guess I’d have to get used to him too.
I wondered if I should tell any of my friends, after all, they would stay friends with me no matter what – right?
I decided to call my friend group, all of them… at the same time. I didn’t know how it would go, but they’d be fine with it – at least, that was what I hoped.
Without thinking, I grabbed my phone and called the group. Stacey, my best friend, picked up immediately.
“Hey,” she said. “What’s up? And why are you calling the whole group?”
“I need to tell you all something.”
After a while, everyone was on the call and I got ready to tell them.
“So, you all know Aaron had his party today.”
“Yeah,” they all said.
“Well, the weather was awful today, but-”
“Yeah,” said Amelia, my next door neighbour. “It’s been raining on and off all day.”
“Right,” I said. “But that was because… I was controlling the weather. Surprise!”
Everyone was silent for what seemed like ages. Then, they all started talking at once.
“What do you mean you can control the weather?”
“So you’ve been making it rain?”
“That’s actually kind of cool!”
“It’s not cool, it’s… weird.”
“Don’t be mean, Amelia,” said Stacey. “At least Rainey had the guts to tell us.”
“Oh, thanks guys,” I said. “I thought you would think I’m weird.”
“We would never,” said Lilli. “We’re your friends.”
I thought being able to control the weather was weird, but it’s not. My friends don’t think I’m weird, neither does my family. I guess I just had to accept who I am – and I have.
If you have a child who loves writing stories and you want to encourage them to explore their creativity and their imagination, then we would love to have them join our writing club! Just click on the link to register, and we will be in touch. Creative Writing Club – Registration Form.
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