My Power of the Pen Stories

District Competiton Story: ROUND 3

LOCATION: District competition
PROMPT: The first time - build a story around this new experience
TITLE: The First Time
RANK: 1
QUALITY POINTS:
AWARDS: Honorable mention
ROUND: 3
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The first time my seven year old sister had to call the police on my father while hiding under a table had been the most frightening moment in my thirteen years of life. The cries of my siblings, hiding themselves from my rampaging father, throwing things, yelling so loud at my mother that his hateful words echoed through our house, trying to hurt her.

The memory haunts my thoughts every night as I drift off into peaceful sleep. The sound of the phone being smashed to the floor replays in my head so many times that in the morning my pillow is stained with tears.

"Dad, stop!" Tori screams, trying to pull my father away from my sobbing mother resting on the armchair. With one swift swipe of his arm, the five year old is thrown to the wooden floor, tears of pain and fright staining her once rosy cheeks. Anger wells up inside of me and I run at the man, knocking him away from the helpless woman. He snarls, resembling an angry lion about to feed on its prey, and turns back to my mother, yelling. Screaming.

"Call the police!" I yell over the sound of cuss words floating in the air, threatening to break me down into a mess of tears. I hold Tori's hand protectively and watch with a straight face as Sasha picks up the phone, at age seven, to call the police. On her father.

"He's not deserving of the title," I mumble to myself, and Tori glances at me with sadness so prominent on her face that I know she isn't the innocent five year old soccer star she was an hour ago. The fact hits me hard and I have to bite down on my cheek to avoid crying, letting go, giving up.

I already gave up on him. The first time he picked up that bottle of beer, I gave up on him.

The police are coming. I know as soon as Sasha places the phone on the table only for my father to shatter it on the floor, yelling at us, his own children. Idiots. Stupid. Wastes of space. Monsters.

And for a second, I believe him.

Sobbing. So much crying, overwhelming me. I place my hands over my ears but the dreadful sound echoes through my brain as the police car pulls into our driveway, and the drunk man invading our house bolts upstairs, hiding from his own actions. I laugh because he thinks it is that easy, to hide from the broken family he had shattered to pieces.

The police find him. He begs for me to help him as they arrest him, his eyes cold and distant. I stand, doing not one thing. He doesn't deserve it.

He's gone.

He comes back a week later, and the house is completely and utterly silent. Not a word is spoken, not until he enters my room at night to ask for a goodnight kiss.

I refuse.

He begs for forgiveness. He cries. That was the first time I saw my father cry, that night. He tells me, promises me he will quit drinking.

His eyes were full of emotion then. He held a look of sadness, helplessness.

I forgave him, and I gave him a kiss on the cheek, wishing him a good night. My hopes for a happy family were restored. I was happy, content. He took us golfing, on trips, bought us toys.

Our family was glued back together, the shattered pieces cleaned. Our once broken family, now happy. We laughed, together. We played, together. We smiled, cheered, and sang together. And we were happy.

Until the second time.

• •
*Tears* So sad. Okay, yeah this is based off a true story. MY LIFE! I changed my sister's names so keep that in mind (Sasha and Tori.) I actually was so close to winning Best of Round for this story, but someone else who I'm actually in a kind-of internet friendship with who wrote from the perspective of a cat did. I can see why they won, it was really creative! (I'm not gonna tell you what it was about, I don't know if she would want it posted for the world to steal.) They did announce that I was considered deeply for the Best of Round but was eventually beaten by the cat story. Darn! (Just kidding, I'm really happy for her. :p) What did you think of this story? I like the ending sentence. The rest is eh. The question of the chapter is: Have you ever written a story based off your life? See you later!

-Olivia