Writing Prompt
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STORY STARTER
“I warned my brother that not everyone liked his practical jokes.”
Write a story beginning with this sentence.
Writings
I warned my brother that not everyone liked his practical jokes, especially girls. I told him they think it’s immature and it would only make them dislike him more. But I couldn’t stop him, all he cared about was impressing her.
“You think she’s gonna want to go out with you after you pull a prank on her?” I said.
“ Sure! Girls like someone who makes them laugh. Plus, she’s in my class and she’s always joking around”. He said.
“There’s other ways to be funny.” I said. But he ignored me and resealed the sugar packet.
“Classic salt instead of sugar prank.” He said. “ She’ll come to confront me, and I’ll say ‘well how else was I supposed to get your attention?’ She’ll think it’s cute and I’ll end up with a date. “ He smiled and winked at me .
The very moment he saw her sit down at a table with her coffee, he grabbed the sugar packets and walked towards her.
“You don’t like sugar in your coffee?” He said as he stood next to her. She looked up confused at him.
“Um... well, yes” she said, “But there were no more sugar packets.”
“Well, your lucky because I happen to have extra packets.” He handed her the sugar.
“Oh, really? Well, thank you.” She started to open the packets and my brother walked back to our table.
“I really wish you could understand the stupidity in this.”
“Brother,” he said. “ Your too serious. You don’t understand how to have fun.”
Then it happened. The girl had taken a sip of her coffee, and in tasting the salt, she spit it back into the mug. Once she recovered from this shock, she shot a furious glance at my brother, who was pretending to text on his cell phone. She stormed over to our table.
“Oh, no.” I grumbled.
“Did you think that was funny?!” She yelled at my brother. He looked up at her as if he didn’t know what she was talking about.
“Sorry, what was that?”
“You ruined my coffee! I spent money on that, money that I don’t have, only to keep me awake to study! Now you’ve ruined it and possibly my entire semester!” Her face was burning red, yet she seemed to be trying to hide a smile.
“Now, I think your being a little dramatic” said my brother. I flinched. My brother started again.
“ How else was I supposed to...” but she cut him off.
“Your such an immature, selfish child!” She took a quick glance at my brother’s unopened soda bottle, and smirked.
“Enjoy your soda.” And she stormed out of the cafe. My brother and I shot a curious look at each other. He opened the soda, and heard a plop. Suddenly the soda began fizzing up and spilling all over my brother. Shocked, my brother looked at me, then started laughing.
“What a woman!” He said. “I told you, brother! You need to have some more fun in life!”
I warned my brother that not everyone liked his practical jokes, but never listened to me. For example, cutting off Sif’s hair, and claiming it was because of Midgard’s legends. She didn’t laugh, I didn’t laugh, Father was furious.
And setting those snakes loose when Father was having a meeting with his War Consul. Okay, that one did weed out a fearful warrior, and I do admit to chuckling at his screams. But still, there is a time and a place!
Ah, my brother. He loves his tricks and pranks, his mischief. I trust he will never do anything truly harmful (I recovered fully when he stabbed me when we were eight.) There is good in him.
I know there is...
“I warned my brother that not everyone liked his practical jokes. Yeah right he said, walking to the bar what you having? Same again? As I sat at the table watching him, he started talking to these 3 lads in their early 20’s, at first they were all laughing and joking, then all of a sudden they stopped laughing, all except my brother who was laughing even more, I didn’t of them handed him £20 and he came back to out table. When he got back I said what was that all about, ah nothing just a joke he said, It didn’t look like they found it funny I said, Frank said it’s not my problem they have no sense of humour. For the rest of the night, they kept looking over at Frank, it looked like they were discussing something. I told him they were making me uneasy, he just said don’t be soft, even if they wanted to kick off what are a couple of kids going to do against us? Frank is 6’2 and weighs 15 stone, I’m 6’ and weigh 13 stone. Around 10 o’clock the lads came over to us, one of them shook Franks hand laughed and said fair play mate, you pissed me off a-bit at first but a bet is a bet, see you round, then they left the pub. Frank and I had a couple more, then I ordered a taxi and went home, he said he was having one more and he’ll see me tomorrow.
That was the last time I saw by brother alive officer.
“I warned my brother that not everyone liked his practical jokes.” My voice was monotone. I held back every emotion I had. “I told him the first time he said he was planning on doing one in public but he didn’t listen, he never did.”
I gave a small laugh. “I remember when he first started doing pranks on his YouTube channel he wanted to do one on Dad. He wanted to pretend to have crashed his car and I told him not to, that Dad would give him into so much trouble. But he didn’t listen. He just laughed and promised it would be funny.”
I wiped at my eye, swiping away the tear before it could fall. “That’s all he wanted, to make people laugh, to make someone’s day better, even if only for a minute. That was both the best thing about him and the worst.” I could feel my eyes burning with tears.
“Before he did the video he told me his plan. I told him it was stupid and of course, he didn’t listen.” A tear fell from my eye, I didn’t wipe it away. It fell down my cheek and onto the floor. “He was the most kind, stupid and selfless person I’ve ever met. I loved him with my whole heart and I always will. My brother, Harry Michael James.”
I stepped down from the podium and back to my seat to watch the rest of the funeral.
“I warned my brother that not everyone liked his practical jokes.”
Simmons paused and just stared at her.
“What?” He questioned once again.
Sister shrugged. “He’s not even that funny.” She explained. “Sure, he got you to squirm a little, but I could have done better than that.”
Was she implying that the bullshit he just went through was all part of some elaborate prank?
Simmons didn’t even validate her with a response, just gave her a weak glare as she took another swing of beer.
She raised her brow around the bottle and gave out an amused chuckle as she lowered it from her lips. “Holy shit!” She gushed. “He was being serious!”
Simmons”s face instantly turned red, at least in the places where there was still human flesh. “No!” He degraded quickly. “You’re right. It was a joke. He was just joking.” He said quickly, tripping over his own words.
Kaikaina just smiled childishly. “You sure?” She asked, drawing out the word with an immature tone.
Simmons paused, face beet red as he recalled the moment when Grif had approached him.
He didn’t seem like he was joking.
He seemed like he was being serious, which was odd because Grif was never serious.
But this time, there was no joke about it.
He said what he said and meant every word.
“You- he didn’t-“ Simmons stammered. “Go back to your own base!” He yelped, frustration and confusion rising in his stomach. “Why are you even over here?”
Kai pouted. “Blue base is out of beer.” She whined.
“Get out!”
And that was the end of that conversation.
At least the end of that conversation that he would have with Kai.
He was pretty terrified to have the same discussion with Grif, who he had rudely ran away from earlier that day.
He wasn’t sure how he’d be able to approach him after that.
Apparently he didn’t have to because Grif did the approaching.
“Hey,” The orange soldier said nonchalantly as he approached him. “Sorry to get your panties in a twist.”
Simmons bit his lip. “It’s fine.” He trudged. “I know you were just messing with me.”
Grif paused and looked like he was about to protest before he caught himself. “Yea,” he agreed. “That’s what I was doing, messing with you.”
Simmons let out a sigh of relief, but feeling odd as he basked in slight disappointment. “It’s ok,” He said. “It didn’t affect me at all.”
Grif scoffed. “Sure it didn’t.”
Simmons frowned. “It didn’t.” He reiterated. “Fatass.”
Grif smiled. “Nerd.” He mused, leaving Simmons slightly blushed as he walked away.
It was just a practical joke, right?
Simmons sighed.
No it wasn’t.
“Grif!” He called, causing the orange soldier to turn to face him.
Simmons swallowed the lump in his throat and went for it. “I like you too.”
I warned my brother that not everyone liked his practical jokes. I’m not sure why he didn’t believe me, or why he didn’t take me seriously. At this point I should be use to this, but unfortunately I am not. For a while me and my brother haven’t gotten along, but I always try to look out for him. See a few years ago, we got placed in a bad situation. We already didn’t have much growing up, but what happened all those years ago really changed everything for the both of us. To some extent I didn’t expect for things to stay the same, but on another level; I kind of hoped they would have remained the same. I can remember a time where my brothers jokes were funny and a time when we actually got along. I honestly cannot even remember the exact moment that our relationship started to fall apart, it seemed as if it happened overnight. In all honesty, I think it did because I remember one day we were talking and the next it was like a nightmare. It’s crazy how one moment you are like best friends with a person, and then the next it’s as if you had never met. I find it so ironic, but at the same time it’s kind of perfect because if that person you once thought you knew is actually not who you thought they were; then, don’t you have the opportunity to become someone new? That chance to start over sometimes isn’t the worse imaginable thing in life, if anything it may be better. However, sometimes you don’t want a change, and you want to be the same person you were before life got complicated. At least that’s what I want, I want to laugh at my brothers jokes. I want us to get along and be able to have those long conversations that we use to have when everything was alright. Because now to think that we don’t even talk, unless money is involved; is really depressing. What kind of life have we decided to live? And why are we both so stubborn? How, life’s so short and even though we both know that, we don’t acknowledge that at any moment either one of us could vanish from the earth. Instead of confronting one another about the elephant in the room, we just walk on by as if nothing has happened. That’s sad right? Like wow, someone who you grew up with and now y’all can’t even sit in a room and talk. Now all he does to get through life is makes jokes, but his jokes are no longer funny. Many people ask him why he never takes things seriously, and sometimes I sit and wait for him to answer. However, usually he never does, well at least not while I am in the room. It’s almost as if he’s terrified to speak around me, and at this point I actually believe he is terrified.
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