Prompt: Mixed Up Mistakes

[Prof. Sky Alton]

For this April, the Book Club is getting a little silly with mistakes, misunderstandings and pranks. Misunderstandings and mistakes are unfortunate when they happen in real life but they can be a goldmine when you’re writing stories. Entire plots have been based around misunderstandings, mistaken identities or people making decisions they live to regret. They can make your storylines interesting and they’re a great way of challenging your characters, as well as making them seem more human.

So, for this prompt, I’d like you to weave in mistakes or misunderstandings into a 200 word scene or story. Your character might fall victim to malapropisms (where they switch one similar sounding word for one with a different meaning), two characters might have two completely different ideas of what they’re discussing or perhaps someone misinterprets a message. Providing there’s some obvious mistake or misunderstanding, it’s up to you.

You’ll earn 20 beans for completing this prompt as well as it counting towards the chance to snag our shiny Quill and Ink award.

There is no deadline as such for these prompts but if you’d like it to count towards your chance of earning the award for a specific year, we’ll need it by the end of that school year. If you’re comfortable sharing, then post below. If not, email your story to us via hol.bookclub @ gmail.com (without the spaces). Oh and remember it’s a good idea to check through your piece carefully for spelling and grammatical errors as they make it harder for people to properly enjoy your work.

[Hannah Lovegood]

Once upon a time there was a royal family in a royal castle. The royal queen's birthday was coming up. So, they were going to have a party but they had to figure out what the queen wanted for her birthday first. So, they asked the queen, “What would you like for your birthday?” The queen said, “I'd like a cat plus I'd like the entire castle cleaned and all my friends invited and, of course, no party.” She is the queen of Knownstone. There is a beautiful little city underneath. The castle is on a hill. The castle stretches all the way around and the entire thing is glassed in. The first floor is entirely glassed in but it is 5 stories tall. There is a beautiful garden on their mountain outside.

The queen was going to meet a few of her friends in the park for a picnic. So, everybody else got the party set up and cleaned up the entire castle and invited all of her friends. They said, “Now we need to go find a rat.” because that was what they thought she said. They had to go down in the dungeon of doom where there are no lights other than these humongous crowles that look like humongous crabs. They eat whoever they can find. So, they found a nice rat and they pulled its little tail and closed the door on one of the crowles' hand. They wrapped the rat up in a very beautiful box with a new set of royal purple dress and purple crown.

When the queen came back from the little party with a few of her friends, they let her into the party room. She asked, “What is going on here? Did you set up a party for me? Are you silly or are you mad? Fine, only this once I'll have a party. I'll check out the presents.” First she opened the box with the dress and the crown. Then, the queen said, “Oh. Princess Lulu, I have a small gift for you too.” Then she gave Princess Lulu a matching dress and a matching smaller crown. Then she said, “Ok. Let me check out this other gift. Is it a cat?” “Yes it is,” King Gerald said. So, she opened it up and screamed, “A rat! I asked for a cat.” “Oh. You wanted a hat?” said the king and handed her a new hat. “No, I said cat. C... a … t,” said Queen Elinore.

[Silvana Mandeville]

Silvana's office door opened, two people appeared from behind the door. One of them gave her a big smile while the other looked scared and confused.

"Where were you, Yerrisa? Did you still remember the party is going to start in an hour?" Silvana asked, her tone was cold, she was stressed because the singer hasn't picked her phone call for umpteenth time and it made her pissed off.

The girl was silent and didn't make any noise. Silvana stared at her long before sighed and turned at the man who still gripped Yerissa by her elbow.

"Where did you find her?" she asked.

"I was outside, doing order from Mrs. Irene and found her in the florist beside our office, Ma'am," the man, Pierre said and pushed Yerissa to Silvana.

"So, still not talking, huh? Do you still want to work or not?" Silvana asked again.

"I am sorry, Miss Silvana. But I'm not Yerissa. I'm Aurora, Yerissa's twin sister," the girl said.

Silvana and Pierre stared at her long before the man broke out into laughter and said, "I know you like to play pranks, Yerissa. But today isn't the right time for you to have fun with your prank."

"But it's true!" the girl exclaimed then turned to Silvana. "We went to the same high school. I was your junior at school."

"What? And why did I never know about this?" Silvana wondered, her mind was working fast and collected every memory about something related to Aurora Kim.

"Well, it wasn't a surprise if you didn't remember me from school. I'm not a popular student and you often spent most of your free time at the library or the sakura tree with books."

Silvana chuckled a bit, reminiscing her school days. It was true, and there was a time when she made a popular boy at school embarrassed because she didn't know who that boy was. Many people were afraid to talk with her, though it seems like they knew what she liked to do. Silvana only talked with Yerissa a few times at school, then they met again at work.

"Alright, enough of this already. I don't care if you told us that you aren't Yerissa, and you are Aurora or Sleeping Beauty that might still be in her dreamy land or whoever you are. I want you to go to the dressing room and prepare yourself. Then, do us a favor to sing a song so Mr. Park wouldn't have our heads if he doesn't see you today at the party," Silvana said to Yerissa in her intimidating voice. "Pierre, take her to Kalisa."

And then, the party went well. Yerissa as always did a great job in singing. She is really talented. Silvana was once again back in her office, across her Yerissa sat lazily on the couch. Suddenly the door opened with a full force, Silvana jumped in her seat. The person in the crime walked inside in a hurry. "Miss, please forgive!" the girl wailed, buried her head on Silvana's knees. "I fell asleep after taking the medicine. Then when I woke up, I panicked because I was late to the party. I am so sorry! I hope Mr. Park won't kill us." The girl kept apologizing. Silvana turned from the girl on her knees to the one on the couch. She closed her eyes. "So it's true, there are two of you," she whispered.

"What do you mean?" the girl on her kneesㅡthe true Yerissa asked.

"It means, you can stop crying right now and thank me because I have saved your head," said the other, the one that wasn't Yerissa but Aurora.

"Aurora, what are you doing here?" Yerissa asked her sister.

"I was buying a flower for mom, when a big man dragged me here. Telling me to come and sing, etc. They don't want to believe that I wasn't you. So, I have to wear this glittery gown and then I have to pretend to be you. It was good that I could choose a song, I would have made a fool of myself if not."

Silvana turned to Aurora. "Nice to meet you, Aurora. Forgive me, because I don't remember even don't know who you are. And your sister here likes to play pranks, that's why …." Silvana laughed and stared at the twins before her, they really look alike. "Yerissa, maybe you want to introduce Aurora to the others?" Then the three girls went out, Yerissa introduced her twin sister to her friends, they were very surprised when they found out that the one who was singing earlier was indeed Aurora.