HOL

Ever get the feeling that change is in the air? That thrill of anticipation that something is about to happen or that something isn’t quite the same as it was before is a great tool to draw your reader in. The winds of change can come in many forms: from a sinister stranger arriving in the neighbourhood to a cat reading a map on a street corner. Whatever you choose, it’s a helpful way to introduce your plot and start building suspense.

For this prompt, we’d like you to write a piece (at least 200 words long) where change is at work. Try to establish normality somehow, then disrupt it. You could do this through your protagonist telling us what’s different directly or by showing it another way. Providing what you write is HOL appropriate, it’s all 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.

Every day was the same routine, get up, shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, brush my teeth, pack my lunch, and walk to school. Even school was dull, the same classes day after day, lectures, homework, and the gossip. In my world, nothing out of the ordinary ever occurred, certainly not in this little town. But for some reason, something was off about today.

I opened my curtains as I did every morning to help my tired eyes, but instead of the usual buzzing outside from adults on their way to work, it was silent. I shrugged it off thinking that maybe they were running late this morning. I jumped in the shower before getting dressed and made my way downstairs. Strangely, my mom was not in the kitchen making breakfast like she would every morning. Instead, it was as if nothing in the kitchen had even been touched. I looked for a note, thinking maybe she had left early, but there was none. I called out for her, and I received no answer.

Once more, I shrugged. Nothing out of the ordinary ever happens in this little town, right? I started making myself breakfast, and after I ate and brushed my teeth, I worked on my lunch to take to school. Soon, I had stepped outside, shouting again to my mom this time that I was leaving. Again, no reply. There were still no people outside either. Now, I was beginning to get worried. This was most definitely not ordinary for this little town.

Beginning my walk, everything around me was hushed. Even the wind ceased to blow, and the birds refused to sing. I started to run. Someone at the school had to know something, but when I reached it, it too was empty. No teachers, no students on the grounds, no school busses fuming out exhaust. The world stood absolutely still.

Then a sound. A buzzing in my ear as I tried to swipe it away. What was it? A bee? A gnat? A really big fly? I sprung up so fast that my head spun as a noise hit me like a foghorn. I sighed. A bad dream was all it was. Nothing was out of the ordinary, not in this little town, and yet, as I opened my curtains, the tree outside my window had begun to change color. Deep reds and vibrant yellows and oranges of which I had never seen before we moved. Perhaps change did not have to be a bad thing, especially when it could be this beautiful.