I’ve decided to participate in Mondays Finish the Story. This is a challenge which involves a photograph and an opening sentence to be finished within 100 – 150 words.
So here is my first offering!
Finish the story begins with: “Racing down into the atmosphere, the unidentified object crashed, leaving behind one heck of a huge crater and a plume of smoke that could be seen from miles around.”
Mrs Jenkins stopped the DVD, her stern gaze sweeping the class over the top of her spectacles.
‘Tell me what we’ve just watched.’
Fifteen-year-old Michael cringed as her eyes rested on him and he took a steadying breath. ‘Something crashed into the earth . . .’
‘And what did you think it was?’
He shrugged. ‘It came too fast.’
‘Hmm,’ Mrs Jenkins murmured, her steely eyes still on him. ‘Have a guess.’
‘A flying saucer?’
The teacher’s lips pursed. ‘What else could have come from outer space?’
Michael knew what it could have been but not what it was called. ‘A huge rock,’ he broached.
Sarah’s hand shot up. ‘A meteorite,’ she chirped cockily. ‘Or perhaps just a fragment of one. We can’t tell how big the crater is.’
‘Good. So tonight’s homework is: What are meteorites? In by tomorrow.’
Michael groaned. His mother was the worst teacher ever.
Word count: 149
Totally Love the twist at the end 🙂
Oh my heart just sunk on that ending. As one who found BEing a Mother to a few, new little souls… I really tried to give ammy besteducated, not harsh & lazy, answers to their mist currios of questions. I do know how that hurts–my Ma was an ass many times over and continues to be. I hate these lazy omand/or all about them characters. Im married to one!!:(
Thanks for commenting ahhsioux. There are demanding and intolerant people in all walks of life.
I really enjoyed this story! It reminds me of Mr. Harger in my science class! Thank you for taking part in this challenge! I hope that you come back for next week’s challenge! Be well! ^..^
I’m glad my story brought back happy (!) memories. I tried very hard not to be like this character when I was teaching! Haha! Be well, too.
They were happy memories! Thanks!
The plight of having your mother as your teacher. I know it happens, my eldest daughter had her mother working in the same school as her and it was a disaster, but I know of others for whom it works beautifully. Enjoyed your take on the image.
Yes, it can be awkward for both parent and child. I suppose I was lucky in that things worked out really well when I taught at the same school as three of my teenage children. I hope I’m not at all like Mrs. Jenkins! It was fun imagining things otherwise, though. Thank you for liking my first effort in this challenge.
Delightful story! Great job!
Thank you Betty. I’ve been in the position of teaching in a school where three of my (then teenage) children attended. Fortunately, other than the odd cover lesson due to staff absence, I never actually taught them. The school always tried to do the timetable so the situation didn’e arise. Thank goodness.
My mom substituted at the schools where my sisters attended. And they were embarrassed to have her teach their classes because she was one of the few who actually made them work!
It’s a tricky business teaching your own children. I’m just glad my school timetabled me to avoid them, for the most part. I had the occasional lesson when we had rotating groups within year-groups in science, or when covering for other staff’s absence. But it all worked out well and I (and three of my children) survived the ordeal over the seven years I was there. Its good to see you back in ‘Blogland’ Betty. I hope the move went well and you’ve not had to resort to pulling your hair out!
I’m still not back. We are moved, but there have been some small problems that have added up and we are still trying to get our internet connected. Everytime I try to download anything, I get a message that tells me I’m offline. I don’t know how this is working, but it’s on my phone, and I’m not complaining! 🙂
Absolutely brilliant! ~ A great finish, I love the well drawn interaction between Michael and Sarah~ A great story my friend ~
Thank you so much John. I enjoyed writing it.
nice dialogue 🙂
Thank you, Heath. Your comments are always appreciated.
Oh no, Mum’s the teacher! Nice twist. He’d better get his research done before turning in his homework assignment.
Yes, he’d better! My own children – all well grown uo now — would laugh at this. I taught in the same school as three of them when they were teenagers. Fortunately, no major battles broke out! Thanks for the great comment.
Ah.. I like how the minds of the kids goes from fantasy to real.. and the twist in the end is marvelous…
Thank you for the comment, Bjorn. You’re certainly right about kids’ minds – and perhaps more than a few adults, as well! A little bit of fantasy does us no harm, now and then. Haha! I’m glad you liked the twist at the end.
Having a parent for a teacher is never fun, is it Mum? I was lucky at least that you rarely taught me, even if you were in the classroom next door!
Ah, but my classroom was never as noisy as yours!
True, mine was a very loud class. But we always got the work done! 😀
Meteorites and sharp eyes. Love the geological angle 😀 NV
Funnily enough, I love geology, although I can’t say I’ve ever studied meteorites any great depth! They just seemed to fit into my story. No doubt we’ll chat again on this challenge. I really enjoyed doing this one. Thank you for the nice comment.
Well done on your Monday assignment! I like using my freedom to write shorter posts and longer ones but still capture depth in the length.
Thanks, Ashley. Another blogger suggested I should give this a go when I liked her story a couple of weeks ago. I found it great fun to do. It also gets my head out of the Viking world for a while! The other participants seem a great bunch, too. And keeping the story between 100 and 150 words is good practice. I do tend to ramble – as you may have notice. Haha!
Very nice! You put a lot in that story with just a few words. I like the ending too!
Thank you Tony! I tried hard to bring my ‘teacher voice’ back to life. It’s been buried for four years now!
What a fantastic twist at the end. So much in so little words. I enjoyed it very much. This incident did not happen between one of your girls and you?..or did it? (:
I did teach in the same school as rhree of my children but, thankfully, I was never timetabled to teach any of them! Thank you for commenting Joycelin.
Nice one Millie! I love the way your last line says so much! ❤
Many thanks, Heena. I was quite daunted when I first looked at this picture. All I could think of was aliens and I wanted to do something a little different. I ended up with this story and was quite happy with it. I miss my days in the classroom! I’m glad you liked the last line.
Oh, you bet I did! ❤
Looks like it’s tough for Michael to have his mom as teacher. This brought back memories as I taught my daughter in First Grade one year. That worked out well though. A couple of other little girls called me Mommy once which I thought was really cute. Well done Millie. 🙂 — Suzanne
It seems we both had pleasant experiences in this situation. Although I didn’t have any of my three children in regular, timetabled classes, I did do the odd ‘cover’ lessons for staff absences (which happens when there’s no supply teachers/subs available. Like you, so many of the children knew me, particularly as I lived right in the middle of the school’s catchment area. Thank you so much for sharing your lovely memories with me, Suzanne.
Good job, you are really great at those. I feel like I might over write if I did on of those :p
You really should have a go – you might surprise yourself. You’ll get some good feedback, too, which will help and encourage you to do the next one. Practice makes perfect! Don’t we always have that drummed into our heads? The Mondays story was my first go at flash fiction and, although I’ve had practice with general writing doing my two books, flash fiction means you have to be very concise. You’ll probably spend ages cutting your story down – everyone does. It’s fun!
lol okay I going to try one next Monday then :p Thank you for the advice 🙂
That’s great. I’ll look forward to reading it!
thank you 🙂
Loved this! 😀
It’s very kind of you to say so. Thank you so much!
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I enjoyed it. Funny story.
Thank you! I enjoyed writing my very first ‘flash’, even though it was a worry whether people would like it or not. I soon learned that there are so many different kinds of stories written for these challenges. It’s good to see such a variety, too. 🙂