Good morning and welcome to the Fifteen Minute Novel writing challenge. If you have been following along then you might be wondering where Bob and the alien slug monsters have gone. Bob was victorious and is now awaiting editing and his next great adventure. Since it is April and I want to keep the challenge going I picked another interesting little story line from a previous morning writing prompt and decided to see where it would lead. I chose the March 6th prompt. The link will take you to the prompt as it was first posted if you want to compare it to the slightly edited version I am starting off part two of the 2025 writing challenge with. As I thought through the story idea, the first prompt morphed a little so it fit with the base outline I came up with to write the story. It is mostly the same but a little fluffed out. (added names and details to use throughout the story)
For those just tuning in, this challenge is about taking a story idea from bare bones idea into a fully fledged story by writing consistently every week day for fifteen minutes. The sentence I end with on one day, is the sentence I start with on the following. Part one was Bob’s story and has nothing whatsoever to do with the story below. Part Two follows a character named Penelope. I have a few basic sentences to act as road marks on her journey. I am loosely calling that an outline. We will see where she ends up by the time the story is done. For now, we start Part two of the 2025 Fifteen Minute Writing Challenge.
Day 1
‘Is it intentional,’ Penelope thought looking at the page.
Her name was left off the guest list. Was she not being invited to her step-sister’s birthday party or did her stepmother think that she didn’t require an invitation? She read through the list. Penelope counted the names. Even her father and Stepmother were added to the list while her name remained absent. She set the list down and picked up the page detailing the number of place settings. She counted them. The numbers matched.
‘So definitely not invited,’ Penelope thought. She nodded to herself. ‘Intentional then.’
There was no way she was forgotten. At least not accidentally. The head count eliminated the possibility that she was expected without being sent an invitation.
The omission no longer stung. Insults of this sort were taken almost to the level of an art form by both her stepmother Jannette and stepsister Trinity. At this point Penelope almost expected it.
‘The bright side is I won’t be stuck with Trinity’s friends for the evening.’
It was actually a rather bright spot. She had never gotten along with Trinity, and was even less enamored of her friends.
The downside was of course missing a meal at the restaurant. Monolith won awards both locally in the city of Hedit as well as taking several regional awards. Talk of the restaurant was on everyone’s lips and it was even rumored that the Emperor was planning to dine there on his next tour of the regions. Penelope strongly suspected it would be another member of the Garolo family who dined at the restaurant rather than the Emperor himself.
‘But still one of the family would be amazing,’ Penelope thought.
Hedit was a large city when compared to other cities and towns in their region, but they were just over the border from Pana. Pana had many restaurants that routinely took awards as well as venues people traveled from all over Genera to visit. They were easily ranked higher than Hedit on everyone’s must visit list and even visiting dignitaries completed their business and continued on to Pana for upscale dining and accommodations. It was rare that Hedit had a venue that could be considered competition.
Penelope knew that it could compete as not only did Trinity want her birthday party held there, but her mother agreed. If it hadn’t met with Jannette’s approval the event would have been held in Pana as the last five birthdays had been. She would not have agreed to a subpar venue even if it was considered trendy.
Penelope sighed. It would have been nice to eat there and try the food for herself, perhaps even see the grand banqueting room she knew her stepmother reserved. It was said to be as spectacular as the food served in it.
‘But I wouldn’t have gotten to enjoy the food anyway,’ she thought. Any event with the steps tied her stomach into knots. ‘Probably not the best way to enjoy a gourmet meal.’
She accepted the snub, reminding herself that if she hadn’t been snubbed by lack of invitation then she would have spent the night looking for whatever trick was planned. That Trinity would try a trick was a given.
‘I wonder how they plan to tell me,’ Penelope thought.
While Trinity might enjoy having her show up and be turned away from the door, her step-mother still maintained the blended family visual in public and wouldn’t want to show the active split.
‘So, she will probably pull me to the side and say something,’ Penelope thought. ‘Then make up a reason for the others to let them know why I am not there.’ Given that many of the people invited were family connections, both from her father and mother’s side, Jannette couldn’t afford to show her disfavor publicly. They were, after all, the people she wanted so badly to impress.
Penelope had been left off of more and more guest list for events her stepmother coordinated lately and she wondered if Jannette hoped that if no one saw her for a while they would simply forget that she existed.
She shrugged. ‘It’s possible,’ Penelope thought.
At the moment, she had other concerns. She set the papers to the side and picked up the pen she had actually come into the room to get. She needed to make a call and suspected that she would need to at least jot a note or address down while she did it. Having no pen, she went to the most likely place to secure one.
She hadn’t actually meant to come across the party guest list.
Pen in hand, Penelope made certain the papers were in the exact positions she found them and left the room. She didn’t want to be accused of snooping. She also didn’t want anyone to overhear her conversation. Pen in hand she made a quick detour to look out the window. The cars were gone. There was no unexpected return. She was alone in the house.
‘Perfect time to call,’ she thought.
Still, despite the emptied house, Penelope retreated to her room, closing and locking the door before sitting down on the bed. Laid out in front of her was the pen she recently picked up, a notebook for any notes, her cell phone and the mysterious letter that was prompting the call. She unfolded the letter and scanned down to the contact number. She knew the name of the company and knew they were legit. She checked their officially listed number and it matched the letter. She knew it was not a prank nor a scam. But it did look uncomfortably official.
Before she could worry about it, she dialed.
“Carmichael, Alvis and Michaelson,’ the receptionist who answered said after picking up. “How may I direct your call?”
“Johnathan Alvis please,” Penelope said, reading the name of the person she was asked to contact.
“May I say who is calling, please.”
“Penelope Douglas.”
“One moment, please.”
There was a click and hold music played. Penelope tried not to twitch.
Ten til Midnight 