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 104: She told herself the usual things growing up of course.
She told herself the usual things growing up of course. That it was her imagination when she thought there were slights given to her. That it was something that was fair in actuality but just seemed unfair to her. Later when she knew it wasn’t her imagination she thought it might be her fault, or just what happened in blended families. She also thought no one outside the house knew.
‘At least until Elise,’ Penelope thought. She chewed her bite of sandwich, swallowed and took another, her thoughts drifting back to Elise.
They had been friends. Penelope even thought of Elise as her best friends. They had friendship bracelets and sat together in class when they could. Then things changed. Elise started spending more time with trinity. Sitting at her lunch table instead of with Penelope. Penelope remembered trying to join her and being told she wasn’t welcome at the table. It stung when she walked away while Elise stayed.
Elise had looked down at her food, her eyes never straying from her lunch, and she hadn’t said a word as Penelope walked away.
She was welcomed at another table. Sat with other friends who weren’t as close. Gina told her to forget about it. ‘It isn’t personal,’ Gina said. ‘Elise’s father is hoping to get a contract with your father’s company and she was told to be friends with Trinity.’
Penelope remembered nodding. She knew Gina’s family were friends with Elise’s even though they weren’t all that close. She also could see the logic. Being friends with Trinity would put her and her family on Jeanette’s radar and in her good graces. She would pass the goodwill on to her father and it could, in theory help him. Being friends with Penelope got them nothing.
Penelope remembered cutting off her friendship bracelet that night and throwing it in the trash. She cried into her pillow and then the next day tried her best to forget about it. It was hard to ignore the sting when she saw the new friendship bracelet on Trinity’s wrist. She told herself that it Elise could to that then she wasn’t a true friend.
It still hurt.
“Gina proved to be a much better friend and we are still friends.”
Elise and Trinity were still friends too of course. Whether it contributed to business relations of nor she couldn’t say but she knew Elise’s father did a lot of business with hers over the years. “And she was very excited about the birthday dinner,” Penelope recalled.
One of the ways she found pout about it was because Elise and Trinity were talking about it. Trinity was bragging and Elise was clearly jealous of the event. Penelope thought of Jeanette’s call and wondered how things would work out with the party in general. The announcements had gone out and it would be quite an embarrassment if the party would be cancelled.
‘It could look like the business was having trouble.’
Penelope knew that if it looked like trouble, rumors could start and the rumors could cause doubt, the doubt spiraling into actual distress.
Ten til Midnight 