Welcome, weebs and authors alike, to The Aniwriter.

Some of you might be aware that I’ve been looking to write more short stories, which is why I started the series Rivoting Writing Prompts, all of which you can see here. I am actually very happy with how my writing has turned out in the series so far, but having more opportunities to test my writing chops is always good. Luckily, Lina from Tiny Ugly Animal has me covered. Lina has tagged me for the Create-a-Story challenge.

Here are the Rules for the tag:

1. You pick your “word”, your setting and your story genre from the list below.As individuals, your brand of creativity is unique to yours, so we want to highlight that by letting you choose from a bunch of words and creating something beautiful out of it. Yes, some people will choose the same combination as others but I guarantee you each story will be unique as per the individual. The options are really just there to cater to you specifically. You can challenge yourself, you can work with your strengths or you can take creative risks. It’s all up to you and how you express your creativity.
2. The short story will have a limit of 1000 words. You do not need to write a story with 1000 words exactly. It could be 300, or 500 as long as it doesn’t surpass a thousand. Easy enough, right? I do know writing a short story with a max of 1000 will be tough. I’ve already written my story, and I had to constantly edit this. So, why the word limit? To be frank, we want to avoid people overthinking this challenge. It’s not about how you stack up to other people. It’s not about your sentence construction or your grammar skills, and it’s not about wowing people with your talents. It’s none of that. It’s about a celebration of your uniqueness and your creativity. There is only one YOU, and this YOU will create a story that truly represents you.I work with a lot of people on a daily basis, and I know a lot of young people think like perfectionists. They want whatever they do to be perfect or majestic, and please set that thinking aside. Your flaws are part of your uniqueness, so just write a story that stays true to you. 1000 words is short enough for people to actually read it, trust me, so just make a story that represents you.
3. YOU HAVE TWO WEEKS TO ANSWER THE TAG. This is honestly just another way to ensure none of you overthink this. It’s not supposed to be your magnum opus. It’s just a fun short story to share with people. If you cannot answer within two weeks, the tagger can tag other people.
4. Lastly, you must tag three people to participate. Keiko will collect all the short stories and compile them into one giant hub featuring all the stories.
5. Don’t forget to link back to Keiko (link back to this post) so she can collect all the stories. You can’t just link back to her WordPress since she won’t be alerted of the pingback. You need to link back to a post or a page, because WordPress works like this. (Very important guys!)
6. Use the Create-A-Story picture in the post. I don’t really know why, but a lot of tags do this so might as well, right? But seriously, it’ll mostly help people recognize all the Create-A-Story tag posts.
7. Copy and paste the rules in your tag post as well, so others can be clued into the Create-A-Story rules.

As for who I will be tagging, that would be:

The Moyatorium

Of Midnight Ravings

Mel in Anime Land

(Feel free to ignore this tag if you don’t feel like writing)

Now, as for the words I am choosing, it will be rain, the setting will a street, and genre will be Slice of Life. Without further ado, here it is.

Aquarius St. in downtown Vivation was just like any other neighborhood-centric street: lots of local business, tons of smiling faces, and kids looking to have a good time. The Ecstatic family owned a bakery and always had fresh bread out in the morning at 7:30 on the dot. Their bread was so famous that even those on the other side of the city came to see. The Rose family ran a flower shop and made special deliveries for the residents on Aquarius St.

But, something was different about this lone city street. Those who were living there a long time always made it a point to tell those who were just moving in. If there was one thing more famous than the Ecstatic family’s bread or Rose’s flowers, it would be the rain. Without fail, every Thursday, from 5 to 6 P.M. it would rain. This fact quickly made Vivation a huge tourist trap, with thousands of people every week coming to observe the absurdly consistent poor.

One day, Leon and his family came to Vivation for the week in order to see the world famous “Rain on Thursday.” The family was staying at a hotel just a few blocks from Aquarius St. They arrived on Monday so that they would have plenty of time to see the rest of the city as well. The family was eating dinner on Monday night at the hotel, and Leon’s mom noticed that Leon was not feeling well. “Honey, are you alright?” “Yeah, I’m fine mom,” Leon replied. His mom could tell that he wasn’t, but she said nothing. After finishing his food, Leon decided to go for a walk. “I’m headed out for a bit,” he yelled into the hotel room as he rushed out the door.

Leon found himself on Aquarius St. at just around 8. He had found a small bench near the bus stop, where he took at a small pair of headphones, plugged them into his phone and started listening to music. Leon gazed up at the stars, admiring to each one individually. Their radiance beamed down on him until he could feel his eyes growing heavier. Eventually, his eyes closed completely and he fell asleep.

“Hey, wake-up!” Leon could hear a girlish voice coming from his left ear. His eyes were now wide awake. “What time is it!” he yelled, scaring the girl sitting next to him. “It’s midnight, silly.” “Huh, interesting.” Leon let out a small, but audible sigh and the turned to the girl who awoke him. Her long brown hair reflected some of the moon’s light, causing a faint glow, and her face reminded him of a friend who had recently moved away. He moved awkwardly to extend his hand. “Hi, I’m Leon.” The girl paused, and responded, “I’m Alyssa, nice to meet you.” The two started talking, and after a while, they forgot what time was, to begin with. Leon felt a certain connection with her, one that he had only felt a few time before. His heart began pounding a little, but he kept it in check. As the clock hit 2 A.M. Alyssa realized she needed to be home “Well, its been fun, I’ll see ya later.” Leon realized she was about to leave and stopped her. “Hey, I was wondering, would you want to watch the rain with me on Thursday? I mean, you live here so I’m sure you see it all the time, but maybe you could give me a tour of Aquarius St.” Alyssa stood and thought for a few seconds, and finally responded. “Sure. Why don’t you meet me here on Thursday?” “Yeah, that sounds great.” Leon felt his voice almost crack as he responded. Soon the two walked in opposite directions, Leon towards his hotel and Alyssa towards her apartment complex near a small intersection.

Tuesday and Wednesday went by in a flash, presumably because of the dream-like state Leon found himself in. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t stop thinking about Alyssa. On Thursday, at 4:15, Leon got ready and headed for the door. “Hey, I’m heading out early so I can good spot for seeing the rain.” The door slammed behind him before either of his parents had time to respond.

Leon reached the bench he had fallen asleep on and waited. Eventually, the clock struck 4:30, and soon Alyssa entered his view. Leon could see her rushing over, and again he could feel his chest bumping. “Hey!” she screamed from the other side of the street, “Come over this way!” Leon checked to make sure the street was empty and ran across as fast as he could. After catching his breath, he replied back “Hey!” in a loud scream. The two laughed and then looked at each other. “Follow me, I’ve got a great place for us to sit and relax. The two headed towards Alyssa’s apartment, again running as fast as they could, for whatever reason. As the reached the entrance, the two headed inside. “Normally people aren’t allowed on the roof, but I can get us up there.”

As they reached the top floor of the building, the two headed up one more flight of stairs, where the reached a locked door. Alyssa pulled out a lockpick and quickly removed the barrier to entry. She swung open the door, turned to Leon and said: “over here.” The two walked over the edge of the roof and sat with their legs hanging from the guardrail. Soon, as their phones showed 5 P.M., they felt small drops of rain, which eventually turned to a poor. As they felt their hair and clothes getting wet, Leon turned to Alyssa and said, “Thank you, Alyssa, for letting me know what it means to be alive again.” Alyssa, somewhat stunned, simply replied back with “you’re welcome.”

So, how did I do with this one? Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you want to support the Aniwriter through donations or are just feeling generous, consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi. Otherwise, thanks for reading and bye for now, Friendos!