“I fixed it up! I know you asked me not to, but I read your story. I’m sorry, but when I read it, it didn’t sound anything like what mommy was talking about, so I thought I’d help you write it! Doesn’t it sound good? Don’t you like it, Steven?” she asked innocently.

I paused for a moment, dumbfounded, as it all sunk in. My situation, what had happened, everything. I didn’t want to say anything I’d regret to Sis. I decided that there was no reason to hurt her feelings.

“Yes… it sounds… great, Sis. I was just… calling to thank you for doing such a great job on my story! I love it!” I exclaimed through gritted teeth.

“Thanks, Steven! I’m glad you like it!”

“Yeah, I do. Hey, Sis, I gotta go though, okay? I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Okay, bye, Steven!”

I stowed my cell phone and my anger away for the moment, and rapidly weighed my options. I couldn’t remember every detail of my story exactly as I had written it earlier, so duplicating it wasn’t possible. On the other hand, I couldn’t turn in my little sister’s work; I’d never live it down. I had no choice but to start from scratch. But what would I write about now? I had only 5 minutes left before class started, so I had to finish it by then!

Then an idea struck me for another perfect story, even better than before. I quickly wrote a blurb about it.

“The perfect story is at hand. Zombies kill nearly all humans – with axes. But can Steven, famous among the handful of remaining authors, get the story written in time? His mother suggests a tale about kittens, but Steven would rather see his zombies upgrade to chainsaws. The solution? Undead kittens wielding chainsaws! The author realizes that this story was far more perfect than his previous attempts. With bragging rights guaranteed, he dashes to class with his new story in hand, or so he believes.

Moments before his writing class starts, he realizes that his little sister has inadvertently ruined his story. Now it’s a childish anecdote about sweet, innocent, little kittens. Steven refuses to turn in such a girly paper, especially with his name attached to it! The author is forced to scrap the whole story! He now faces his greatest challenge yet as a haunting question looms over him. “Will Steven become just another victim, doomed to use the “my sister ruined my homework” excuse, or will his cunning prevail again? After all, a hero’s luck can only hold out for so long…”