Cold and tasteless. I eat my microwaved chicken, thinking over my day. School wasn't going too well as I might fail my math class. And my landlord's bill had increased, so that needed to be figured out. I sigh as I take another bite of my dinner. I practically spit it out when the cold surface touched my tongue. The stupid microwave in my apartment never cooked anything correctly. I sigh and dump my paper plate into the garbage. I'd be fine without dinner, I had a big lunch anyway.
I settle down on the couch and turn on the news. Nothing too exciting except for more protests and more violence. I tsk and shut off the TV to focus on a math assignment that I would be able to redo. It was basic calculus, but I had never been the best at math. Plus, my dyslexia made it that much harder. I focus on the screen and try to make out what the problem was asking. Samantha had seventeen alligators - no - answers on her test correct. If there were twenty questions in Alabama - no, gosh no - all, what's the place - no - percentage of how many were right? Or left? No, it was definitely right. Okay, so we'd just make a chart and-
Suddenly, a bright blue light flashed in the corner of my vision. I turn to look out at the window overlooking an alleyway. But there was nothing there except a garbage bin. And a knight who was in the garbage bin. I do a quick double-take. Yup, there was a cosplayer outside, dressed as a knight in shining armor, who appeared to be dumpster diving. I shake my head at the weird man who was climbing out of the bin and close my blinds. I sit back down onto my couch and begin going over my assignment again, trying to remember where I had left off. I guess that light really messed with me because now all I could think about was that knight and how familiar he looked.
I finally decide to go check it out. I shove my phone in my coat pocket and make my way out the back door and into the alleyway. But when I get there, he's gone. I begin looking around for him, searching in the dumpster and the broken car that was parked there. I even thought of looking in the sewer. I decided against that one, though. Just as I was about to head back inside, I hear a man's voice from behind. I turn to see that the knight was heading right towards me from across the street. He stops a few feet away and begins waving his heavy ax at me, narrowly missing my head on one swing. He says something I can't make out and continues swinging that thing around like it was a toy.
"Stop swinging that thing at me!" I yell at him, but that only makes him madder. I guess he doesn't speak English or something because he begins swinging it even harder. He cuts off a snip of my hair and I whip out my phone to call the police. But then another flash of light fills the sky. I look up to see an alien fall down into the garbage bin. Okay, what the heck was going on? Another flash of light and a robot lands on top of the alien. I hear him make a grunting noise at the pressure of that metal box landing on him. Luckily, the crazy ax man has stopped his swinging to stare at the newcomers. Another blinding light and I see a cowboy fall on top of the robot. I gasp as I realize that all these characters were my favorite toys as a child.
I run my hand through my hair gaping at the people in the alley with me. The alien pokes his head out of the bin and glares at me like it was my fault he kept getting squished. He clambers out of the garbage and stands in front of me. He says something in the alien language I made up when I was a kid, but I'm too out of practice to communicate with him. I just shake my head and say, "I can't understand you."
"Oh, you do speak English!" he says, completely catching me off-guard. "After all those years of speaking my alien language, I thought it was yours as well. Well," he continues, "I'm Overlord, ruler of the galaxy." He says it like he was saying that his favorite color was green. "And, you are George Namode?"
"Uh, yeah," I tell him. "What's going on?"
"Well, you see George," he says as the cowboy peaks out of the bin, "you made a certain wish a few days ago on a shooting star." I did? I couldn't even remember if I had actually turned off the TV before coming out here, so how was I supposed to remember a wish I made who knows how long ago? "You did," he informs me, reading my face. "And that wish is coming true."
"What, uh, did I wish for, exactly?" I ask him, wary of the answer.
"You wished to be reunited with your childhood. I guess this is one way to do it, huh?" His joke is heard, but I don't respond as I look over at the other characters now scattered throughout the alleyway. The cowboy had put his hat on the little robot and it was now making circles around him in a loving way. He gave a hearty laugh in a thick, southern accent as the robot whizzed around him. The knight was practicing battle stances by himself, continuously sneaking glances at the cowboy and his new friend.
It was true, I couldn't remember much of my childhood, but this was certainly not what I had meant. "Okay," I say, turning back towards the galactic ruler. "How long until you get back?"
"Most likely twenty-four hours, but it might be more, it might be less." His vague answer reminds me of those twenty-four-hour challenges my friends had been doing lately. They would lock each other in rooms, pull a short prank war, or build a fort and camp out in it. I didn't really like those kinds of things, so I never participated much, but I guess I wasn't getting out of this challenge as easily.
"Wait," I say turning towards the others. "I remember having another toy that I really liked! His name was Freddy and he was a-" Before I can even finish my sentence, a blue flash of light fills the sky. It was brighter this time, as though carrying something much bigger.
A loud "RAAAAWWWWRRRR!!!" echoes throughout town. I can already picture the T-Rex in my mind. This was going to be the worst twenty-four-hour challenge that ever was to exist.
Author Notes: I found a prompt for this and wanted to try it out! Prompt was found on: https://www.servicescape.com/writing-prompt-generator
Their prompts are so amazing! Definitely go check them out.
Thanks to everyone who's been supporting me, y'all are awesome! I love you all so very much <3
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United States • 16 years old