April
A Strange Day In July
    I longed for the juicy hamburgers and sweet corn on the cob. I couldn’t wait to see the beautiful fireworks tonight. Most of all, I could not wait to see Miriam.  She was the coolest cousin anyone could ever have. She’s the only reason I wanted to come, besides the food of course. I can’t believe it’s Independence Day already!
    ‘Oliver, Oliver! Look, It’s Aunt Sharon!” my little sister, Meg, was over excited. Personally, I don’t see why she was. Aunt Sharon really bugs me. It’s not that I don’t like her, but she absolutely hates me. To her, I’m a little troublemaker who always trips, but that’s only because I’m a big klutz. That’s not my fault. She even thinks I do it all on purpose. She loves Meg, though.  She’s the cutest thing in the world!” she gushes to my parents all the time. It disgusts me.
      ‘Oh, Meg! You look just plain adorable in that little party dress,” Then Aunt Sharon turned to me and said, “But Oliver, look at your face, it’s covered in chocolate.” We’d been eating chocolate cookies on the way here. “Golly, there was something I had to tell you, now, what was it? Oh yes, Miriam couldn’t make it. She went to Maine to be in an academic competition. Wish her luck!” As soon as I heard those words, “Miriam couldn’t make it,” my jaw dropped straight to the floor and I knew this would be the worst day of my life.
    As we walked up to the park pavilion, I could see more and more of my deranged family. I realized that this was just going to be another stupid, boring family reunion. They’re always telling you to spend “quality time” with the family and get to know each other better. I’m probably going to go down to the lake and skip some rocks instead.
    Of course, Meg followed me all the way down to the lake. It seemed like forever. The whole way, she was yelling at me for not staying at the party. When we got there, I tossed a stone into the lake and it skipped five times! Wow, that’s the most I’ve ever seen a rock skip! Even Meg's rock skipped three times. Something was up with this lake. I threw in another one and it skipped a whole seven times before it plopped into the water. I threw with all my might, but the third stone came skipping back. Meg was astounded. So was I. But before either of us could say a word, the water, and I’m dead serious, the water, came up out of itself, and thrust its body (I guess that’s what you could call it) at us and made a big mouth in itself and swallowed us whole. And just like that, we were plunging down and down into a mass of nothing. Meg started crying hysterically, and I was about to join her when we were thrown up.
    When I woke up, I knew that it had to be a dream. But it couldn’t have been because definitely weren’t at the park anymore. We must have been knocked out unconscious or something after the water monster attacked us. Meg and I were sleeping on piece of something pink and fluffy. It smelled really sweet, so I tasted it. It was cotton candy! Golly jeez, it was amazing. I could eat and eat for days.     
    I was eating and eating for ages, when Meg woke up. She noticed that we weren’t anywhere familiar, and freaked out. She started shaking me and screaming and crying, but I just said, “Eat! It’s great cotton candy.” Her eyes started glowing with a certain radiance that I just couldn’t describe. Quick like a rabbit, she gulped down tons of handfuls of great pink fluff. I couldn’t eat anymore, and soon Meg couldn’t either.
    “Oliver, I can’t eat anymore. I’m so full,” she moaned.
    “Come on, lets explore,” I said. I didn’t enough time to say anything back, because I knew she’d be too scared. But I also knew that she wouldn’t stay alone. She follows me everywhere. Sometimes it’s really annoying.