'The Wrinkles on My Face' (Lizzie's short story)

Name: Lizzie Tegart
Age: 10 years
Grade: 5th
Date: November 12, 2012

 

Wrinkles on My Face

It’s a dark morning. The alarm clock wakes me up with its “beep, beep, beep, beep.” I pressed the snooze button but the beeping only stopped for a while. When it started up again, I wanted to throw my alarm clock out the window but I knew that I shouldn’t so I got up. “Burr”, I said out loud. The floor was freezing cold on my toes! I tried to feel around for my bunny slippers but found only one of them, so I put on the one that I found and hopped to the bathroom. When I got there I flipped on the light; the light was bright on my tired eyes. I squinted and looked around to see my other slipper sitting by the bathtub. “Oh good,” I thought “now both feet will be warm.”

After I put my other slipper on I decided to brush my teeth. Still squinting, I opened the cabinet and felt around for my toothbrush. As I looked through half closed eyes for the tube I thought, “I hope the raspberry cream toothpaste isn’t all gone.” It took a while for my hand to find what felt like the tube of toothpaste, but when I pulled it up close to my face it was actually my little brother’s diaper rash cream. This kid is always invading my space! Good thing I took time to look at the label. I’m sure butt cream doesn’t taste good!

I am not sure if I’m moving slow or just real sleepy. I took off the toothpaste lid and set it down. It rolled across the counter, I saw it rolling but I was to slow to catch it. My hand kept slapping the counter as I tried to catch the lid but I missed it every time. The lid rolled off the counter and into the trashcan. This happened about three times before I got the bright idea to set the lid on its flat end. Yep, I’m the one that’s moving slow. I’m so tired even my brain is squinting!

After I brushed my teeth I decided to brush my hair. I felt around for my hairbrush but the basket where we keep our combs and brushes was empty. “I know my brother has something to do with this,” I thought. “He’s probably the reason that my bunny slipper was in here and he’s definitely the reason I almost brushed my teeth with diaper rash cream, so I’m pretty sure that he also is the reason my hair brush is missing” my thoughts continued as I stormed into my little brother’s room. Sure enough, there were all the combs and brushed under his bed beside some pots from the kitchen. He had used my hair brush to play the drums on mom’s kitchen pots.

I quietly picked up my hair brush and tip toed back to the bathroom. In the bathroom I brushed my hair and even though there were not a lot of tangles it still took me a long time. For some reason I’m moving slow and I can’t seem to wake up. “Where’s my energy? What’s going on with me?”

I thought, “Maybe splashing cold water on my face will help wake me up.” So I turned on the cold water and cupped my hands under the stream. Water poured into my hands and I tossed toward my face. The water was a harsh wake up. I was startled by the icy sting of the cold water. “Ugh!” I thought, “That was not a very gentle wake up. I prefer a more cozy and kind awakening but at least I’m awake now.”

Since I finally woke up I could see more clearly. When I looked in the mirror  it was if another face was staring back at me. I had squinted so hard and so long that my face turned all wrinkly. “Oh my goodness”, I gasped. Thoughts were racing through my mind for only last night there was a young, smooth faced girl that started back at me from the mirror. Today, I’m wrinkled! It’s like I’ve aged overnight. My face looks old but I am still young. What went wrong? I am going to figure out why I squinted hard enough to make my face wrinkle and look old.

I went to the kitchen to make a glass of chocolate milk and I caught a glimpse of myself in the window. “These wrinkles are hideous!” I thought, “my own family won’t recognize me. They’ll think that Grandma has made a surprise visit. I have really got to figure out why this has happened.”

With my chocolate milk in hand I went straight to my thinking chair. I began to back track over the last several hours and that is when it dawned on me that the reason I was so tired and the reason that my eyes and brain were so squinty is because I was up almost all night. “Why were you up all night,” you may ask me. Well… let me tell you. Last night I had a history exam to study for, two pages of math to complete, one page of Language Arts to finish, a Spelling test to study for, a Science project to work on, Spanish homework to finish, an Art research project to start, and finally a piece of music to memorize. I stayed up almost all night to do these things because I had chosen to procrastinate working on them all week. Everything is due today and so last night I had no choice but to stay up and work on them. The wrinkles I have this morning are proof that procrastination is not worth it. You may put off your school work in order to ride bikes, play games or watch movies but if you do you will experience the same scary wrinkly face, squinty eyes and squinty brain that I did. Don’t procrastinate! Take it from me.