July Story Contest

Midnight
By: SadieT
Age: 8

It was a cloudy Sunday afternoon in early December and nine-year-old Shannon Koller sat looking out her window at the horse farm next door. How she wished that she could have a horse! She had asked her parents many times, but they always said she was too young. Her older sister, Hannah (she was 13,) had her own horse. He was brown and his name was Brownie. Hannah never let Shannon do anything with her horse. Shannon also had a younger brother named Thomas (Tom for short) who was 4 years old.

“Shannon!” yelled Mrs. Koller.
“What?” Shannon yelled back.
“I need to run some errands, and since Hannah isn’t here, you and Tom need to come with me,” said Mrs. Koller.
“But Mom!” said Shannon.
“Do you want me to call your babysitter?”asked Mrs. Koller.
“Coming,” said Shannon.

Shannon didn’t like being pulled around while her mother was doing her errands, but it was better than her babysitter coming. Just barely. Not that her babysitter was bad, but because other kids teased her about having to have a babysitter.
By the time Mrs. Koller, Shannon, and Tom got home it was evening. Hannah was home from her friend’s house and Mr. Koller was home from his everyday job at the supermarket. Shannon ate dinner and went up to her room to do her home work.
In the morning, Shannon and Hannah walked to their school a half mile away. There were 30 kids in their school, from 1st to 8th grade. There were five other kids in 3rd grade with Shannon-two girls and three boys. Shannon and Hannah’s teacher was Ms. Kendal. Shannon liked Ms. Kendal.

”How was school?” asked Mrs. Koller when they got home.
“Fine,” said Hannah.
“Good,” said Shannon happily, “Can Kate come over to our house tomorrow (Kate was Shannon’s friend at school,) stay overnight, and come to school with me the next day?” asked Shannon.
“No,” said Hannah.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Koller.
“Thanks,” said Shannon as she ran upstairs to do her home work.

After school the next day, Kate came home with Shannon. It was a nice day so they played outside with Shannon’s black lab, Licorice. When it got dark they came inside to play cards. At 7:00 they both went upstairs to Shannon’s room to do their homework. When they finished, Kate said that they probably should go to bed. Shannon agreed.
They got up extra early because the next morning they didn’t want to be rushed. When they got to school they were early and were the only ones there. They took turns pushing each other on the swing.
A while later some kids came.

“Wow,” said Richard (he was one of the boys in 3rd grade with Kate and Shannon) “You’re here early!”
“Yep,” said Kate.
“How long you been here?” asked Richard.
“Half an hour,” replied Shannon.
The bell rang.
“Come on, let’s go,” said Kate.
“Ok,” said Shannon
Every day after school Mrs. Koller asked Shannon how school was and Shannon always answered,”Good, I guess.”
Shannon had a pattern every school morning: get up, eat breakfast, start her walk to school, walk home after school, go upstairs to do home work and then go to bed. On weekends she played outside (if it was nice,) went to Kate’s house or Kate would come to her house.

“Woo hoo!” said Shannon as she ran in the door one day.
“What’s so exciting?” asked Mrs. Koller.
“Today was my last day of school before Christmas break!” said Shannon.
“What are you going to do with your extra time?” asked Mrs. Koller.
“Well,” said Shannon, “I’m hoping it will snow so Kate and I can go sledding.”
“Sounds fun,” said Mrs. Koller.
“Yep,” said Shannon as she skipped upstairs to do homework. When she was finished with her homework she went outside to play with Licorice for an half an hour before dinner. The next morning Shannon looked out her window and… there was snow on the ground and it was still snowing!
“YES!” said Shannon.
After breakfast Shannon called Kate and asked if she wanted to go sledding. Kate said yes.
“Well,” said Shannon “Bye! I’ve got to go.
“Hey, just wait a minute! Where are you going?” asked Mrs. Koller.
“Sledding with Kate, of course!” said Shannon with a laugh.
“Oh,” said Mrs. Koller “I should have known. Go ahead and have some fun.”
It was four days before Christmas and Mr. and Mrs. Koller were very quiet: like they had a secret and didn’t want to blurt it out. Finally, it was the night before Christmas. It was snowing hard and it looked as if there would be a white Christmas! The tree was in the living room, stockings hung by the fire place, and everybody was in bed.
Shannon woke up at 4:00 in the morning. It was still dark outside. She immediately went downstairs to the fireplace (still in her PJ’s) and looked in her stocking. Inside, she found candy and a toy horse.
“You’re up early,” said Mrs. Koller walking in the room.
“Yep.  I was too excited to sleep,” said Shannon.
“Well,” said Mrs. Koller, “there’s something outside that you should see.”
“Ok,” said Shannon as she ran to the door. She looked outside and… there stood a… a horse! He was all black with a black mane and tail.
“Your dad and I thought it was time that you should have a horse,” said Mrs. Koller as she walked outside with Shannon.
“You mean,” said Shannon “he’s mine?”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Koller.
“Thanks so much!” said Shannon.
“You’re welcome,” said Mrs. Koller.
“I’ll call him Midnight,” said Shannon.
“That’s a perfect name,” said Mrs. Koller.