Summer Creative Writing Contest 2023: ‘Our Very Own Yes Day’

The Palisadian-Post is highlighting winners of Pacific Palisades Library Association’s Summer Creative Writing Contest 2023, which had the theme “The Best Day.” Here is the third-place piece in the Jotters category (grades three and four), written by Dylan.

When you have a really good friend, it doesn’t matter if you don’t see them for a while, because when you do, you pick up right where you left off. My friendship with my best friend Preston is like that. He’s been traveling most of the year to multiple cities and countries because of his Dad’s work. I learned a lot about time zones trying to figure out when I could do on-line play dates with him.

I finally got to see him in person for the first time in 8 months. His family was in town for just a couple of days and I was going to spend 24 hours with him.

I had just finished my lunch when he knocked on the door. I opened it and couldn’t believe he was really standing there. I was so happy to see him and rushed to give him a hug.

We ran to my playroom and built a massive Lego structure just so we could throw it down the stairs and watch it explode. It was awesome until my mom said it was OUR job to pick up the pieces. But we laughed the whole time and talked about how amazing it looked with the pieces flew everywhere.

We had so many things we wanted to do, it was hard to decide what to do next. “Super Smash Brothers on the Switch?” Preston suggested. “Yessir!” I answered. We played that for a bit and moved on to Fall Guys when my mom came over and asked if we could walk the dogs with her.

Preston is obsessed with my dogs, Freddie and Georgie, so it was an automatic yes for him. Freddie is a silly looking, big, soft, fluffy dog with a brown head, white spotty body and big, sweet “puppy dog” eyes. Georgie is small and brown with a pretty face and a bad attitude, but he loves Preston. Preston has known them from the time we rescued them as a puppies.

We got back from a “successful” dog walk, and we chilled on the sofa, which led to a lively pillow fight with the sofa cushions, which led to a real fight and hurt feelings. So we went to separate rooms to cool off. It didn’t last long.

Preston played with the dogs for a while and then came to find me on my “thinking chair” and we looked at each other and I said, “Preston, why did you have to hit me on the nose?” And he replied, “Why do you have to hit me hard on the elbow?” I screamed back, “The dog nipped you on the elbow!” We both knew this wasn’t true. He looked at me and rolled his eyes and said, “Right!!! Why don’t we get over this and play some Fortnite?” “Yeah,” I said, “Let’s goooo!”

About two hours later my mom told us she was going shopping and we went with her. We spent way too much time in the video game aisle at Target. We were looking at the PS5 and kept asking my mom if we could get it. “Do you have $600?” She asked. I looked at Preston and said, “We have $6.”

Needless to say, we did not walk out with the new PS5. But we did each get a pack of Pokemon cards and did a pack battle in the car on the way home. Neither one of us got anything good, but it didn’t matter. We just kept smiling.

When we got back we rested for a bit. And then my dad walked in holding 2 bottles of soda and a couple packs of Mentos. That perked us right up. We went outside and placed the bottles on a tree stump. I put the Mentos in one of the bottles and we all watched it explode.

Preston stood over the exploding soda and tried to catch it in his mouth. None of it went in his mouth. It dripped all down his t-shirt. And as if it couldn’t get worse, one of the dogs came out and knocked over one of the bottles of soda and our shoes were covered in the sticky mess. My dad basically had to hose us down.

Once we’d had dinner and gotten into our pajamas for bedtime, we managed to sneak our Nintendo Switches upstairs. We giggled so much thinking we were so clever. My mom told me later that she totally knew what we were up to, but let us get away with it because we looked so happy. Usually, I only get an hour of video games but that day, we got a lot more. That was a W in my book. Eventually, we fell asleep.

We woke up at 5 AM and made breakfast for ourselves. We watched TV until my parents got up. When we heard them come downstairs, we quickly switched off the TV and pretended to be reading a book. The morning seemed to go by way too fast as we tried to pack in nerf battles and as much gaming as we could get away with.

Soon my dad came in and said Preston’s parents would be here in less than an hour. We finished making sculptures of our heads in Minecraft right when his parents arrived.

I didn’t want him to leave and apparently neither did the dogs because they stole his socks when he was trying to put his shoes on. The dogs wouldn’t give up the socks. Preston and his sister chased them around for 15 minutes.

By the time we got the socks back, they were too slobbery to wear so I gave him my new Billie Eilish socks. We all hugged goodbye and my parents and I went to the balcony and waved as they drove down the street.

I ran inside and sent him a message to meet me in Roblox when he gets home. His response, “I’ll be there.”

The 2024 Summer Creative Writing Contest is underway with a theme of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to … ” for students in grades one to 12. Entries are due by September 3. For more information, visit friendsofpalilibrary.org.