blogwithvalor

I’m still recovering from being sick, so I’ve got another old short to post today.

Recently, I found this old short story I wrote back in high school. I don’t remember much about writing it, but it has some of the typical high school markings on it. It was written January 9th 2006 for my Advance Video/Film class, 3rd Period.

It must have been a group project where we all wrote a short story and then picked one to make into a short film. Maybe I really wanted to make this into something, but I can see now that would have been difficult to make. There are so many scenes, a few time jumps, young actors, and then you’ve got to get an animal actor at the end. That last point would have been taken care of though, since one of my family’s dogs was a big black dog. But still, working with animals is a lot. High school me didn’t really understand that.

It’s a cute-ish story though. During my reread, I forgot that this was a stuffed animal part way through. It’s only really mentioned when he first gets it. *SPOILER ALERT* When he loses it near the end is when I realized I had somewhere thought of Nibbles as a real dog. Then I went back to the Christmas scene to reread it. Just a couple of little mentions could have fixed up that confusion.

Lesson learned. If you are going to make a story for a short film then less scenes are easier. Especially, if it is going to only be 5 minutes (which it probably was). You can take more time in small moments and help connect with your viewers better. It actually a lesson I relearned recently when writing these shorts. A few of them are longer, with multiple scenes, over a longer timeline, but most of them are single scenes. It’s a nice way to be able to write in a single sitting and make those scenes hit better. But the most important thing about writing is that you enjoy it. So, write long if that’s what you like. I’m just sharing what I learned for myself and my own goals.

Anyways, this is a lot of lead up to the story. Enjoy.

…

Nibbles

Jacob Mahoney was a young boy living in a small suburb in Ohio. He had a family that loved him and a nice house, but Jacob never really had any friends. In the town he lived in all the kids were older than him and never wanted to play. He would go out, but no one wanted to play tag or kick the can. They wanted to drive around and have parties. At preschool he never was a social young boy. He liked to go off to the side and play in the sandbox. Always waiting for someone to join him, but nobody ever did.

Jacob’s parents, Greg and Kathryn Mahoney, realized all this about their child and it really worried them. “He’s going to grow up being alone without a friend in the world,” they thought to themselves. They tried desperately to find their son a friend, inviting friends over who had children around Jacob’s age. They even moved to a different neighborhood a few times, but it never really worked out because Jacob was so distant from strangers. He had a very hard time opening up to people. After a while his parents almost gave up trying, they believed that if he was going to be able to open up to people he was going to have to someday do it on his own, they couldn’t pressure it on him.

Christmas was coming up and Jacob’s parents were wondering what to get him. They needed to find him something special that he really wanted. So they asked him, “Jacob, what are you asking Santa for on Christmas?” Jacob said to them, “A friend.”

On Christmas day Jacob woke up and rushed to see what was under the tree. He was looking for his new friend. Jacob ran to the tree and looked at all the presents. Jacob was surprised to see how many presents “Santa” had brought him that night. They all look so good to him, but one present that day caught his eye. It wasn’t very big, but it was oddly wrapped and it had a very large, red bow tied around it. When he opened it, he found a stuffed animal that resembled a little black puppy. Jacob was so happy to get this. He gave it a huge hug and named it right there, “Nibbles.”

Jacob played with Nibbles all the time and brought him everywhere. Wherever Jacob went, he brought along Nibbles. It was one of Jacob’s first true friends, even though it was an inanimate object; he had never really even had an imaginary friend. Greg and Kathryn were very delighted to see Jacob having so much fun.

At preschool Jacob would bring Nibbles everywhere. The children around him would ask him about Nibbles and Jacob would tell them all the great things about Nibbles. The first person to do so was a girl named Betty. She liked Nibbles a lot because Jacob made him lick her face. He would tell Nibbles to do it because he had a crush on her. Nibbles was a smart dog that could read and write (according to Jacob), he loved to lick people’s faces, chase the mailmen, and loved to play with everyone.

Nibbles also got very dirty, playing in the sandbox, but Jacob didn’t want to clean him. He said, “Nibbles likes the dirt. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t get so dirty!” His parents didn’t argue. They knew his friend and if they changed it Jacob would be devastated.

All the children loved Nibbles, and who wouldn’t, a dog like that could be nothing but fun. Kids came over to the sand box just to play with Jacob and Nibbles. At first Jacob didn’t know how to act, but after a while he looked like any of the other kids out there in the sandbox, and Nibbles was still there, as Jacob’s little companion.

When Jacob attended preschool, Nibbles went. When Jacob went to the doctor’s office, Nibbles went too. When Jacob watched a scary movie, Nibbles had to be there. So when Jacob started Kindergarten, there was no way that Nibbles wasn’t going with him.

Kindergarten was a huge step up for Jacob and it scared him a great deal. He had no idea how grade school was going to be compared to preschool. He was going to have to grow up and become one of the “big” kids. There was no turning back, he was going to have to learn to adapt to a brand new world. At least Nibbles was there by his side.

Jacob had finally left preschool and was on his way to go to kindergarten. His family was moving to a new home in California, because his father had just gotten a new job there. Jacob was going to have to start kindergarten there and make new friends, but Jacob wasn’t scared, as long as Nibbles was with him he could make friends.

His family packed up and moved all the way across the country to a small town. When he arrived he was very excited to make new friends in kindergarten. The fears of moving up to grade school didn’t shake him because he knew that Nibbles was there.

Jacob finished unpacking and realized that Nibbles wasn’t there. He asked his parents if they had packed him away, but they didn’t know where Nibbles was. He began to worry, “Where’s Nibbles?” “If he isn’t there when I start Kindergarten, I won’t make any friends.” Kindergarten was looking scary again. Jacob couldn’t find Nibbles and was sure that if he couldn’t find him, then he was left behind in Ohio. Jacob was scared again.

Jacob’s first day of Kindergarten had come. He didn’t want to go; he didn’t want to be the kid in the sandbox again. His parents forced him to get up and get ready. Jacob did everything he could to stay home; trying to fake sickness, whining, kicking, and screaming. His parents knew that he needed to go to school; after all, it was his first day.

Jacob walked into class with his mother, Kathryn. They were late and walked in as the teacher, Miss Clark, was talking to the class. Kathryn brought Jacob up to Miss Clark and gave him a hug goodbye. She left and Jacob stood there in terror. Miss Clark saw Jacob’s fear and asked him to come up to the front of the class with her. They walked up and Miss Clark turned to the class, “Okay students this is Jacob… Who wants to be his friend?” As soon as she asked, every kid in the classroom raised their hand. Jacob saw all these kids, that didn’t even know him, raising their hands to be his friend. They wanted to be his friends. Jacob realized that growing up may not be such a bad thing, Nibbles had helped him get this far, now the rest was up to him.

Years later Jacob is grown up and graduated from college. He majored in Theatrical Arts and is doing any play he can get his hands on. He is going to be a star.

One day he was walking down the road when all of a sudden a big black dog jumped on his chest, knocked him down, and began licking his face. Jacob was a little hurt, but laughing to hard to care. A pretty girl, named Betty, ran up to him and apologized a great deal for not holding onto the leash a little better. Jacob told her it was alright and got up, “When was the last time you washed him?” Jacob said as he shook some dust out of the dog’s fur. “Yesterday, but he rolls around in it so much you’d think he liked being dirty,” she replied. Jacob gave the dog a weird look as he chuckled.

“So what’s his name?” Jacob asked. “Nibbles,” she replied, “I found him a couple of weeks ago chasing a mail truck. He was so friendly that I just couldn’t let him go.” Jacob was petting Nibbles. “You seem familiar,” he thought, “But I don’t know why.”

Jacob introduced himself to Betty. They hit it off from the start. After a minute Jacob ended up walking with her, both going wherever Nibbles took them.