Illustration of a moving truck driving down the road towards a house as a girl watches from afar
Illustration by Maia Wyler
Fiction in a Flash,

My Favorite

The very best things. The very worst day.

By Rachel Vail
From the December 2021 / January 2022 Issue
Complexity Factors
  • Purpose
    The activity provides a study of repetition through a work of fiction.
  • Structure
    The story is written in first person, present tense. It is chronological.
  • Language Conventionality and Clarity
    Vocabulary: Contains a limited number of higher-level vocabulary words, including smirking, posh, and spite.
  • Knowledge Demands
    No prior knowledge is required for comprehension.
Common Core Standards
  • Anchor Standards
    R.1, R.2, R.3, R.4, R.5, W.2, W.3, W.5, W.9, SL.1, L.4, L.5, L.6
  • Grade 6
    RL.6.1, RL.6.2, RL.6.3, RL.6.4, RL.6.5, RL.6.6, W.6.2, W.6.4, L.6.4, L.6.5, L.6.6
  • Grade 7
    RL.7.1, RL.7.2, RL.7.3, RL.7.4, RL.7.5, RL.7.6, W.7.2, W.7.4, L.7.4, L.7.5, L.7.6
  • Grade 8
    RL.8.1, RL.8.2,, RL.8.4, W.8.2, W.8.4, L.8.4, L.8.5, L.8.6
TEKS Standards
  • Grades 6, 7, 8
    1c, 1d, 2a, 2b, 3, 4, 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d, 5e, 5f, 5g, 5h, 5i, 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d, 6e, 6f, 6g, 6h, 6i, 7a, 7b, 7c, 7d, 8a, 9a, 9b, 9d, 9f, 11b

Presentation View
See Student View

Want to hear this story read aloud? Click here!

Want to hear this story read aloud? Click here!

SPOTLIGHT ON: REPETITION

Repetition is a literary device in which a word, phrase, or sentence structure is intentionally repeated two or more times.

Directions

1. Read the article.

2. Find two examples of repetition in the story.

3. Think about why the author uses repetition.

My favorite food is: the leftovers from the frosting jar. Same as Mindy’s favorite food. My favorite color is: rainbow, because otherwise all the other colors that aren’t pale yellow would be sad. My favorite punctuation is: a question mark, because what comes after it is an answer. I also like how a question mark looks, like the cutouts in a violin’s body.

Mindy has a violin. She plays it well. I play piano. Badly. Rarely.

Mindy practices. I don’t. I hate sounding bad. Mindy said, Yeah of course you sound bad when you practice because the pieces you have to practice are the ones you don’t know how to play yet. I explained, Yeah, well, you don’t ever have to sound bad if you never practice. Mindy laughed and then laughed harder when I said, What, no, I’m fully serious.

She has the best laugh.

One time at lunch Mindy asked me, What’s your favorite day?

I said, Tomorrow.

She laughed.

Seriously, I said. We usually have identical favorites, so I wanted to convince her. Tomorrow’s like a present you haven’t unwrapped yet.

First, she said, I meant what day as in Saturday or Tuesday. But also, you hate a wrapped present.

It’s true; I don’t like to wait. I hate not knowing how things are going to turn out. Mindy thinks anticipation makes happiness more exciting. I think anticipation is just a nice way of saying stress. I honestly don’t get why anyone would want to sit around in uncertainty. I’d rather sit around in a mud puddle. If I see a wrapped present smirking at me, I have to tear it open right away.

You’re right, I admitted. My favorite day is today.

Usually that is true.

But not today.

Because today Mindy moved away. So tomorrow’s not looking great either.

My favorite person is: moving to Iowa. She admitted, that day she told me, that she used to think Iowa and Ohio were the same place just pronounced differently, like some people were saying it wrong, or with a British accent. We pretended to have posh British accents the rest of that afternoon, but it hardly cheered us up at all.

My favorite state is: not Iowa, and to be honest my favorite state is not Ohio either, just out of spite.

My favorite word is: maybe, because at least there’s a chance. Maybe Mindy’s mom’s job won’t work out. Although I don’t want to wish something bad on Mindy’s mom who is deeply nice, despite the fact that she’s the one literally driving Mindy away from me right now. Maybe Mindy’s mom will get an even dreamier dream job back here; maybe somebody will call and offer it to her today while they are still on the highway. Maybe then they could turn that U-Haul around and come right back. Maybe they won’t have to move into that pretty house Mindy showed me pictures of, the pale-yellow bedroom for Mindy with the window seat in it that the two of us could fit on perfectly together.

But realistically, when am I going to visit her in Iowa? Next summer?

We eat lunch together every day, normally; I give her half my sandwich and she gives me half of hers. But not if she’s in Iowa, alone on a window seat in a pale-yellow room. Or hanging around her own private Iowa backyard, swinging on the tree swing with maybe some new best friend who practices her dumb whatever instrument and maybe can wait patiently in front of a wrapped present and trust that she’ll be happy later, like I can’t.

Actually, maybe maybe is not my favorite word. Unless the only other word in the world is goodbye.

Because that? That is a real garbage word. That might be my least favorite of all.

Writing Prompt

Write a short story that uses repetition. You may use characters from this story or invent your own characters.

This story was originally published in the December 2021 / January 2022 issue.

video (1)
Audio ()
Activities (5)
Reference
Skills Activities
video (1)
Audio ()
Activities (5)
Reference
Skills Activities
Text-to-Speech