Writing Exercise #8

I don't mind telling you that I'm incredibly frustrated. Nothing's coming out the way I want it to, and I'm beginning to wonder if I need to do a rewrite project just to take a step back for a week or two.

(I also may be working on a post to explain the rewrite projects and why they help.)

Of course, that is a discussion for a different post. The point of this one is to share the results of the eighth writing exercise. More original characters!

Prompt: ancient
Fandom: original characters (The Witch of November)
Character(s): Allie Sullivan, Charlie Davis

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“Do you want to see it again?” Charlie Davis excitedly asked his best friend. He held out his hand, palm up, under her chin.

Her nose wrinkling, Allie Sullivan backed away slightly from Charlie’s outstretched palm. “No.” She’d already seen it. Three times. How the heck many times did he expect her to look at it?

A pout turned down the corners of Charlie’s mouth for a fraction of a second. Then he covered, rolling his eyes at her before returning his attention to the object in his open palm. “Whatever. Your loss.”

“It’s a penny!” Allie cried in exasperation. Really, if you've see one penny, you’ve seen them all.

“It’s an ancient penny,” Charlie corrected her.

“It’s not ancient.”

“It’s from 1909, Allie. It’s older than our grandparents. That makes it ancient.”

Allie sighed. This happened every single time that Charlie found a new coin for his collection. For a couple of days, he’d stare at it and then put it in his pocket only to take it out and stare at it again. Then he’d drop the coin into the tin with the rest of them and then forget about the whole collection until he found another coin. Lather, rinse, repeat.

And since all his coins were found money--coins he found in the street or got back in change--most of them weren’t even worth much more than face value! Allie didn’t understand his fascination with the stupid things in the slightest.

Charlie, sensing Allie’s disdain, took her hand and dropped the penny into it. “Think about it like this. That little penny has been held in human hands for over a hundred years. It’s seen the sinking of the Titanic and the bombing of Pearl Harbor. It was minted sixty years before anyone ever set foot on the moon. This one little piece of metal has survived it all.”

A smile curled onto Allie’s lips despite herself. All right, maybe she could understand Charlie’s fascination with the old coins. If she thought about it, they were like mini history lessons that fit into the palm of her hand.