Another short story spawned from the Writer’s Weekly 24-Hour Short Story Contest from back in January.  I also tried to get this one published with The Latent Print. I totally understand why they won’t publish it. What with unoriginal characters that could cause  potential lawsuits. Or they just plain thought it sucked. This one was fun to write regardless. At least I have this site to share it with all of you. I am totally open to constructive criticism as it help me grow as a writer.

I Hate Glitter
 
“Let’s get building!” Bob the Builder shouted as he rode up on the big yellow dump truck with the bed full of Legos. The bedroom had become a construction zone as Bob led his crew of toys in building a house for the Bratz girls, Cloe and Sasha. The two BFFs squealed with excitement as the crew of toys got to work. 
 
“We will finally have our own pad… complete with two walk-in closets and a beauty salon!” Sasha exclaimed.
 
“Bigger and more bad-ass than Barbie’s dream house,” replied Sasha, nodding in the general direction of the two story Victorian dollhouse with a pink Porsche parked out front.
 
From the top of the bed, the pack of teddy bears rubbed their eyes while emerging from their cave of blankets. 
 
“What’s all the commotion?” asked the largest in a deep growl.
 
“Yeah,” the little scruffy teddy interjected. “We still have several more months of hibernating before our cozy cave becomes a tent of sheets.”
 
“Come join my Can-Do Crew,” Bob cheerfully responded from the top of the fireman’s ladder. “The Bratz would be overjoyed if you helped sock monkey with coating the bricks with glitter. He really doesn‘t have your finesse.”
 
The bears glanced down to the front steps, where sock monkey tossed glitter willy-nilly as the Little People walking past sneezed.
 
“Humph,” said the biggest bear. “We’ll pass. Tell them we need our beauty sleep. I’m sure they’ll understand.” 
 
As the they ambled back into their cave, the littlest bear stumbled and toppled off the bed. He fell on the crank to the Jack-in-the-box, who was hiding from all the action. The crank turned just so that Jack popped out of his box, scaring sock monkey, who lost complete control of the glitter.
 
Glitter was everywhere. Glitter covered not only all of the blocks, but the new guitar and karaoke machine that the toy soldiers had bought as house warming gifts for the Bratz. The Little People sneezed up a storm. They sneezed so hard that the gust blew rubber ducky off the fire engine controls. Bob, humming and hammering away, didn’t notice all of the commotion below. With ducky no longer in control the ladder shook and Bob wavered and fell. He landed face first into his tool box.
 
As he stood up the room hushed with gasps, while Sasha fainted in a pile of crayons that were set out to become the fence. Bob had lost an eye.
 
The play phone rang at the same time the emergency crew arrived. 
 
“Elmo says you be ok.” Tickle Me Elmo reassured as he and Dora the Explorer helped Bob over to the school bus, the only vehicle not being used for the construction.
 
In the closet, an Operation removing a funny bone occupied Nurse Barbie’s attention. Cloe busted through the door shrilling uncontrollably and waving her arms. Suddenly, a red light and a sharp buzzer went off. 
 
“What is your problem?” Nurse Barbie threw down the forceps.
 
“B-B-B-Bob, glitter everywhere, monkey, ducky, fell,” is all Cloe could get out.
 
Just as Barbie was going to probe further, the door swung back open. And in walked Bob, assisted by a stuffed elephant and Elmo, with his one beady eye glimmering with hope.
 
Without even trying to go into what happened, Barbie asked Bob to lay his head in her lap. His shiny black eyes stared up at her as she dug through her basket of replacement doll parts to find an eye with just the right size and glean. She admired his permanent red smile as she gently inserted the needle. 
 
“This shouldn’t take long,” she assured him.
 
Just as she was about tie a knot, he lurched in her hand. 
 
“I knew you could do it!,” Bob said maintaining his grin. “I would like to stay and chat but the toys and I have lots of work to do.”
 
“Thank you for your handy-work!” he said waving goodbye while heading towards the door.
 
Many of the toys continued to work without their leader, cleaning up the glittery mess since they knew Bob’s mantra, “The Fun Is In Getting It Done!” But when they heard the cheers of the toys outside the house, they rushed over to the newly installed windows, scrambling over each other to press their noses against the chilly, clear plastic pane to see for themselves.
 
Dora edged forward and started to celebrate with her signature “We Did It” dance which got the rest of the toys jumping, dancing and shouting in unison, “Bob is back. Hip Hip Hooray!”
 
Fingering his tiny overalls, Bob shouted out to his team, “What are you all standing around for? We’ve got a job to do!”

Written on January 24, 2010