Happy Monday, everyone. Today I have written a story about castles. Because, as I’m sure you already know, the theme of the week is castles.

Perhaps you are already working on your stories about castles. Stories about people who build castles, or dragons who try to steal the gold from castles, or miserable princesses trapped in the highest towers of castles. Or perhaps something entirely different that could only come out of your head. I can’t wait.

In the mean time, here’s my story.

The Kid in the Castle

By Matthew Swanson

A kid had a castle. The castle was full of beach balls that he didn’t want to share with anyone else. The kid kept the castle gates shut and filled the moat with sea monsters.

A bunch of other kids heard about the beach balls and wanted to play with them. So they rounded up their dogs and cats and hamsters and decided to attack the castle.

The first challenge was the moat. The sea monsters were terrifying. They had multiple heads and so many sharp teeth.

“Eek!” said one girl, who was so scared that she fell in the moat. “Oh no!” said the other kids. But one of the sea monsters scooped her up and put her gently back on dry land.

“I guess these are friendly sea monsters,” said the kids as they swam across the moat.

“Drat,” said the kid in the castle.

The kids had brought a hammer to break down the door. But the door was really strong.

The kids brought a ladder to climb the castle walls. But the walls were really high.

The kid in the castle looked down and laughed.

The kids outside the castle were out of ideas.

“How about you just let us in?” they said.

“No way,” said the kid in the castle.

“Then, I guess we’re not going to get those beach balls after all,” they said. They were all pretty disappointed.

But one of them, a lanky girl named Elaine, had an idea. “We don’t actually have to mope,” she said. “Let’s have lots of fun instead. Like the most fun we’ve ever had in our lives.”

The kids agreed that having lots of fun was better than feeling sorry for themselves. So they had fun. They danced recklessly, they played games like hamster shuffle and duck duck goose and throw the hammer, and they put on plays about the surprising things that happened in outer space.

The kid in the castle looked down and felt lonely.

Eventually, he climbed down the castle stairs and opened the castle gate. “You guys can come inside,” he said. “There’s plenty of beach balls for everyone.”

But no one really heard him. Everyone was having too much fun to notice. They had forgotten about the kid in the castle. They had forgotten about the beach balls entirely.

The kid with the castle didn’t know what to do, so he decided to go back inside. But the door had locked behind him.

He tried to break down the door, but the door was too strong.

He tried to climb the walls, but the walls were too high.

And so he decided to just have fun. And instead of saying “No way,” the other kids let him. Because they had learned what he had learned, that moats and doors and walls are not nearly as fun as a game of hamster shuffle.

And after that, no one tried to get into that castle. And it was eventually converted into a dentist’s office.

And that’s my story. What about yours? Just post it to the comments below so that we can all read what you come up with. Happy writing!