Fire Seed

At 10 years old, Terri’s writing continues to be a mainstay of our Creative Camp sessions. Terri’s highly researched historical accounts, detailed journalism, and emotive storytelling brings an immense amount of knowledge and wisdom to our camp. 

See how she strings together adventure and emotion through her words in this beautiful story of family, friendship and hope.

Stay tuned for more of Terri’s featured writings on our blog! 

Fire Seed by Terri

A scowl planted itself on Izzy’s face. Her eyes squinted as if looking for something in the dark. Her nose wrinkled up, like smelling a fish that waited too long. She looked and saw something gold, gold as a dove sent from the angels, gold as the new mineral, carved fresh to a nugget. GOLD. Her sister’s trophies, lined up, one by one. Her twin sister, Iris, a girl, prettier than Izzy, smarter than Izzy, and more popular than Izzy. 

A growl grew in Izzy’s throat, threatening to escape out of her mouth if she didn’t control herself. 

Ughhh, if that little know-it-all would stop catching everyone's attention!

 Izzy’s mind rushed through the horrible memories with her sister, seeking to find one time when she was the angel. When she was the brain. When she, Isabelle was the celeb!

But there was none. 

Ms. Liva, a barber lady, with a frog-like face, cooed to Izzy’s mom, squealing how pretty Iris looked when Izzy was right there. 

Flash!

Iris grinned, proud of her neat A written on top of her spelling test, while Izzy’s had a sharp, mean, disapproving F on it.

Izzy gave out a mad yowl.

“Oh that little rascal, doing what she always pleases. Oh devil, help me! Her annoyingness is killing my brain cells!”

Flash!

Every girl raced toward Iris at recess, as if Iris was a celebrity, glad to sign autographs. Izzy was near the trash can, kids purposely missed the trash can, to throw their junk at her. 

Izzy couldn’t keep it anymore. She jumped up, her square, thick glasses hung from her small nose, and slammed her little, angry fist into the wall. 

“For that little know it all!”

One.

“For the girl that takes every person against me!”

Two.

“For the one everyone thinks is the pretty one!”

Three.

“For my hate of ‘Little Miss Perfect!”

Slam. 

Izzy’s knuckles crushed the wall, with every urge of madness flowing inside her, sending to the wrists, and snapping into action. Izzy punched the poor wall, trembling until her hands bled, causing her to stop and turn back to face all the ugly, awful awards and selfies with friends of her sister. Although she stopped striking the wall, a seeding of madness, perhaps enviousness, stood alone in the dark, waiting for the next best moment to explode into flames, like a fire seed. 

Izzy knew that screaming on the top of her lungs that she hated Iris wasn’t enough. 

Finally, Izzy pulled out her journal. Her journal where she wrote all her darkest secrets. Only one page was filled with secrets about opinion. But the rest was one single fact written on their yellow and ripped pages: I HATE Iris. 

So Izzy wrote it again and again, stuffing her diary with her letters, sprinkled with unreadable handwriting. 

I HATE Iris.

I HATE Iris.

I HATE Iris.

But something unusual happened, her ink from the paper started to grow. It grew into a blob, a black, ugly, fire seed, with a mischievous grin on its face. They kept coming out of the book. Oozing out, looking for something to destroy. 

Suddenly, Izzy saw her sister coming out of a car-pool. 

No.

She walked towards the house.

No.

She couldn’t come now. If Iris knew she was writing ‘I HATE Iris’ in her notebook, Iris wouldn’t accept. 

Crash.

Izzy whipped around. She let another gasp. These little fire seeds were from her heart, which gave more fire cells to her ink pen. They became alive, and now, they were knocking Iris’s trophies into a heap on the floor. At first, Izzy was about to cheer, when she caught herself with a horrible thought: Iris is coming back home!

Izzy tried closing the book, but the devils ripped it back open, pouring more and more of those fire seeds. They kept coming like Zeus was angry, causing rain and thunder to fall down on earth. And the book was the cloud, giving birth to the evil mini monsters, who were ‘rain’.  

Trying to catch the falling medals was an impossible task. Izzy turned this way and that, hoping to catch the ribbons on her arms or even on her neck. She tried her best, but the medals kept avoiding her and slipping down, down, onto the ground, where they flopped down, scratched and ruined. 

Close the door, you useless idiot! You want to deal with them in one room, not the whole house!

Izzy stumbled toward the door, but it was too late. An army of little tiny beasts marched out the door, giving her a mocking salute, as they slid down the stairs. 

Pulling her hair, Izzy groaned swaying, but she couldn’t stay in this position. She snapped back to focus.

Okay, Izzy, you are saving your own butt not Iris’s so, get the facts in your mind.

Izzy tried to organize her brain, but her thoughts and worries circled around her like a toy train.  Her thoughts swiveled around her and confused her as if bounding to a spell she will never break...

Iris paused her song ‘Lucky’ and turned to greet farewell to her best friends. 

“Bye-bye! And see you tomorrow, and maybe my sister will stop giving me the silent treatment.” she sighed, appearing hopeless.

As her friends bid their goodbye, Iris resumed the song ‘Lucky’. She hummed along until she let go and started singing out loud. 

“Do you hear me,

I'm talking to you

Across the water across the deep blue ocean

Under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying...”

Her voice was like a siren, singing softly, but giving power to the audience, which was the envious birds and the flowers with as much beauty as Iris’s voice. She swooped down and up, vibrating her voice when she felt like it. She danced and skipped to the water hose, turning it on, and listening for the joyful plink, plink, plink of the water leaking...

“Aaaahh!!” Izzy screamed as she saw more and more of those monsters coming. One by one, inch by inch, they kept coming and coming until Izzy ripped a page. They came out, but smaller. They formed, growing every second, into a big, black, beast with bulging eyes. 

It screeched, and it outmoded the sound of a howler monkey. 

It let out another screech, annoyed this time. It headed for the front door where Iris was. But it stopped in the middle of its tracks. Izzy had slipped and formed a new word, appreciate. I appreciate Iris. 

Izzy was thrilled. This was her way to destroy the monster with green eyes. 

Izzy formed a new word,  like.

The monster screamed of pain.

Relish.

It covered its face with its claw-like hands.

Devotion.

It howled like a wolf in agony.

Finally, it shrunk, bit by bit until it was gone. 

Click.

The door opened revealing Iris, all dazzling and wonderful. But instead of storming off into her room, Izzy ran and met her sister with a huge embrace. Iris was stunned, but she was happy her sister cared for her. As they held on tight to each other, Izzy kept hold of a small, wrinkled sheet of paper, with bits of other letters woven in to make three simple words. 

Three simple words that helped Izzy know that she was granted. Three little words that extinguished the seeding of madness, perhaps enviousness, that stood alone in the dark, waiting for the next best moment to explode into flames. But out of any three words, these words were simple, yet heartwarming enough to burn a fire seed: I LOVE YOU.