ForumOnline-Shop

Author Topic: Calling all writers....  (Read 10375 times)

Offline Braceface2015

  • Platinum Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1484
  • Gender: Male
Re: Calling all writers....
« Reply #30 on: 31. May 2023, 00:24:53 AM »
It's nice to see writers taking up Sparky's challenge and the different ways each of us has been using it.

Another well-written story.

Offline Sparky

  • Special Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 2276
  • Gender: Male
Re: Calling all writers....
« Reply #31 on: 31. May 2023, 02:20:00 AM »
I feel like I must throw in my try as well. With 2493 words I'm cutting it very close


And what an excellent set of 2493 words they were!!

And yes, it's interesting to see how  different people have joined together Snakes and Ladders with braces.

Now, you're probably asking yourself "when is Sparky going to post a story?"... well, In have a file ready, "snakes&ladders.txt". It's got the (c)opyright line in it, and the title...... but my mind is STILL blank! So, let me get finished with Serena's battle, then maybe my brain will come up with something.....

And the rest of you: keep writing, these are some fun short stories!

Offline Charlie0186

  • Bronce Member
  • **
  • Posts: 74
  • Gender: Male
Re: Calling all writers....
« Reply #32 on: 31. May 2023, 13:38:53 PM »
Charlie, I appreciate you sharing both versions. I always like to see the process when it comes to writing.

Thank you.  No matter my sense of the story when I start writing, mine seem almost to have a life of their own and keep taunting me to do a better job of transcribing them.

Offline Charlie0186

  • Bronce Member
  • **
  • Posts: 74
  • Gender: Male
Re: Calling all writers....
« Reply #33 on: 31. May 2023, 13:42:36 PM »
Alecia chuckles in glee

I love the atypical setting, and that you do such a great job of making the characters come alive.

Offline silver-moon-2000

  • Platinum Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 668
Re: Calling all writers....
« Reply #34 on: 31. May 2023, 18:23:11 PM »
I love the atypical setting, and that you do such a great job of making the characters come alive.

 I'm sorry, but YOU calling ME out for writing an 'atypical' setting is... well... quite steep I'd say.  >:D After all, you'd took the 'snake'-aspect far more literal than me. In my story are no snakes at all.

Thank you.  No matter my sense of the story when I start writing, mine seem almost to have a life of their own and keep taunting me to do a better job of transcribing them.

Yes, that is - at least to me - the most complicated and fugitive aspect of story-writing. Getting all those beautiful picturesqe, incredibly detailed and outright fantastic thoughts we all have in a written from that does those ideas even remotely justice.
Several of my stories do not develop past the "coarse bullet-point list"-state, because I know for certain, that I won't like the result after I stopped writing. And I do not want to spoil that story by doing a mediocre job putting those thoughts on paper.
The downside of course is, that over time thoughts are lost. That once sublime story dwindles away and - maybe a decade later - there is nothing there anymore than said coarse bullet-points.

I haven't found a solution to this problem yet. But tell me folks, am I alone in this plight? Or are all-over-the-world brilliant ideas lost at an astonishing rate? Ideas that deserve to be remembered and written down?

Sorry for me rambling  ;D

Offline Braceface2015

  • Platinum Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1484
  • Gender: Male
Re: Calling all writers....
« Reply #35 on: 31. May 2023, 19:15:01 PM »
If I understand Sparky's challenge, it has two parts to it. The first is to write a story less than 2500 words long. The second is to have the theme of snakes and ladders as part of the story.

Some of us have done stories focused heavily on the snakes and ladders part, while others have been writing stories to meet the word limit with less concern about the snakes and ladders portion.

Either way, having stories is very nice to see.

Offline duncombec

  • Gold Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 243
Re: Calling all writers....
« Reply #36 on: 03. June 2023, 02:09:44 AM »
Despite what I said above (which I generally still stand by), and at least partially buoyed by Cassandra's very nice comments on past scribbles, I decided I couldn't leave this one alone after all. It wasn't the story I had in mind when I first declined, but like all things you shouldn't pick at, I couldn't help it. So, here's something. Its 2439 words have arrived purely from brain to page to here. If it floats your boat, change it in your mind from soon-to-be high school graduates on their way to college to soon-to-be college graduates on their way to the working world. It has not been proofread or run through any overhyped program to give me ideas for improvement. It may NOT be posted to the Archive. But here it is.

Snakes and Ladders Meets Truth or Dare

“Snakes and Ladders? What is this?”

Graduation was but a week away, and I couldn’t think of anyone of our age who played, what was in essence, a kids’ game. Even more correct than that, it was my kids’ game: it had been dumped in the corner of the basement room that served as the storage room/my teenage hangout about 7 or 8 years ago when I last played it and had been left decaying in the sun ever since. One of the more ‘worldly’ of our group of soon-to-be graduates corrected me of that notion by smiling like Batman’s Joker and asked if I’d ever played it according to the rules of truth or dare. I looked around at a sea of equally blank faces, and nobody had the first clue what he was on about.

The rules, he explained, were simple. It was a very normal game of Snakes and Ladders, but with a twist. You could only take a ladder, or avoid falling victim to a snake, if you accepted a truth or dare question. If you failed to answer, then you couldn’t, or were obliged to take it just as if you’d declined. Therefore, someone who was very open to doing anything could take maximum advantage, whilst someone who was coy and shy would probably still be fighting their way out of the twenties whilst the rest of us were towards the top.
“Well, go on then,” I said, bravado getting the better of me.
“Sure.”
“Yeah!”
It took seconds for us all to agree. It may have been ‘childish’, and borderline offensive to our Senior egos, but it had the advantage it was something we could all do at once. Games consoles were a fine thing, but there were only so many controllers and a lot of boredom whilst you waited for it to be your turn. There were seven of us but only six counters, so someone raided the Monopoly box for an extra counter, and the first dice rolled. My game, me first, apparently.

Picture the scene. Seven teenage boys, ready for the wide world of college or employment, sitting there with our drinks and snacks playing snakes and ladders. It was almost the story of an idyllic harking back to the past… were it not for the fact my parents had supplied us with a beer each (with parental permission, of course), because at least whilst we were drinking it in the basement we weren’t hanging around outside buying the self-same beer with the fake IDs that at least some of us had, but our parents pretended they didn’t know about and we lied about having. It was only a single beer, so probably less than we’d drink otherwise, but it was still “better” – and in a way, we couldn’t really argue with their thought process.

The game started well. Having decided to play according to these newly-discovered Truth or Dare rules we were a little… timid… in our first questions. All the usual stuff that you could imagine: first kiss, teacher you had a crush on, first wet dream… at any other time we’d be embarrassed to even think that’s what we wanted to know about, but it just fitted the moment. The dares weren’t too terrible either, and equally fitted our age: doing a silly dance and (maybe) posting it on our social media platform of choice, eating crackers with no water, taking chilli sauce on the lips without licking it off… you know the drill.

Luck must have been on my side, because I was actually doing rather well. I’d progressed solidly through some lucky dice rolls, somehow avoiding the worst of the snakes and being prepared to take a risk for the ladders. My truths and dares hadn’t been too bad, although I did blush the colour of a tomato when asked to reveal who I had a crush on, especially considering it was one of the technicians at my orthodontist. By the time I’d finished being able to cook an egg on my cheeks, the other couple of guys with braces in the room could see my point of view. I determined to go nicely on them if I got to choose their dare after they said that.

Hang on a moment, I hear you ask. At least three guys, of a bunch of seven high school seniors about to graduate, with braces? Uh huh, you heard me correctly. It’s a long and complicated story, but basically, one of two orthodontists previously in town had to retire early for medical reasons, and the other was not particularly well-liked. He seemed to be a bit of a cosmetician, so he was fine if you wanted a quick fix, or were a girl, but he didn’t seem to get that boys… men, as we were about to become, of our age, would rather have something that would allow us to eat different things and stand up to the rigours of sport. After a year or so, I forget how long, this new guy came along from a nearby town and set up shop, so quite a few people have started later than they usually would have done. In my case, I had braces back when I was at the wrong end of junior high, like we used to, but my lower jaw grew more than expected, so I have a bit of an underbite. I was meant to go back just before the medical problems, so here I am, aged 18 and wearing not only braces, but I have a dirty little secret to go with it. Headgear.

Not just any normal headgear either. Not like the headgear that Marcus is literally wearing across the room from me now, because this new orthodontist is a bit bonkers, in his own way, and has encouraged some of us that the best way to ensure compliance is to have the headgear wired to your braces so you can’t take it off. At least that just looks like a horse bridle, and there are a few of those around. No, mine is this chunky bar that sits down the middle of my face, with a great plastic block on my forehead and around my chin, and which I have to hold on with elastics. That can’t be wired on, thankfully (or at least he says not), but I don’t see nearly as many of those, and I’m a bit embarrassed. Very embarrassed, in fact. I’ve been pretty good about wearing it at night, when I should, but there’s no doubting I’m not really making the wear time regularly, and I don’t wear it as much as I should earlier in the evening. Stupid really, given I have an ortho check-up next week and there is literally a guy with his headgear wired to his face sitting opposite me, but I just can’t. I’m hoping mom doesn’t come in and ‘remind me’ in front of my friends… I’d be mortified.

Anyway, the game. I’m doing well, and if my luck continues to be in, there’s a chance I might win in the next couple of goes, provided I don’t land on the snake, or get an awkward dare if I do. Damn. I land on it.
“OK, who’s turn to set the dare… Charlie?”

Charlie looks at me, and smiles. He’s had braces, and frankly needs them again, the way his teeth bend inwards at the bottom to avoid something like… headgear.
“Wear your headgear to graduation.”

The room goes silent. Everybody looks at me, and once again I go the colour of a tomato.
“How do you…?”
“Dude, you’ve been seen. Taking the garbage out a few nights ago.”
“Fu….”
I stop myself, because I hear my mom walk down the corridor outside, and she hates swearing. But the noise from the rest of the room encourages her anyway. Almost everyone bar Charlie thinks that’s a pretty massive increase in the dare stakes compared to what we’ve done so far. OK, he might not like me that much (enough to come to my house and eat my food, but we’re not best buddies or anything), so there’s a fair bit of talking.

“Everything OK in here boys? Need those bowls or glasses refilled?”
In fairness, she wasn’t the sort to hang around. We’d been down here for more than an hour before she popped by, and it was easier on her than for us to keep tramping up and down.
She asked what the deal was, and she got the brief explanation. To my surprise, she thought it sounded like a good idea, and maybe she should play it with her friends sometime, get them to reveal some things! I hoped that would be it, but no, someone had to say something.
“Hey, Mrs Langley. As Eli is your son, perhaps you can help. Charlie has just dared him to wear his headgear to graduation... but that sounds like a pretty big ask, for something he’ll only do once. What do you think, as his mom and all?”

My mother took a sharp breath in.
“Well, if so far you’ve been asking about first dates, and I haven’t exactly heard any of you singing embarrassing songs in the corridor, that does sound like a bit of a push… but Eli, you know you have been slacking a bit recently. Why don’t you put it on now?”
“Mom!!”
My embarrassment showed itself again.
“I… hang on… in front of…”
She only had to look at Marcus and I knew I was cornered. She promised to make sure nobody cheated whilst I went and got it from upstairs.

I returned a few minutes later with the navy-blue contraption clamped to my face. Four elastics, “two straight, two crossover” held it into my mouth, with the lower part cupping my cheek and the upper part resting smack on the middle of my rather large forehead (high hairline, not receding, I keep telling myself). I smiled weakly, and although a couple of the guys were surprised, nobody really seemed to laugh, or make fun of me.
“Perhaps that could be his dare? Wearing it in front of you for the rest of the evening?”
“Wait… I know…”
I groaned. It wasn’t Charlie, thankfully, or Marcus, but the other guy with braces.
“You know Dr Ben has that wall in his office of people wearing their braces doing normal things… looks like he also does it on his socials. What if we got Eli, and Marcus, to post a picture wearing their headgears?”

Marcus objected to that immediately, but softened when he was given a free pass on his next snake or ladder if he did so. He just shrugged. He’d been wearing it for a few months, almost everyone had seen it, it was old news now. I was going to take it, but then Charlie suggested to make it a proper dare, Marcus or someone else should take it, so that I couldn’t delete it. My mom, who thought this was hilarious and ever keener to play it with her friends (I was going to have to stop her on that, or at least make sure I was out… I didn’t want to overhear anything embarrassing) offered to take the picture. In less than a minute, Marcus had the picture uploaded to Dr Ben’s pages – the cheeky git put it on more than one site – and had us both tagged. Now the whole town, and a couple of other towns where he had offices, would know about my facemask.

I spent most of the rest of the evening feeling my cheeks glowing with embarrassment. Firstly because of the facemask, headgear, whatever it was called, and then secondly about how ridiculous I was being about it. There was literally another headgear in the room that couldn’t be removed. At least I could take mine off!

Going to bed that night, I couldn’t help but look at the comments. There were a few laughter emojis, but mostly the comments were pretty decent. For all his faults, Dr Ben was actually pretty nice. He’d even commented himself, saying he wasn’t aware I was entering the competition. I had no idea what he was on about, but I knew I’d find out.

Turns out it was to my advantage. He’d bulk bought tickets to the local water park, some free, some 25% discounts, and was giving them out to people who posted their “summer socials” in headgears, or other appliances. If you lucked out and just had basic braces, you had to find a way of making them visible. I soon found out why Charlie had said graduation as his opener. If you wore your headgear in a group picture at graduation, you all got a free ticket to the waterpark. There were then 25% off discounts for an individual picture at graduation, one for any picture at the after party, and up to two other summer activities. If you completed a set of four, there was another freebie. Basically, for five embarrassing moments, I could get myself two free trips to the waterpark and four discounted entries, and I’ll be honest… a week without a trip to the waterpark in high summer would be like Thanksgiving without a Turkey. Dr Ben knew exactly where to get us on the bribery stakes.

I couldn’t quite bring myself to put it on for the run through of the big day, but as we lined up in the sports centre for our big walk down the aisle, I pulled the facemask out of my bag, followed by the little bag of elastics. I handed the facemask to an astonished Marcus whilst I put the elastics onto the hooks in my mouth. Just like Marcus’ headgear straps, the plastic bits of my facemask had been changed from their navy-blue colour to perfectly match the school’s shade of green. Goodness knows where he got them from, and I don’t want to know. It was just my luck that the part of the cap that held onto my head ended just above the facemask, almost seamlessly moulding into one. At least it was a shade of dark green, and unlike the normal mid-blue, Marcus’ straps nearly blended in with his dark hair. It seemed like half the school had swapped strap colours. How very Dr Ben.

Let’s just say, I don’t think I paid full price entry for any of my trips to the water park that summer. It wasn’t the last time we played Snakes and Ladders meets Truth or Dare either.

Offline silver-moon-2000

  • Platinum Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 668
Re: Calling all writers....
« Reply #37 on: 03. June 2023, 15:17:42 PM »
Despite what I said above (which I generally still stand by)[...]

Well, I, for my part, am glad, you did not stand by your principle in this instance  ;D
I enjoyed reading and I hope you don't mind me "borrowing" some ideas

Offline Sparky

  • Special Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 2276
  • Gender: Male
Re: Calling all writers....
« Reply #38 on: 04. June 2023, 21:17:36 PM »
While searching online for "Snakes and Ladders", I came across this "snakes & ladders rug" - that would be a fun talking point to have in your lounge.... and young kids would love it!

https://dereferer.me/?https://i.etsystatic.com/43123031/r/il/75cb46/4924129459/il_794xN.4924129459_lxlu.jpg

Offline Braceface2015

  • Platinum Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1484
  • Gender: Male
Re: Calling all writers....
« Reply #39 on: 07. June 2023, 23:41:58 PM »
I wish Sparky would stop giving me ideas for stories.

I have been spending quite a bit of time outside working in my garden, and I take my tablet outside for when I take breaks. My mind keeps coming up with things to add to the stories I am working on and it is convenient to use my tablet to write.

It's all Sparky's fault that I have written another story about snakes and ladders. He posted the picture of the rug and this is what happened as a result. I went past the word count limit by a little but I couldn't cut out any of the story to make it fit.

Enjoy, and if you like it, a brief comment is always appreciated.



Snakes And Ladders #3 - The Rug

By Braceface2015



The rug had been sitting in front of the fireplace for as long as I could remember. My great-grandparents had built the farmhouse when they moved from Europe to North America. My great-grandfather and his brothers bought the land and gradually cleared it to farm on. They pooled their resources and bought horses and oxen to farm the land with, each owning a few of the animals and pieces of machinery. With all of them working together, they bought more land and expanded their farms. Some grew grain, some raised dairy cows, and some, beef until they became the largest farming family in the area. The land they didn't farm, they rented out to other farmers.

They all had large families and some of the kids took over running the farms when the older generation retired. My grandfather added onto the farmhouse, until it became the place everyone else gathered at for special occasions, which my grandmother seemed to have frequently. Birthdays were always celebrated at their place, and with so many relatives, it seemed like someone was having a birthday every couple of weeks.

All of this happened when it was expensive to take pictures, so the photos were well taken care of and preserved carefully. Braces weren't something people had back then and the few pictures of people smiling showed how messed up their teeth were in that generation. The original pictures had all been scanned and copies made of them, and there is a bookcase full of albums of the copies. The originals are all carefully stored where they won't get damaged.

Growing up, my cousins and I would pour through the albums, looking at and laughing at some of the pictures. Many times, one or more of the people in the pictures would be around and tell us stories to go with the pictures. Some of the stories have been passed down from the original storytellers and other stories are from the people who were there when the pictures were taken.

All of the younger people gather around and sit on the rug or on cushions and chairs around the edge of the rug while we listen to the stories. Each generation has a few people who have the gift of storytelling and are given the honour of the chairs beside the story chair. The story chair is only used when stories are being told, and it is an honour to be asked by one of the older members of the family to tell them a story from our generation.

There has always been a rug in front of the fireplace and it is where everyone gathers to play games. There is no tv or internet in the room and someone placed a table beside the door for our cell phones, so nobody has contact with the modern world other than to tell stories. The rugs have changed as the old ones wore out and have been replaced by a new one. The latest one is a favourite of almost everyone in the family.

Nobody will admit to being the one to buy the rug, it just seemed to appear between one gathering and the next. The pattern on the rug is from the game 'Snakes And Ladders', and when we play, everyone gets involved. The youngest members of the family take turns being the game pieces and everyone else gets a chance to play, many times being chosen by a random draw. It's quite normal to have five generations playing at the same time, and for someone from the younger members of the family to be in the story chair telling a story.

As technology has changed over the years, so has the look of the aids everyone uses. Canes, walkers and crutches have become lighter and made from new materials. The wheelchairs have become easier to store when not in use and powered chairs are more common. And probably the most noticeable is the considerable increase in the number of family members with braces.

With a family as large as ours, it's no surprise that many of them are no longer involved in farming. We have doctors, lawyers, store owners, and just about every other profession, including banking. Nobody has a high-interest student loan, our family pays for their education, and is paid back when the student goes to work for the family, even if it isn't directly connected to the farm.

That's how so many of us ended up wearing braces. One of my cousins decided she wanted to be an orthodontist. When she graduated, she moved into the building in town, built for her by the family, using the professions they paid for, on land they bought. She had the same options everyone had. She could pay off her tuition anytime she wanted and work for the family as a contractor to provide braces for the family, or she could buy the building for herself and do whatever she wanted with the building.

Judging by the number of family members with braces gathered around the rug, she has been quite busy taking care of our family, as well as the other people in town. She designed her office to accommodate a variety of ages, with one treatment room for school-age patients, one for high school and college-age patients, and the last one for more mature adults. She's hired several relatives to work for her as a way to pay off her debt sooner.

Word travels fast in our family and it doesn’t take long for everybody to hear when someone else gets braces. With so many of the younger people going through treatment, their parents began to feel the pressure to do something about their teeth too, and some of them became patients. The age of the oldest patient keeps gradually edging up.

It was a bit of a surprise when my grand-aunt decided to get braces to fix a problem she has had for as long as anyone can remember. At the next family gathering, she was told she had to take her place in the story chair and tell everyone her story about her braces. She’s one of the better storytellers from her generation and everyone was fascinated as she spun her tale. She didn’t hesitate to embellish it in places and had everyone laughing at some of the things she said happened, but may not have been quite as she said they were. She stopped several times to show us what had been done and how her teeth had already moved. She even put in her face-bow for part of the time to show the younger people it wasn’t a big deal to be seen wearing it and how little it affected her speech.

She’s in her mid-fifties, which in our family, is not uncommon to have relatives of a wide variety of ages. I have a nephew who is ten years older than me, and an aunt who is one year younger than me, both currently in treatment.

My grand-aunt has always been a rebel. She chose to have the older-style braces with ligatures securing the archwires in place and picked what she felt was the most noticeable colour she could. She’s not the only one of the older generation to dye her hair, but she is the only one to dye her hair to match her ligatures.

The distinction of being the oldest member with braces goes to my grandmother, though there is some disagreement about whether she should be considered. For Halloween, she had braces glued to an old set of dentures she no longer wears. Her costume was the talk of the town for a while after Halloween. Rumours are common and the rumour is she did it for her husband. Nobody has been able to confirm the rumour, but they both just smile and stay silent when asked about it.

Another rumour is that not everyone has braces to fix an orthodontic issue. There is some truth to the rumour if we consider my grandmother's dentures as having braces for other than treatment. Not everyone who is at our gatherings are family members, some are the girlfriends and boyfriends of my relatives. Some are just casual dates and others are more long-term and have ended up as marriages. It's no surprise when one of them has braces that have been put on by my cousin.

We don't just gather in the house. When the weather is nice, many of us go to the creek and swim, and it isn't always the younger people who go there. At one time, the creek was the main source of water for the farms and a small dam was built below a waterfall to create a holding pond. Over the years, more rocks have been removed from the fields and dumped below the dam, creating a larger swimming area. Sand has been added to form a beach area perfect for relaxing. It's the perfect place to watch the opposite gender running around in their bathing suits, and sometimes sneak off for a little kissing or a little more with the person you are with. More than one member has been added to the family at the beach, especially when a bonfire has been lit in the evening.

Another favourite place to go is the fruit grove. My grandparents' farm isn't the only one with a fruit grove, but it is the largest and most diverse. Everyone helps out to maintain it and share in the harvest when the various fruits are ripe. When it's time to pick the fruit, everyone who is at the farm goes out to pick the fruit and sometimes more fruit gets eaten than is left at the end of the day. Fruit-covered braces are a common sight.

Even with all the modern upgrades that have been made to the farms, my grandparents' farm still has an old-fashioned feel to it. There are still outhouses around the farm, and they get either moved or replaced when they need to be. For the more squeamish, there are bathrooms with running water, though they aren't always convenient to get to fast.

There are still horses on the farm and even though they aren't used to pull machinery anymore, they still get used to give wagon rides in the summer and sleigh rides in the winter, both of which have led to additional members being added to the family, and not all of them through marriage.

The Halloween wagon ride into town is always a favourite of the family. My grandfather used to hitch the horses to the wagons and stack bales on the wagons for everyone to sit on. The younger kids have a wagon with loose hay in the middle to play in. My grandfather has given up the duty of the Halloween wagon ride to one of my uncles and the horses have been replaced by an old tractor, but my grandparents still ride on the lead wagon in their costumes.

My grandmother takes pride in the costumes she has made for her husband and herself, and she updates them every year. He still dresses as a German plowboy and she is dressed as a young Dutch farm girl. The dentures with braces are the touch everyone gets a kick out of. Seeing my grandparents snuggling together on the ride is fun to see, especially when he takes her in his arms and kisses her and her braces sparkle when she smiles at him.

They aren’t the only couple kissing on the Halloween hayride. There are plenty of adults along for the ride to town and lots of them are in costume. They go along to keep an eye on the younger kids when they are going door-to-door trick or treating. The wagon train drops off small groups all around town and picks them up later.

It's been quite a while since I was young enough to trick or treat, but I still go along to keep an eye on the kids. I usually have a girlfriend and she rides with me, and we are usually one of the couples smooching. I’ve known my current girlfriend for most of my life. We’re related, but not by blood. She’s the sister-in-law of one of my cousins.

She’s also a patient at the orthodontic clinic. I've always thought she has the most beautiful smile, with a small gap between her top front teeth. This is her second time wearing braces. The first time she got them was right before she went to college. She started dating a real jerk and he convinced her to have them removed before she was done with her treatment, and he didn’t want her wearing her retainers. They broke up before she graduated, and by then her teeth had already shifted out of position again.

We reconnected at one of the family gatherings and started casually dating, and it became steady dating fairly fast. We never discussed her getting braces to fix her smile, but I knew she didn't like the way her smile looked. Her experience with her former boyfriend left her with some bad memories and it took her a while to get up the courage to get them again. She kept it a secret and didn't tell me she was getting braces again. My cousin was the one who mistakenly let it slip she was getting them.

On the day of her appointment, I picked up a bouquet of flowers and waited outside the clinic until she came out. She had a confused and uncertain look on her face, until I took her in my arms and kissed her. I didn't let her go until I had explored every part of her braces I could reach with my tongue. Her smile when I let go of her was so big and sparkly that I had to kiss her again.

Any time she felt embarrassed or was having a hard time after an appointment, all I had to do was wrap my arms around her and press my lips against hers, and she felt better soon afterwards. It took her a while to understand it didn't matter to me that she had braces, and several sessions in the back of the hayloft to convince her I liked how she looked with them.

It was during one of our family games of snakes and ladders that the bet was made. I've always had healthy teeth and my cousin, the orthodontist, said there was no need for me to get braces as there was almost nothing to fix. The gap between my girlfriend's front teeth opened up again when she had her braces taken off early and she didn't wear her retainers. I liked to run my tongue over the gap and she detested that it was still there and enjoyed it when I did it. I've told her many times how sexy I think the gap looks and how much I'd miss it when it was gone.

We were in the middle of a game when she made me a bet I couldn't refuse. If I won, she would keep the gap until close to the end of her treatment. If she won, I had to get braces and keep them until she got hers off. I saw it as a win for me no matter who won the game. We were more interested in distracting each other than we were in winning the game. She kept running her tongue over her braces every chance she had and I kept trying to slip my tongue between my front teeth. In the end, one of the other players beat us both to the finish.

As new players took our places beside the rug, we headed to the barn to discuss the terms of our bet. The discussion only lasted long enough for her to climb the ladder and for me to lay the red rag over the step to notify anyone else the hayloft was in use. She ran her tongue over my top teeth a few times, then it was my turn to enjoy the gap between her front teeth.

A few weeks later, she was there when my braces went on. She picked the colour of my ligatures, and picked them at every appointment I had. We still had the braces on when we got married, and my ligatures matched the colour of the tux I wore. Hers matched the colour of her bridesmaid's dresses.

Our kids have had their turns with braces, and every one of them has asked the same question. "Why do you still have a gap between your front teeth if you had braces?"

We just smile as my wife answers, "It's all the rug's fault."

Offline Sparky

  • Special Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 2276
  • Gender: Male
Re: Calling all writers....
« Reply #40 on: 08. June 2023, 01:58:55 AM »
Well, I'm not going to apologise for giving you ideas...Nice fun story!

Offline bracessd

  • Platinum Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1408
  • Gender: Male
Re: Calling all writers....
« Reply #41 on: 09. June 2023, 17:40:35 PM »
Nice job @braceface2015

Offline Sparky

  • Special Member
  • ******
  • Posts: 2276
  • Gender: Male
Re: Calling all writers....
« Reply #42 on: 09. June 2023, 19:45:46 PM »
Looks like I need to think, at some point in the future, another topic for story-writing... unless anyone else has an idea?

The thing I like about the "Snakes and Ladders" idea (which 100% came from an external source) is that there is no obvious link to braces...

(And I'm STILL trying to come up with a suitable idea!)

Offline Braceface2015

  • Platinum Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1484
  • Gender: Male
Re: Calling all writers....
« Reply #43 on: 09. June 2023, 21:45:46 PM »
How can someone who has written so many stories not have an idea for a short story?

I've come up with three already. You need to stop giving away the things you come up with and start writing your stories.

Offline silver-moon-2000

  • Platinum Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 668
Re: Calling all writers....
« Reply #44 on: 09. June 2023, 22:03:25 PM »
The thing I like about the "Snakes and Ladders" idea (which 100% came from an external source) is that there is no obvious link to braces...

and yet we managed to creae that connection.  Unless you are not happy with how much or how little "snakes and ladders" and braces were intertwined in our stories, I wouldn't bother too much about an idea having a strong ties to braces.

How can someone who has written so many stories not have an idea for a short story?

Or... sparky has loads of ideas but none held up to his scrutiny as of yet. If that's the case, I would LOVE to hear those story-stubs and rejected ideas. as this would be the perfect glimpse into another persons story-writing process.  ;D