Author: Fyre Rating: PG-13ish Notes: Wrote this for the LJ community 15minuteficlets. Every Saturday a word is posted, and then we write for 15 minutes. This word was Aggravation. The damn board wouldn�t stay down. Dodge nailed it and hammered it and hit it over and over again, but the damn thing refused to obey. He didn�t know what he was going to do if the stupid piece of wood wouldn�t accept its fate and just lay down. This idiotic bird house was supposed to be his final for wood shop and it was the last day of class and if Dodge couldn�t get this board to STAY DOWN, he didn�t know what he would do. Dodge looked frantically around the room, to see if he could catch someone�s eye and silently plead for some help � although Mr. Hawuser strictly forbade help on a final project. No one was looking at him, though, since all the other pupils were also avidly working on their own projects. Glaring and sighing at the board, Dodge was tempted to just ignore it and get a lower grade because of the random hole in the roof. Realizing he had barely ten minutes left in the class, Dodge decided there was nothing to do except try. Again. And again. Once he got this board to stay down, he�d be done. It was a perfect birdhouse otherwise and Dodge was almost positive he�d get an A, if Mr. Hawuser was in a good mood. Dodge lined up the nail on the side of the board and tried to hammer it into the side of the wall. No luck. The nail bent. Growling, he snatched up another and attempted once more. The nail went all the way through this time, but just narrowly missed the other piece of wood, so now the damn stick just had a random nail in it. Dodge knew the reason he kept on messing up was because he was tense and aggravated, but he couldn�t think of a way to get rid of the anxiety. With five minutes left, Dodge started to really panic. He could try again, sure, but he was almost positive it wouldn�t help. He�d just end up with a birdhouse with a board sticking up out of it with a cluster of nails on one end. Frustrated, Dodge yanked the one nail out of the board and tried not to wince at the gargantuan hole it left. He lined up the nail again and pounded, pounded, pounded. It connected. Thank God, it connected. Dodge was so thrilled he raised his arms in the sky in exultation. Or at least tried to. The amount of adrenaline running through his veins and the dizzy wave of pressure-induced grief leaving had masked the pain of having a nail half way through his thumb. |