The story is in the first chapter section

It’s Time To Hatch!


As the bus driver wished me a good afternoon, I heard the creaking of the doors open up wide, inviting me to the outdoors. Since I’m the very last person off the bus, she’s probably pretty glad to see me go. I dragged my metric ton of books to the front door. Wedged into the door I saw a box. “It’s here, wow it really came!” I knew exactly what it was. I had ordered my Nintendo Switch a few days earlier. The Nintendo Switch is the coolest video gaming system that has come out in the last decade! I could go on and on about the Switchs’ retractable controller and portability, but then I noticed another package in the door. I grabbed the boxes and brought them into house.

Both packages were for me: “Wow what a majestical day!”  The second box was probably my Aunt Cathy sending me something “Super Cool”. I was going to rip them apart, but then I remembered that my parents had said that I should never open a package when they weren't around. I don’t know why this stupid rule exists, but I obeyed. It might have something to do with kids and razor sharp knives.

I was poised with a knife in my hand, hovering over the first box, when my dad walked in the door. Good thing he came home early because I might have gotten into big trouble. The first box was freaking amazing. The Switch was all I hoped for, but this story isn’t about my Nintendo Switch. This story is about the second package.

I carefully cut the packing tape on the second box. Inside was what looked like a big, brown, wrinkly, walnut. My Aunt Cathy had sent me an egg sack of killer bugs. What she had actually sent me was a praying mantis egg case and habitat. The cover showed a picture of two toddlers staring with both excitement and fright at the weird walnut. “It’s Time To Hatch!” was written in silly yellow letters. The kit also came with a neon green mesh cage, bug stickers and a goofy, fake looking, plastic praying mantis figurine. I’m sure that adults must love the idea that kids will benefit from educational toys, but any kid will tell you that  these toys stink. Everyone knows that learning isn’t supposed to be fun, except for my Aunt Cathy. Her idea of a good time is to watch praying mantis bugs eat each other after they are birthed out of the egg sack. Maybe what bothered me more than the bugs eating each other was that my Aunt Cathy was still buying me toys meant for little kids. Last month she sent me a dinosaur hand puppet and the month before that was the secret ninja T-shirt. I’m not even going to go into details about that repulsive thing.

So anyways, here I was stuck with a praying mantis egg sack and I had to take care of it. I had to mist it every few days, keep it out of the sun, and most importantly, keep it away from my cat, Koki. When the bugs hatched, I was supposed to release all but two so that they wouldn’t eat each other. But the eggs didn’t hatch. I sprayed it with water. I waited. I guess I was a bad parent. I felt guilty that I let them die. I tried so hard. I’m too young for the heavy responsibility of parenthood, but too old to play with toys. I’m too young to stop being “derpy”, but I’m too old to play with dinosaur hand puppets. And I’m still, apparently, too young for sharp knives...

People treat me differently than when I was younger, now that I’m thirteen. They have higher expectations for me, and that puts a lot of pressure on me. My parents want A’s on my report card, my grandparents expect good table manners, and my Aunt Cathy expects me to be three years old forever.

I’m never ever going to tell my Aunt Cathy that I didn’t like her present. I know my aunt and the rest of my family members just want the best for me. I guess it’s my time to hatch. I need to embrace it, and become the butterfly. If I don’t, I might become a praying mantis and eat everyone I love!