Hello and welcome to a new week and a new month. Did you know that the Space Age began 64 years ago today? That was the day the first satellite, Sputnik 1 was put into orbit. That should get you thinking of story ideas that are out there.

Scroll down to read Oh, It Was Finished, a story based on last week’s prompt, which was to write a story starting with the line: “Our history teacher told me to finish the lesson, then walked out.”

Muse on Monday is a weekly writing challenge. Anyone can join and the idea is to write a story based on the prompt below. If you have an idea for a future prompt, send me an email at greenwalledtreehouse@gmail.com.

You can submit your story using this link for a chance to have it published next Monday when the new prompt comes out. You just need to submit it before 12:00pm EST next Sunday.

This week’s challenge is to write a story based on this picture I took at a restaurant in Danang, Vietnam. It can be any kind of story, just what comes to your mind.

Oh, It Was Finished

Our history teacher told me to finish the lesson, then walked out.

And finish it, I did. Feeling a boldness, a flight of fancy, come over me I walked straight up to the front of the class and said we will be talking about the history of food. It might have been because class would be over in 35 minutes and I rushed out of the house late and didn’t have breakfast, or it might have been because last night my uncle came to visit and he loves watching Gordon Ramsey, but I wanted to talk about what was on my mind.

“Anyone have anything to add?”

One girl raised her hand. I think her name was Tina, but she never really socialized with anyone in this class, so it could have been Lina or even Sabrina for all I knew.

“Umm, I don’t know if it’s actually ‘history’ or whatever, but did you know the same guy that made Cool Whip also made Pop Rocks, and Tang?”

I . . . did not. I had to admit.

“Great! I think! Anyone else?”

“The first meal eaten on the moon had BACON!” Mike said, loudly. He always talks loudly, though, so perhaps I shouldn’t blame him for shouting out that fact.

Alan meekly raised his hand and said, “Micky D’s used to serve fried onion before chick nugget, like, technology was invented. Not even onion rings, just onion . . . chunks.” That’s a new one, first the tidbit, but also Alan raising his hand. He’d rather do ANYTHING than participate in class. I wonder if he was as hungry as I was.

“Okay, one last one and then I have an idea for a project.”

“The first pizzas made didn’t use tomatoes because people thought it was poisonous,” said Leah, our valedictorian. “But,” she added, “the first modern pizza was a Margherita and it was used to celebrate how great Italy was to the queen, or whatever.”

That brought me to my idea for a project. I asked everyone to open up their bags and pockets to see what kinda snacks people had. A few chocolate bars, some candy. One guy had actually brought his lunch so I asked him to borrow his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Seriously, who still eats that in high school? I thought to myself, but let the idea pass.

We finished up class by adding all the ingredients together to try and invent a new food. It didn’t turn out too great, but we called it a “Gobbler” on account of the only person willing to eat it said he’d only do so if he could gobble it down as quickly as possible and then wash it down with some coke. All in all, it was an educational class, surprisingly enough, and it was funny to see someone stuff down a nasty chocolate/candy/peanut butter sandwich.

Good luck and happy writing! Come back next Monday for another story prompt.