The Locket, by Andrew Mikulski 8th grade

Two very different people were walking home on what they thought was an ordinary day. Michael had closed up the ice cream shop as usual and headed home. On the other side of town Nicole, the school soccer star, had just finished a grueling practice and was on her way home as well. Normally the two never crossed paths on the way home but today was different. Some of the roads were under construction so Michael decided to take the alley. Nicole had the same problem and came up with the same solution. They ended up meeting on accident. When the met they introduced themselves
“Hi I’m Michael.” He said
“I’m Nicole.” She replied
They hit it off right away. They continued to talk for a while. Michael and Nicole talked about everything. They talked about sports, school, and almost everything else they could think of. After talking for a while Michael started to smell something funny.
“It smells like smoke.” Michael said with a hint of worry in his voice.
“Yeah your right it does smell like smoke.” Replied Nicole equally worried.
They looked at the buildings around them and that’s when they saw it. The building behind them and to there left had smoke pouring out of it into the alley, it had a faint orange glow.
“We should get out of here.” Nicole said anxiously.
“Yeah lets go.” Said Michael.
Michael grabbed Nicole’s arm and they ran out of the smoke filled alley together. Once they had reached the safety of the street they turned around to see the building engulfed in flames. As they watched the building burn Nicole’s face turned pale white and she said
“I left my backpack with my grandmothers locket inside in the alley”
“Wait here ill be right back, he ran and disappeared into a wall of smoke.
Right then Nicole realized that Michael was one of the most amazing people she had ever met. It felt like hours before the fire trucks arrived at the scene. Nicole had started to get very worried that Michael had not yet exited the burning alley. One of the firemen came over and asked her if anyone was inside. She nodded her head and started to cry.
Nicole stood there with her tears running down her face, as everything seemed as though it were happening in slow motion. She could faintly hear the sounds of the firemen yelling, and the sirens of the nearby trucks blaring. That was when she saw them. Nicole watched as two firemen carried a limp body out of the alley and she knew instantly that it was Michael. She sprinted towards where the firemen and EMT’s were working together to load him onto a stretcher, but before she could get there she felt the arm of one of the firemen reach out and stop her. The firemen held her tightly as she screamed and cried while the ambulance pulled away.
Nicole visited Michael everyday she could while he was in the hospital. When Michael first woke up he could feel someone holding his hand and when he gained the strength to open his eyes he did and he saw Nicole asleep in a chair pulled up to his bed. It looked as though she had been crying for days. He gave her hand a little squeeze and she quickly sat up, screamed, and cried but this time, they were tears of joy not sadness. Both Michael and Nicole had the same thought that morning in the hospital; they both knew that they wanted to be together forever. The next day when Nicole came to the hospital to see him, he was holding something in his hand. He smiled as she entered the room and motioned her over to his bed. When she got there he told her to bend over, when she did he reached up and put something around her neck. It took Nicole a little while to figure out what it was but then she realized, it was the locket. She pulled it of her head and looked at it. The locket was golden in color but now instead of being shiny it was duller and was charred from the fire. Nicole was too happy to care about the minor imperfections of the locket because she knew that Michael had risked his life saving this for her. Nicole bent down and whispered
“I love you.” Into Michael’s ear
“I love you too.” Michael replied
Nicole thought to herself
“I am the happiest girl in the world.”
And she continued visiting him in the hospital until he had recovered.
From then on they did everything together. Five years later they got married. Nicole still wears that locket everyday so she can be reminded of the happiest day of her life, only now inside the slightly charred, dull gold heart of the locket, there is a small picture of Michael and Nicole.